Saturday 1 September 2012

Not BIM - Lance Armstrong....

So this is totally irrelevant to BIM and even the construction industry!!!

And I have been resisting the urge (all be it unsuccessfully) to comment on the Lance Armstrong media storm.

Some of you may have heard of Lance, if not here's a brief summary.... he's one of the worlds greatest cyclists... google him if you need to know more.

What I want to talk about is the fact that after many years of speculation and "hounding" (not my words...) by the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA) and accusations and investigation, Lance has finally had enough and said that he will no longer fight the charges against him....He at no point admitted that he "doped" just that he is tired of fighting the accusations and has had enough.

No whether he in fact has taken illegal enhancing drugs is really no concern of mine, what I have an issue with that he has successfully passed hundreds of "doping" tests submitted to him by the race event authorities and the USADA. He has not failed one of their own tests, yet they keep on pestering this poor bloke even after he retires from professional competitions.

Now the ramification for "not fighting the allegations" are that he is stripped of all his title including the seven Tour DeFrance titles and he is banned from competitive cycling for life and possibly other competitive sports such as triathlons. All this and they haven't proven a thing!

Now I'm not saying that he didn't take performance enhancing drugs, all I know is that cycling is a very competitive sport and I'm sure at that level of competitive sport athletes not only push themselves to the limit, they also push the boundaries of the sport to the limit (and sometimes beyond). Still.. Lance never failed a test... is that because he never took enhancing drugs?  Who knows! If they couldn't test for it and he passed the level of testing that was in place at the time then in my opinion it's a fair level playing field. He passed given the rules that apply at the time.

If in the future the testing is more stringent and advanced than it is now great! 
So if in the future they find that caffeine is a stimulant and they decide to label it a banned substance a lot of cyclists will end up being banned from the sport and stripped of their titles.!

We will have to wait and see how all this unfolds, either way there in no doubt that Lance Armstrong has achieved astounding results in his chosen sport as well as for cancer which he supports through his "Livestrong" foundation. He has be a large part of the renewed interest in cycling for over 10 years and I believe no body can take away the sense of achievement that I'm sure he has for what he has accomplished.

Either way.... as the great Freddie Mercury once said "Get on your bike and Ride!"...

Oh... does anyone have a Revit Family of a Time Trials Bike?
Preferably a Trek. ;-)

Sc

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