The Lance Armstrong furore has rumbled on and now we are told that many of his former team mates have come forward to claim that not only was he a regular drug taker but his entire team was also involved.
There is still no tangible evidence, although there appears to be much of a circumstantial nature, of this activity beyond the statements of his former colleagues although the US Anti-doping Agency appears to be wholly convinced that Armstrong was complicit. Given the extent of the report now issued, it is very difficult to believe that this was not actually so.
As far as we know, Armstrong never failed a drugs test although it has been suggetsed that he may have done but the results were 'covered up'. It is claimed that drug taking was endemic within his cycling team and that he was the leading light in the activity, effectively forcing other members to 'toe the line'. There are also suggestions that Armstong's management team may well have had prior warning about visits from testers, enabling them to manage the teams' activities in such a way as to avoid being caught.
Whatever the truth of all of this, the reputations of Armstrong and his colleagues are now ruined beyond repair. The overall weight of evidence and that so many of his former colleagues have come forward to implicate themselves as well as Armstrong is quite compelling. We must now expect that he will be stripped of his raft of prizes, including his record-breaking 7 'Tour de France' victories.
The only remaining question is "How many other 'great' cyclists of the past were equally guilty ?" We shall probably never know the answer.
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