Thursday, May 19, 2011

More Doping News

Tyler Hamilton is set appear on 60 minutes this Sunday where it is said that he admits to doping and also says that he witnessed Lance Armstrong dope. This is the second high profile rider to go on record as saying he witnessed Lance dope. Now only two have officially came out and said so much, the first was Floyd Landis, who after years of denial and spending his fans money on denying her doped came out roughly this time last year. Now, Hamilton, does the same, on the day that Lance's ex-teammate Chris Horner takes over the race lead at the tour of California.

Lance's publicist has of course denied the that he is a credible source, but lends no claims other than "He's was the most tested athlete" and that Mr. Hamilton is only doing this to gain publicity for his book. Now this is what we call in the Philosophy world as a Red Herring and a personal attack. Neither one of these refutes the claim and is only a way to distract the listener from the fact that there's really no claim being made.

Now, I will lay out I do believe at one point in his career lance took a banned substance. I don't know when it was or how long or in what context. Though, I do believe that an important step forward is to accept that the sport has a problem and then learn from it. If for no other reason than to give hope to individuals who are trying to make it into the pro ranks now. The first step to cleaning the peloton is airing out it's "dirty laundry" so that we can start to solve the problem in it's entirety. Make it transparent, we don't have to know everyones Biological Passport and their test results, but knowing what the doping agencies are doing to combat this horrible scourge of the peloton would be a good start. The problem has to be attacked head on, and I'm sure a lot of Pro's and team members will be hurt and lose their job, but it will be in no way even close to how much they've already hurt the sport.

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