![\"Armstrong\"](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/lance-300x168.jpeg\" "\\"Armstrong\\"")
<\/p>\nI've pondered on writing a post like this for the past few months, and now that it seems the dust has settled, I think it's time for it to see the light of day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So many of my friends, patients and clients have asked me: “so what is your opinion about Lance and the whole doping thing?” \u00a0Each time, I've given them the same answer: I personally believe he's guilty as hell. \u00a0A few people got into the whys and the hows of it all, but rarely did anyone care except to parrot the oft heard “he never tested positive” and “he's passed more than 500 tests.”<\/p>\n
Hrumph.<\/p>\n
How do I really feel, now that it's all said and done?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I've long held the belief that Lance is a lying scumbag cheater. \u00a0However, during the Federal Investigation into his cheating, I was more perturbed that the country was wasting taxpayer dollars to go after something that clearly should be left in the hands of the sport's national governing bodies (USAC and USADA.) \u00a0When the federal case was dropped and the USADA case began, I finally began to think that we'd see light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n
Wrong.<\/p>\n
As of Friday, Lance had declined to take his case to arbitration (after a failed legal challenge in, of all things, federal court) \u00a0resulting in a ban and expulsion of all results from 1998 on. \u00a0It was at that point that I realized we'd probably never hear the details of the evidence against him, or the system he used to dope and beat the testing. \u00a0What did I feel about the verdict and subsequent end of the case?<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Conflicted: Here we have a guy who spent his life racing bikes, built a cancer charity, raced bikes some more, and was finally exposed as having cheated to get where he was. \u00a0Yes, his Livestrong foundation may be a reputable charity that does good in the world, but having someone like him as a figurehead is a rough reconciliation for me.<\/p>\n
Relieved: It's over, the punishment has been meted out and the chips will continue to fall where they may.<\/p>\n
Irritated: I'd REALLY like to know how he did it and how he got away with it.<\/p>\n
To make that decision, I had to go back a long way to when I really started following pro cycling and how it shaped things now.<\/p>\n
![\"TT](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/bellytt-300x213.jpg\" "\\"Lance")
<\/a>The past<\/h3>\nBack when I started watching Lance in le Tour I had little to no understanding of the doping practices of the time. \u00a0I was just another casual American cyclist watching an American dominate “the world's hardest race.”<\/p>\n
As \u00a0I learned more in the fields of exercise physiology, pharmacology, biology and biochemistry, I started to realize what I was actually seeing. \u00a0After hearing the reported evidence, I started to realize what I was actually seeing. \u00a0After listening to Floyd come clean, I started to realize what I had seen. \u00a0I began to do a little research, to dig up what I could on doping science and how it affected America's greatest cyclist. \u00a0Those searches solidified my opinion.<\/p>\n
In short, there was way too much evidence to turn the other cheek to.<\/p>\n
So let's get back to it….how do I feel about the punishment and close of the case? \u00a0Was I conflicted? \u00a0Relieved? \u00a0Irritated? \u00a0I think the answer lies in a little of each. \u00a0Maybe even a little disappointed that it took THIS long for it to finally be finished.<\/p>\n
I guess all we can do is wait and see what the fallout is. \u00a0I have a distinct feeling this is not completely over….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve pondered on writing a post like this for the past few months, and now that it seems the dust has settled, I think it’s time for it to see the light of day. So many of my friends, patients and clients have asked me: “so what is your opinion about Lance and the whole doping thing?” \u00a0Each time, I’ve given them the same answer: I personally believe he’s guilty as hell. \u00a0A few people got into the whys and the hows of it all, but rarely did anyone care except to parrot the oft heard “he never tested positive” and “he’s passed more than 500 tests.” Hrumph. How do I really feel, now that it’s all said and done?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,26],"tags":[84,176,164],"yst_prominent_words":[2678,2686,2595,2681,1169,1345,2680,2685,2682,2673,1765,2675,2683,2655,2672,2677,2676,2684,2679,2674],"wppr_data":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10960,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions\/10960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}