IF Cycling really wants to clean up it's act, shouldn't they grant amnesty to those who confess to cheating?

Question

It's crazy that Riis has the balls to confess to doping, and has his Tour de France titled stripped from him. Meanwhile, spineless dopers like Ullrich, Armstrong, Indurain, and Pantani get to keep their titles. I guess the Tour wants to send the message that you need to cheat, and have no integrity to win.

Answer 1

Amnesty would only allow confessed dopers to continue racing without sanctions (no suspension), but IMO rightly should rescind thier victories.

HAve you been hanging out with lemond?
Pantani is the only one in your list that was ever proven to be a doper.
Ullrich - the jury is still out as far as doping, there is no real proof yet, and there is no evidence or even allegation that he doped when he won the TdF.
Indurain, no allegation, no suspicion (except from lemond), no positive tests.
Armstrong - simply a vendatta by the french and dick pound. The only hint of anything wrong were those experimental tests carried out by the cheese-eating LNDD hacks. News Flash - that test they used to implicate armstrong from his '99 tour was never accepted. Why? because the test kept yielding too many false positives. The scrapped it in favor of the old test, which showed armstrong clean.

Cycling would go a long way towarding cleaning up its image if they would get rid of that half-witted loudmouth pound and revoke the LNDDs license. There are plenty of other IOC qualified labs that don't have an agenda against cycling with a sensationalist tabloid media outlet (Le'Equippe) obviously in a quidproquo agreement.

Answer 2

Lance Armstrong has never tested positive for a doping test, so he shouldn't be included in your list of names. Pantani is dead, and I don't recall any doping confession from him, although he did fail a blood test in 1999. I believe he died as a result of complications of cocaine and other drug use. The evidence is circumstantial on Ullrich and I don't recall any allegations or confession against Miguel Indurain.

There has been talk of amnesty, but nothing has been decided yet. Technically, Riis hasn't been stripped of his title. The statute of limitations has passed for that. However, tour organizers no longer recognize him as the winner and are encouraging him to return his yellow jersey.

Answer 3

Get a grip! If Cycling wants to clean up it's act the officials and rule makers would start acting responsibly. They screwed up badly on drug testing and want to blame everyone but themselves. If they set good and fair rules and enforced them without bias these problems would rarely occur. They are more interested in keeping the riders from making money so it all goes to them.
I really resent that you criticize Lance Armstrong. He has led an admirable life and has only had to defend himself from terrible lies. Nobody has offered any proof and he is found guilty by little American hating morons that can't give credit to one of the greatest athletes in history.
In civilized societies we value concepts like burden of proof, the ability to confront accusers and the presumption of innocence.
Confession is good for the soul but it is not close to redemption.