Poor Lance

I suspect he's got this "Oh SHIT" look on
his face all the time now.

Last week some cyclist named Lance Armstrong gave up his fight against the behemoth known as USADA effectively admitting his guilt in the whole doping scandal/debate.  Now we've got Lance supporters already coming out en masse saying that his quitting his fight against USADA proves nothing and even if he did dope, look at all the good stuff he did for people with cancer, giving them hope and courage to fight.  Two unrelated arguments really.  I mean, his exploits in the Tour de France have very little to do with his cancer foundation other than the fact that he used his "story" to inspire people, but just like actors and actresses, we want our heroes to be the same person in real life as they are on the silver screen, which is messed up.

Then on the other side of this Harvey Dent coin, we have USADA with their bravado and their posturing saying they are going to strip Armstrong of his 7 Tour titles as well as his other small lead up races and give him a lifetime ban from cycling.  Even though the really don't have any authority to do so AND cycling's governing body, UCI, gives cyclists a 2 year ban on their first offense.  And really, what do they do if Armstrong's titles are stripped?  Do they test/go after Alex Zulle, Jan Ullirch (oops, popped for doping already), Joseba Beloki, Andreas Kloden (suspected doper) or Ivan Basso (already popped for doping), the racers that got second?  How about 3rd?  Armstrong was the best in an era of dopers, so when in Rome...or Paris in this case.

Which brings me to the REAL reason for this post.  I couldn't give a hairy rat's ass about what happens with Armstrong and his Tour titles.  Strip him or don't, I couldn't care any less about it and more importantly, I don't know how you could strip him and not give the same scrutiny to every single other racer at those 7 Tours.  Give the titles to the lanterne rouge, I really don't care.  BUT, there is one title that I do care about, Leadville.  Strip that title away from him and give it to a guy who is decidedly NOT a doper, but a real hero and a guy that everyone that rides should look up to, Dave Wiens.  A seemingly all around good guy and a guy that has poured his heart and soul into a sport he loves without getting all caught up in the win at all costs mentality that seems to go hand in hand with the world cycling view, and especially the Pro-Tour/road side of things.  Give Wiens his 7 titles in a row.

So c'mon Life Time Fitness or Ken Chlouber or whoever the hell owned the race at the time when Mr. LiveWrong stole the title away from the true deserving winner.  Do the right thing.  March down to Texas and get your belt buckle back and give it to Wiens.