Armstrong

What with attempting to be funny yesterday about a major news story, today there is literally only one cycling story in the news.

Partial-vegan, and triathlete, Lance Armstrong has been formally charged by the US Anti Doping Agency with taking various substances during some small local bike rides he did around France several years ago.

Armstrong is sticking to the line that he’s never taken performance-enhancing drugs, and has never tested positive, and that the accusations are “motivated by spite”, which will make it somewhat embarrassing if they do turn out to be founded.

It will be another blow to a sport doing its absolute best to clean up if such a big name, with seven Tour de France wins, is found guilty, so I do hope he is clean despite all of the accusations and repeated suggestions that he might not be. Having said that, I would love to see drugs eliminated from competitive cycling, so if he has done wrong he needs to face the consequences of losing his titles and facing a ban from triathlon. Whether he can then finally return to competition after any such ban will be interesting to see without the opportunity to make up for it with campaigning against drugs that a rider like Millar has shown.

Like much of the cycling press I’ll be keeping an eye on the results. It's certainly already having some possible impact on this year's race.

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