Let’s Void the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005

By Jeremy Stahl

“Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong” will soon just be Lance Armstrong. The most celebrated cyclist on the planet has decided to end his fight against doping charges, claiming that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s legal process was an “unconstitutional witch hunt” after losing his most recent legal challenge.

The agency has banned Armstrong from all competition for life and is now recommending that the International Cycling Union strip the Texan of his record number of maillots jaunes, an outcome that now seems more likely than not.

One of the biggest questions for cycling fans now becomes what happens to Lance’s titles? Having covered professional cycling for the three years after Armstrong’s retirement, I can tell you that the sport was at the time marred more by major doping scandals involving Lance’s successors then it was by the shadows hanging over Armstrong’s own career.

Every single rider that finished second to Lance has since been connected to doping, and the majority of them have either been directly convicted in ways comparable to Armstrong or confessed to their own crimes.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/08/24/lance_armstrong_doping_scandal_everyone_was_chating_from_1999_to_2005_.html