Lance Armstrong... greatest doper there was or ever will be

This argument annoys me for three reasons;

1. It makes drug taking the accepted norm and punishes those who don't want to play fast and loose with their health and take industrial quantities of drugs; and
   
   

I never said it was a good thing, it's just how I view it. I'd rather a clean sport, I just don't think it'll ever happen. I suspect that any professional sport where there are great rewards to the winners breeds drug taking, and it's just the cycling is always in the spotlight. I honestly think (at the risk of going off topic) that most pro sports have a similar level of doping than cycling, it's just that for whatever reason they don't get caught. Operacion Puerto uncovered lots of blood form different sportsmen, yet it was only cyclists who got punished. That sucks.

1. It was not a level playing field as people respond differently to the same doses of the same drugs, and Armstrong clearly responded better than most; and
   
   

As pointed out above, people not on drugs respond differently too. Most of the top guys were doing similar things to each other, thereby keeping the enhancement fairly level

1. Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, Landis, Beloki and all those other goons were paid well enough that they could afford to see some bent Dr like Ferrari or Fuentes but up and coming riders couldn't as they couldn't afford it.
   
   

Not exactly level was it.

That's always the way it is in sport. The top guys get better taken care of, better advantages, better just about everything than the humble domestiques. As I said above, that's pro sport for you.

I think it's just getting into the usual circular argument now of pro and anti Lance fans. It boils down to the fact that he's never been caught doping and never failed a proper test. The circumstantial evidence is that he doped, and the '99 samples are seen by some as proof. We'll just keep going round and round and no one will change their mind I suspect