Heroic Clay Feet

He was an impressive athlete, admirable for his indomitable spirit, his resistance to surrendering his lifestyle and his athletic ambition to dread cancer.  His courage in the face of the single most deadly disease that assails humankind was a shining inspiration to all who admired his physical exploits.  Nothing could possibly dim his halo.

His triumphs, time after time in heroically winning the Tour de France - seven times a winner; no one else could ever come close to boasting such enormous success - made him a champion everyone admired.  And when rumours began to circulate and charges that his miraculous championship owed as much to drug-enhanced performance as natural ability, no one wanted to give them credence.

And Lance Armstrong passionately denied having anything to do with drugs.  His triumphs owed to his ability, his strength, his endurance, his physical prowess, and nothing else.  Anyone who didn't believe him was assailed by envy.  And then, people who had been loyal to him slowly began to reveal what they knew, what they experienced, what had really occurred.

David Zabriskie testified that "My father had a long history of substance use and addiction. Seeing what happened to my father ... I vowed never to take drugs .. At race hotels I witnessed roommates getting injections from team doctors.  It was explained to me that the injections were called "recovery.  Generally, the explanation I was given was that it was a mix of vitamins

"I began using the recovery injection product provided by the team regularly because I believed it was just vitamins as consistently represented by the team doctors ... [Later he was told by the team's director, and a doctor on staff he had to use EPO]:  Until this very moment, I was unaware how involved the team leadership was in drug use by the riders on the team.

"I went back to my Spanish apartment and had a breakdown.  I called home crying.  I had pursued cycling as an escape from drugs and here I was having succumbed to pressure."

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has incontrovertibly put the final touch on consigning Lance Armstrong's proud record of wins to the dust-bin of celebrity miscalculation.  The testimony of his teammates consolidated their intelligence that Lance Armstrong had strong-armed his teammates into drug use because "everybody did it", and he was determined to win.

Dr. Michele Ferrari, whom Lance Armstrong insisted he had no knowledge of, received over a million dollars from Lance Armstrong, deposited into his Swiss bank account.  For services rendered and gratefully received, enabling one grand win after another, so Lance Armstrong could wear seven Yellow Jerseys.