What about....Lance? I don't know...what about him?

I am a cyclist.  And I am damn proud to BE a cyclist.  Riding a bicycle is almost as cathartic as running used to be for me...before the rush I got from rapidly placing one leg in front of the other was replaced by crippling pain and the hobbling accouterments which accompany a damaged lower back.  Cycling was an escape from running, and, to a large degree, pain (unless under the duress of a race situation, when that pain seemed to rear its head and whisper gently in my ear "Hey man...I'm still here.  Might you consider stopping, you jag?").  I have been riding mountain bikes for 24 years now...got my first Schwinn Impact in 1988...and I have been riding road bikes for about 12 years.  I've covered thousands upon thousands of miles, raced all over the Midwest, ridden in many different states, and done the very best I can to ride at least three or four days per week, maybe more.  So...what is the first question people ask me when they learn that I ride?  "Do you think Lance doped?"

The Interwebz are chock full of opine on this very subject, and I have been a virtual witness to some serious warfare between The Believers and The Haters on the subject of Mr. Armstrong.  Reading and listening to cyclists get all tuned up is rather humorous...the mental picture I always draw is of the typical road biker furiously banging away at the keyboard of a computer he most likely has a hard time lifting (road bikers have toothpicks for arms and pistons for legs)...yet the Internet muscles on some of these dudes are Schwartzeneggerian (yeah...I just made that word up, but you can use it if you want).  Its just damn funny.

So what DO I think?  Well, first of all, I must disqualify myself from even the slightest hint of actual qualification of knowledge on the subject of doping.  I've never seen it happen, I don't personally know anybody that I've ridden with that has doped, or has even considered doping...at least not to best of my knowledge.  HOWEVER....I'm a class three NOBODY in the sport of cycling...a used-to-be racer that never really was.  I'm just a guy who rides a bike and loves it.  That said, it is my not-so-professional opinion that....wait for it...Lance doped.  Shocking, I know.  Especially in light of the events of the past two weeks, which have seen Mr. Armstrong's public opinion polls dropping faster than Felix Baumgartner.

I've held that personal belief for a while now...again...not because I actually KNOW anything...but just as a conclusion I've drawn being a somewhat casual observer of professional cycling over the years.  YES, I have every one of Lance's wins on DVD.  YES, I have Floyd's win on DVD.  YES, I was a huge fan of Tyler Hamilton.  And YES, I did believe at one time that all of them were clean.  In fact, I was really shocked about Floyd...I truly believed that someone with his background would not fall prey so easily to the culture of doping...but in retrospect, it probably made him even more susceptible.  Having seen so many of Lance's competitors fall to the various scandals, it just became way too difficult to believe he could be clean and still just destroying guys on the needle.  And not only that...but the guys who were his domistiques were also laying waste to the top men in the peloton.  Unheard of.  And...unbelievable.

HOWEVER.  I still believe Lance Armstrong was one of the greatest cyclists ever.  He beat the best in the world...and all signs point to the fact that the best in the world were juiced to the gills as well.  You can't make a race horse out of a plow mule, as the saying goes.  He was great...and he was merciless in his pursuit of greatness.  It turned into a classic case of hubris...with the classic result.  Its a damn shame, and I'd hate to be in his shoes right now...and for the rest of his life.  The real problem as I see it...is that unlike me...he can't get on a bike and ride his problems away.