The (Part) Colombian Who Brought Down Lance Armstrong

George Hincapie in 2007.

We might never have learned the truth about how cycling legend Lance Armstrong doped his way to seven Tour de France victories if not for a product of Colombia's great cycling tradition.

Ricardo Hincapie emigrated from Colombia to the United States in 1960, probably from Antioquia, where he had raced bicycles and made up in enthusiasm what he lacked in victories. In the U.S., Hincapie encouraged his two sons, George and Richard, to take up the sport. George undoubtedly far surpassed his father's greatest ambitions, participating in nine Tour de France-winning teams, including seven in which he helped Armstrong to the podium.

For many of those years Armstrong was dogged by accusations that he used banned substances. However, thru bluster, indimidation and aggressive public relations and lawyering, Armstrong managed to fend off the charges.

Recently, Armstrong even managed to deflect detailed accusations of doping by one-time teammates, because those teammates had used drugs themselves and lied about it.

But, finally, the United States Anti-Doping Agency, the USADA ruled that Armstrong should be stripped of his titles. And the USADA's report, released today, shows that George Hincapie's testimony played a key role in the case against Armstrong. After all, Hincapie had never admitted doping and Armstrong had said Hincapie was "like a brother" to him.

Lance Armstrong. 

In his testimony, however, Hincapie also admitted to using illegal performance-enhancing substances himself.

The USADA's very detailed report, which you can read here, tells a mind-boggling story of frequent, repeated, widespread and shameless doping by Armstrong and his circle. The USADA got testimony from 26 people, including 16 bike racers and 11 of Armstrong's teammates.

The most incredible part of all of this is that Armstrong was able to get off scot-free for so long.

Even now, despite the overwhelming evidence, Armstrong continues denying that he ever doped. I wonder whether he even denies it to himself. He called the USADA's report a "one-sided hatchet job."

Besides all of the sworn witness testimonies, there are the reported failed drug tests and incriminating evidence such as the discovery of drug packaging in Armstrong's team garbage. If Armstrong insists this is all a conspiracy, it makes me wonder what other sorts of conspiracy theories he believes in: That the Apollo space program landed in a Nevada desert instead of the moon? That the Nazi Holocaust never happened? That George Bush masterminded the 9-11 attacks?

Sadly, by denying the obvious, Armstrong is ruining whatever part of his reputation he could still salvage. After all, even tho his cycling was chemically assisted, Armstrong's rise from cancer to stardom still remains an incredible achievement and his campaigns for cancer victims deserve admiration.

And professional cycling's image is also further sullied. After Armstrong's titles are officially stripped away, will the sport be able to find someone clean to award the titles to? For that matter, who was the last clean winner? Hinault? Lemond?

As for the Hincapie family, they haven't forgotten their ties to Colombia. Their sportwear company has a factory in Medellin.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Lance Armstrong Scandal and Drug Prohibition

Champ Lance: Did he beat the system
as well as the competition?

The mounting evidence that cycling superstar Lance Armstrong doped his way to his Tour de France victories certainly says a lot about Armstrong's character.

But it also contains a message about drug prohibition. After all, Armstrong likes to boast that he's the most drug tested athlete in history and that he's never failed a test. And he's certainly lived under lots of scrutiny from the media, competitors and cycling authorities.

Yet, if we believe the testimonies of Armstrong's ex-teammates Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton, as well as lots of other evidence, Armstrong doped routinely throughout his racing career, and so did many other top bike racers.

If authorities could not stop a man who lived in the spotlight from using prohibited substances, what's the chance that they can stop the whole population? Especially when performance-enhancing substances like EPO and steroids are much harder to find than heroin, cocaine and marijuana. 

U.S. Postal Service racing team,
featuring Lance Armstrong. A
laboratory creation?

Of course, the factors in favor and against prohibition in sports and the general population are very different. Drugs like cocaine and heroin are banned primarily because of their dangers to users' health and the way they affect people's behavior. But if performance-enhancing drugs dramatically affected health or behavior, they wouldn't work for athletes in the first place.

If police and judges simply decriminalize drugs, use will likely increase, and some users will enjoy themselves and others will wreck their health. But law enforcement costs and lots of other damaging impacts, such as the funding of criminal organizations, will decrease.

Will the best doper win?

On the other hand, if sports authorities just give up and allow unrestricted use of performance boosters, it could undermine the very nature of sports. Instead of competing by training and strategy, athletes will outdo each other by using more expensive and sophisticated laboratory techniques.

Of course, it's always possible that, against all evidence, Armstrong is clean, as he has always insisted, and that there's a huge conspiracy against him. But that wouldn't change much, since it's clear that the sport is packed full of cheaters.

Just imagine Real Madrid defeating Barcelona in a dramatic match, and the reporters rushing to interview, instead of the coaches and players, laboratory technicians, who analyze the substances each teams' players used.

'Well, Barcelona injected themselves with Substance A, which made them run faster. But Real Madrid popped B pills, which made them stronger. Next time, Barcelona had better take the pills - or both drugs."

Prohibitionism doesn't seem to work wherever it's tried. Do the arguments in its favor outweigh those against it?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours