Of course he took the drugs

Cheaters never prosper (except when they do)

Lance Armstrong is back in the news again. The USADA is on a crusade to catch him in his lies. I don't think they will change anyone's mind but if you know anything about anything in cycling then you already know he cheated. Of course he says he didn't but consider the attached graphic, which is extracted from Bicycling magazine in May of 2011. I linked to it before but the link is down now so here's the text and the graphic again:

Here’s how the Tour de France would look during every year Armstrong podiumed if the top 10 were scrubbed of any finisher who at the time of his career [Not necessarily at the time of that Tour, since his career would span multiple tours - Ed.] was formally connected to performance enhancing drugs or blood doping (those riders appear in the shaded boxes). Because we had to draw a line somewhere to prevent unsubstantiated accusations from eliminating a rider, we defined “formally connected” as riders who:

- Admitted to doping or were banned or fully (not provisionally) suspended by a sanctioning group for doping in relation to it.

- Were fully (not provisionally ) suspended or fired by their teams or individually withdrawn from races by their teams for some connection to doping

- Were convicted of doping in a sporting, criminal, or civil hearing or trial, or paid a fine to settle charges related to it.

 Our criteria leaves lots of room for argument, and frankly, allows some riders who inspire widespread public doubt to remain categorized as clean. But even through this somewhat constrained lens, the decimation of the general classification of the sport’s crown jewel is shocking. -Christie Aschwanden

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The new allegations are particularly lame because they are anonymous. It's more witch hunt than anything else by now, but Armstrong's decision to pursue a career in triathlons is probably getting up the USADA's nose. If he just faded away they would likely leave it alone.