Lance Armstrong & The French

So let's get the story straight here:

* Some guy in a French lab decides to test some blood samples as a new way to check for a drug, EPO. The samples are anonymous, marked only with numbers assigned to each donor.
* The test has nothing to do with the Tour De France, and has only to do with testing this new procedure for finding EPO.
* A couple of days later, the newspaper L'Equipe--who has accused Lance of doping since his first tour win, and has gone through RIDICULOUS means to try to prove this is so--runs a story saying that Lance had tested positive to six samples of EPO. "Somehow" the "anonymous" samples had been tied to Lance, found to be "positive", and then "leaked" to the newspaper. Yes, I'm getting quotations happy.
* The samples are all "B" Samples, meaning Lance passed six "A" samples in 1999. There are no other samples to test against. However, there was not a test in 1999 that would work in finding EPO in a blood sample.
* International testing standards insist that there are two different samples taken to prove a guilty test--which there weren't two samples--and many other policies were violated in this "testing".

We know the rest. The director of the Tour said Lance had fooled everyone, Lance said they were all full of shit, etc., etc.

So here's the thing with Armstrong. I'm not going to hop on here and say, "How dare they accuse Lance, it's ridiculous to even think that he is guilty!" I've always subscribed to the "where there's smoke, there's fire" theory. There have been too many people in his own inner circle--ex-riders and assistants, including one who said she tossed out used syringes--his friendship and trips to see Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, who is on trial right now for distributing EPO to cyclists, and the fact that a clean drug test doesn't necessarily mean that an athlete is really clean (see: BALCO) for me to say I'm 100% sure Lance is clean. Hell, he's even taken EPO before--in his autobiography, he talks about taking it as part of his chemotherapy treatments, and credits it for helping him survive. Where there's smoke, there's usually a fire.

So keeping those facts in mind, and looking at the situation we're in now, here's what I have to say to the French (all of them, not just the newspaper):

Is that the best you fucking pussies can do?

Really? THIS bullshit is what you want to hang your hat on? Do I even need to count the reasons this could be crap? A seven year old "anonymous" sample? Who's been near it? How can you guarentee it's been kept properly? How can you guarentee no outside party has tampered with it? We're talking about a country that used to break into Lance's hotel room to "look for evidence of doping". Just break in while he was riding ON THE MOTHER FUCKING TOUR. You're telling me there's no way they'd tamper with an old blood sample? To quote Peter Griffin, "Come on!"

How did it go from being anonymous to Lance's sample? That doesn't happen by accident...somebody had to go look it up. I saw that 40 of the old samples tested positive...was Lance's the only one that happened to not be anonymous? So it's safe to say that you were looking to find evidence against Lance from Day 1...so you're lying about the original intent of the test now. Doesn't this seem a little orchestrated from the start? You sure you wouldn't tamper with the sample? Just a little? Just a smidge?

Didn't you--the French--establish the rules for testing? The whole two sample thing: now that Lance has tested positive once, now all of the sudden the second sample isn't really necessary, it's just a waste of time? Look French. I know you're used to surrendering...hey, it's what you guys do. But in an international competition, you can't set up a standard of rules, and then just surrender them when you think you might be able to catch a guy you have vehemently hated for seven years.

So in the end, I don't know if Lance cheated or not. Sadly, if somehow it was proved he used some substances, it wouldn't shock me all that much. Between the way the world is today, and the fact that there is smoke out there makes me nervous about his situation.

But don't come here with this shit. This is absolute crap. There's no evidence here; there's so many problems with this situation it's not even worth talking about. Once again, the French come across as vindictive loser pricks desperate to destroy a man they've come to hate simply because he's better than they are. Shame on all of you.

If Lance cheated, you'd better come forward with some ironclad, irrefutable, follow the letter of the law proof that he cheated. If you don't have that, shut the fuck up. This is a man who has overcome incredible adversity, handled himself with class, and has been an inspiration to millions. He deserves more respect than half-cocked theories or horribly mishandled tests. Shame on you, French, and give him the respect he has earned and deserves.