USADA and Lance Armstrong

USADA announced: … Lance Armstrong … has received a lifetime period of ineligibility and disqualification of all competitive results from August 1, 1998

Read the whole USADA news release August 2012. Not that I know very much about the rules or protocol of international cycle racing but it seems strange how a non-governmental agency in the USA believes it can dictate the results of the Tour de France, an event organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. You’d think Mr Armstrong’s seven Tour victories can only be ‘declared null’ by whoever awarded them in the first place. What also seems questionable is an assumption that by not continuing his defence against doping allegations he is automatically guilty. Even Miguel Indurain, winner of five consecutive Tours de France, appears to find it strange, reportedly saying: “Until an organisation recognised by all parties decides to the contrary, the Tour victories are his.” FWIW I agree with the Guardian editorial of 24th August: “No one can simply rewrite the history of the Tour from 1999 to 2005 by writing Armstrong out of the story.”