Cycling: Let's blame Lance Armstrong for everything!

The Lance Armstrong Saga: part 15.268 (Just kidding, I lost count as well!)

Ah, another day, another accusation against Lance Armstrong. Seems like everybody is thinking "well, he's down anyway, why not get him under the ground?". Today the charge comes from former UCI President Hein Verbruggen who has been accused of covering up a positive doping test of the American. He said Armstrong made his life "a misery" and he wants an apology. ( Seems as if he's thinking "if everyone is getting an apology from Armstrong, I want one as well!!" )

Lance Armstrong claimed last month that the UCI (and Verbruggen) helped him to cover up a doping test from the Tour in 1999. Verbruggen is now responding "It's a bullshit story and nothing else!" and he strongly denies the accusation. So, one of them is obviously lying, but who? Verbruggen of course uses the easy (and maybe logical) sentence in his defence, who still believes Lance Armstrong?! As if he's saying "Don't listen to a word Armstrong is saying, all he does is lying!". It's not the first time we have heard this line, and it probably won't be the last.

Fair enough, Armstrong lied about his doping history and after his confession  he lost a huge part of his reliability. But why would he lie about this? What's in it for him? Except maybe taking revenge at the UCI for not standing behind him. But what would he gain with that? Maybe Lance is lying, and are most people right to ignore him. But maybe, just maybe he's for once telling the truth and people don't care because they don't believe a word he's saying. I honestly don't know either! But it does strike me that the UCI is blaming Lance Armstrong for every single thing that goes wrong in cycling. Everything is Armstrong's fault; doping, sponsors who leave. "Just blame Lance" seems to be the solution to every problem. Maybe it's time the UCI takes their responsability for what has happend in the past because there is one thing I'm sure of, Lance Armstrong still has a lot of secrets, but so does the UCI. And by blaming Lance, they are trying to keep their own secrets safe. So keep an eye on what Armstrong is saying, cause I've got a feeling there is still a lot to come!

To be continued...

Catya Leroux