# Contador and Armstrong in the news



## mlctvt (Feb 7, 2012)

Interesting stories yesterday and today.

Alberto Contador is strippped of his 2010 Tour de France title and he gets a 2 year ban from racing. 

Criminal charges against Lance Armstrong and US Postal team are dropped by US attorney's office.


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## riverc0il (Feb 7, 2012)

I was glad to hear about Contador. If they are going to have doping rules, they have to enforce them. My understanding of the rule is if you get caught with an illegal level of a substance, burden of proof is on the cyclist to prove they were setup rather than ingesting illegal substances. Sad that it took so long for the ruling. A.S. notes that it is no victory for him and I am sure M.S. thinks the same for the Giro. Might have been different for a few racers getting W's after the fact had the ruling been immediate rather than retroactive. Whether the rules are right or not can be debated. But if there are rules, they need to be enforced. 

L.A. criminal charges... eh. IIRC, those were more US federal oriented not originating from the cycling world. It was what it was during the Lance era. I don't see the point of dragging him through the mud for punitive federal charges. Yea, he represented a government agency and lied about not doing illegal substances. But who cares at this point? Its done, time to move on.

Armstrong ultimately did a lot of good even winning while juiced. Who could have won in that era not completely dopped up? The cycling boom was good for business and health. I'm sure USPS got some great exposure too and it was worth the investment. Time to move on.


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## mlctvt (Feb 7, 2012)

I feel the same way as you on both cases. 

 I always felt that the racketeering charge against Lance was more about US Attorney Jeff Novitsky trying to further his career.Yes time to move on , which I guess is what they decided.

so the 2010 Tour De France win now goes to Andy Schleck. Kinda sucks for him to get the win after the fact. Nobody will remember and he can't really celebrate either.


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## riverc0il (Feb 7, 2012)

mlctvt said:


> so the 2010 Tour De France win now goes to Andy Schleck. Kinda sucks for him to get the win after the fact. Nobody will remember and he can't really celebrate either.


And he still got beat and he knows it.

Can you only imagine if they didn't rule against Contador? Everyone caught with a banned substance would blame the tainted meat. They might as well not even have substance rules if they didn't rule against Contador.


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## hrstrat57 (Feb 8, 2012)

I know Contador was an absolute beast in some of the 2010 stages....amazing.


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