Drop goes the other shoe.

If you're Lance Armstrong, things just seem to be going from bad to worse. I know he said at a fundraiser this past Friday that "I have been better, but I have been worse." From experiencing cancer both in my wife Kris and in my brother-in-law Dale, who lost his brave battle last November, I definitely understand where Lance is coming from.

However, from a professional standpoint, it couldn't have gotten any worse than it did today. Already having been stripped of his seven Tour de France title by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), today was the day that the International Cycling Union (UCI) was to issue their verdict on the case. Well, in a decision that almost everyone expected, the UCI sided with the report issued by USADA and stripped Lance Armstrong of his titles, basically vacating the race results for the years 1999 to 2005. In past cases, when the winner had is title stripped, the second placed rider has been elevated to the new winner. The last time was in 2010 when Alberto Contador was stripped of his title due to doping and Andy Schleck was declared the winner. As I write this, I haven't seen any explanation as to their decision in that regard. Perhaps as more information comes out in the days to come, their decision will become clear(er).

I'm going to honest here; when I wrote that it was a decision that almost everyone expected, I wasn't one of them. Yes, by now I had become convinced that Lance had probably doped, but I didn't think the UCI had the guts (for lack of a better word) to strip Lance of his titles and ban him for life. In my mind, Lance was their "cash cow" from 1999 to his second retirement. Cycling had (more so here in the USA; it's always been big in Europe) seen tremendous growth during his racing career. I thought that the UCI would ban him for anywhere from 2 to 10 years, fine him but leave his titles intact. Looks like I thought wrong. UCI president McQuaid was quoted as saying: "Armstrong has no place in cycling .... he deserves to be forgotten in cycling."

Ouch. Harsh, but I guess in light of the report handed down by USADA, I guess Mr. McQuaid felt justified. Will Lance be forgotten? No, of course not. The debate will rage for some time to come whether Lance actually used performance enhancing drugs, and help create a culture of doping in the teams he was a part of. Some people will say that all of the other riders in the pro peloton (or at least the names that count) were doping as well, so the playing field was level, thus Lance won his titles "fair and square."

Those arguments are for others, not I. I will try to remember the highlights of his career, most notably "The Look." Anyone who's a follower of the Tour will knows what I mean.

Hopefully this will be the impetus needed to finally clean up professional cycling. There are a slew of young, exciting riders coming up the ranks both here in the USA and in Europe. I look forward to these hungry young lions competing  for the Maillot Jaune (yellow jersey) without having to wonder, "is this guy on the juice?" I hope that day comes soon.