Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Happy New Year everyone, let's hope it's good for us all.

As I wrote the other week I for one have been waiting to hear what they actually have as evidence on Lance Armstrong. What a witch hunt. Now there is a great piece from a cycle racing photographer that at least provides some balance. Read it for your selves at:

http://www.grahamwatson.com/view/viewmain.html

But I will quote a few extracts to make you interested.

"Outright angels do not win a Tour de France. That is the domain of the most talented, hard, driven, ruthless and selfish riders. Lance did what he had to do to win, and he clearly did it very well. If he cheated, he cheated the other cheats of that era, even if by doing so he also cheated an adoring public. He didn’t kill anyone along the way, and as a father of five, he’s no child molester either. For me, his punishment outweighs the alleged crimes, for a lifetime ban from all sports seems quite draconian in this day and age."

" Still, there were so many sides to USADA’s Reasoned Decision that it has been hard to separate the trees from the forest. I for one would have liked to had seen Armstrong appeal, if only to hear the other story that I am sure is out there. Like it, or not, USADA has done its work very well. It’s gone where no other national anti-drug agency has dared go, or could go without the millions of US$ afforded to its operations. Never mind that USADA has plunged a blunt knife through the heart of the sport – they got their man, after a ruthless hunt, and that’s all they care about. I have winced at their tactics, and at the paucity of any scientific evidence, and cringed at the scandalous sentences handed out to those who informed, willingly or otherwise, on Armstrong. Yet in the absence of any appeal, any reaction, any hint of a response, nor any confession, the case against Armstrong is closed – it is what it is." My italics.

2013 marks the 100th Tour de France, and I am making plans to go, it remains one of the World's great sporting events.