Many months after he was initially pronounced guilty by the kangaroo courts of world cycling, Lance Armstrong has finally admitted that he did, indeed, partake of drugs and used other methods in order to maintain an advantage over his rivals. We can now, and only now, find him guilty as charged and condemn his actions.
Unfortunately, it appears that Armstrong has stopped short of going into any details about the extent of his cheating, its full nature and the complicity of others; there must be little doubt that at least some of his colleagues and management team were aware of what was happening and may even have been actively involved but, thus far, we have not been told the identities of any other miscreants.
There has been talk of Armstrong participating in a 'Truth and Reconciliation' process, a modern idea of little real value, and what such an exercise would achieve is anyone's guess. The one thing that we do know is that Armstrong is not alone as a cheat in this sport; the comments of Nicole Cooke in the last couple of days made clear that she believed her own career was seriously hampered by the presence of others around her who not only used banned substances and practices, but also encouraged her to do the same.
Cycling has been a sport rotten to its core for as long as anyone knows; Tommy Simpson's death during the 1967 Tour de France was merely one manifestation of the rampant cheating that has existed for many decades and Armstrong's disgrace is simply the latest. Cycling is, though, not alone and drug cheats pervade every sporting sphere; it is high time that automatic, unchallengeable lifetime bans were introduced for all offenders. Any nations refusing, or failing, to act should have their competitors and teams automatically excluded from all international competitions - that would concentrate their minds wonderfully.
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