Lanced - Glasnost not Omerta

There has been a seismic shift in the landscape of professional cycling in recent days. Since my earlier  post  http://gibbsbarrister.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/armstrong-my-hero.html  all doubts about the nature of Lance Armstrong's astonishing success story have been swept away.
 It was a fraud.
I listened to Alistair Brownlee, gold medal triathlete, expressing his disappointment as the truth about Armstrong emerged. Brownlee idolised the Texan and used him as a source of inspiration in his formative years. Brownlee now calls for Armstrong to be banned from his new choice of sport - triathlon. How many million others must be undergoing a similar psychological transformation? It does feel somewhat deflating.
A new hero is required desperately.
And yet as I wrote in my piece on David Millar http://gibbsbarrister.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/out-of-darkness-there-is-light.html this is not necessarily a time for sorrow, but a golden opportunity for an entire sport to save itself. Almost the entire modern history of cycling is utterly tainted by drug abuse. From the late 1990s right up to, but not including, 2012, it is difficult to think of a champion (certainly in TdF terms) who has not failed a significant drugs test or been implicated in one of the many drugs scandals.

It is Just About the bike

Nothing that was witnessed was truly believed in. The sport was potentially great, but its participants were not. There is nothing to compare with the Tour de France, yet it could leave you cold.
Now a new mentality is taking hold. Glasnost rather than Omerta.
Team Sky, reacting appropriately to the revelations, have introduced a strengthened anti doping policy for all members of the outfit, riders and support staff. All will be required to sign a pledge declaring that they have not been involved in doping in the past and obviously will not be in the future. Anybody failing to sign up will be required to leave the team. Anybody subsequently proved to be involved in doping will leave. Michael Barry left the team this Summer. He has now admitted involvement in the Armstrong doping system. He has retired and may now be heading for obscurity. There are of course questions for Team Sky, not least about Sean Yates who worked with Armstrong at Astana and Motorola. Yates will sign the pledge. Yates has now 'retired'.
Matt White, a former team mate of Armstrong at US Postal, who this week admitted doping during that period in the early 2000s, has been sacked by Cycling Australia. They called the conduct 'morally reprehensible'. Levi Leipheimer, one of those who testified against Armstrong for USADA, and accepted a shortened ban of 6 month has been sacked by Omega Pharma Quick Step. and so it goes on.

Darkness

The long overdue backlash against Armstrong gathers pace. Nike has finally bowed to the inevitable and 'Just Done It' ie dropped its sponsorship of the cyclist.  Anheuser Busch (Budweiser) and Trek followed suit. In a personally traumatic move, Armstrong has stepped down as Chairman of Livestrong, his redeeming cancer charity. Happily the charity seems to go from strength to strength, there are no serious questions about its positive effect on cancer treatment. Armstrong's move allowed Nike to maintain its support for the charity. Interestingly, call me a cynic, Nike has 98 different 'Livestrong' products on sale in the US. Its 'moral clause' re behaviour likely to tarnish the brand, no doubt made divorce from Armstrong more straightforward.
Returning to David Millar, now regarded as something of a crusader for anti doping following his ban in 2004, he has not ruled out one day seeking the Presidency of the UCI - cycling's international federation. It is the governing body's regressive approach to the affair which is the single most negative factor about the situation today. Hein Verbruggen, former President of UCI, is just today quoted in De Telegraaf as stating that there is no evidence against Armstrong. It perhaps beggars belief, but if you have spent the last 10 years denying something, looking the other way and refusing to contemplate it, let alone challenge it, then perhaps less surprising.
As this story twists and turns I for one cannot but think that the future is brighter (and cleaner) than the past.

Light

POSTSCRIPT 9.1.13
It has been announced that Lance Armstrong will appear on the Oprah Winfrey show next week. Speculation is rife that this will be his mea culpa moment. Why else put himself in the spotlight? More lame denials would invite ridicule and close the door on any 'attractive rehabilitation confession scenario'. So it could be quite a week for professional cycling, indeed professional sport. It could in fact be the ultimate sporting 'glasnost moment'.