Tour de Hell…and Back

“Finished with this nonsense”

This is going to be one angry, punch-drunk-and-loving-it piece of text tilted all the way in Lance Armstrong’s favor, so anyone looking for Zen wisdom about the whole affair STOP READING NOW.

We begin by addressing the inferno:

What’s the deal?

This June, Lance Edward Armstrong-professional road-racing cyclist, cancer-survivor and philanthropist-was charged by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) with

Drug trafficking

Using banned steroids

Using the red blood cell booster erythropoietin (EPO), and human growth hormone

Illegal blood transfusions (dating back to 1986)

One of world’s greatest sporting icons, this was hardly the first time he has been stalked and strip-searched. He claims to be the “most tested athlete in the world”, and it does make sense. All the way from 1999, since his won his first Tour de France to his seventh in 2005, Armstrong has been subjected to a plethora of drug tests annually-both announced and unannounced.

Fact: Every single one of these tests came out dry.

Out of the blue comes Floyd “the Whistle Blower” Landis, who knocked on USADA’s door in 2010 with ‘damning evidence’ on doping in Armstrong’s United States Postal Service team in the early 2000s.

Fact: Landis himself was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after he tested positive for some real fancy stuff. Going down with a bang, are we, Landis?

Suddenly, a whole bunch of people decided to cash in while the tandoor was still hot. Former team-mate Frankie Andreu and wife Betsy said Armstrong had confessed his sins to them back in ’96. Another former team-mate Tyler Hamilton came out on live television stating he had actually seen Armstrong stuff in syringes and pills before races. And you thought Julius Caesar was the only guy who had crap friends.

Fact: Mr. Hamilton was suspended from professional cycling for two years in 2004 and banned for eight in 2009 after a string of failed dope tests.

USADA decided not to reveal the identities of witnesses including “ten cyclists” who possessed “incriminating evidence.”

Fact: The USADA’s case rests entirely on hearsay – witnesses claiming to have seen Armstrong doping before races, even though extensive medical testing never found anything conclusive.

Thursday, August 23, Armstrong gave up in a fight for the first time in his life, perhaps the most important one of them all. In his own words, he decided that “enough is enough” and that he is “finished with this nonsense”.

White flag. The sharks race for the blood. Friday, August 24, USADA announced it was banning Armstrong for life and stripping him of his record seven Tour de France titles.

Of Witch hunts and Fairy tales

Now one may question Armstrong’s logic in digging his own grave if he is indeed innocent. Doesn’t he have the resources-the finances to back a lengthy legal campaign, the support and adoration of millions of fans and peers, the fundamental fact that the allegations made against him are built on ridiculously thin ice? Why does he not stand up and fight?

Truth is, he doesn’t feel the need to prove himself anymore. He is way above hogging the limelight or campaigning for public sympathy, or even villainising his discreditors (piece of cake). As a principle, guys like him don’t participate in fights that are fixed, and this one was designed to bring him downfall right from the beginning.

Now that his “guilt” has been asserted, jurisdiction issues have cropped up. Who gets to slay the dragon, and be knighted? The USADA, The International Cycling Union and WADA are all gunning for his head. He doesn’t care. For him, the war is over. It’s time to move on-back to those meaningful things in life-family, his global cancer-support Foundation, easy smiles and being an inspiration. Things that count. Things that will make sure his biography isn’t titled ‘The Rise and Fall of L. Armstrong’ fifty years from now. Life awaits, there is time to make greater goals just yet.

Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive who led a shoot-at-sight witch-hunt against Armstrong for all these years would be base enough to think he has won. Truth is, like a large fraction of the people involved, he doesn’t believe in fairytales. Tour de France is the toughest sporting event on earth, arguably of course. Armstrong won it a consecutive seven times. No individual can hope to surpass such a milestone anytime in the foreseeable future. Some things are just too good to be true, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make room for miracles.

Has this resignation made a train-wreck of the glorious 15-year career? Armstrong knows who won. Nobody can ever change that, he says in his statement. These are surely not the words of the defeated; a footnote of the war-weary perhaps.