Lanced

Based on last night’s celebrations, I’m surprised to find a neighborhood left here this morning. In Washington State, you can basically discharge 50 caliber rounds into 55 gallon drums of nitro glycerin launched from slingshots if you want. It’s a pretty liberal fireworks policy. But America isn’t the only thing smoldering this morning.

Lance may be cooked. Cyclingnews and other outlets are reporting that George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde and Dave Zabriskie are all planning to testify against Armstrong.

As has been his preferred method, Armstrong continues to suggest these guys are basically vicious attackers conducting a senseless campaign against him personally, and I see his point: clearly the best thing for all these racers is to lie to incriminate Armstrong, even dropping out of the Olypmics just to land a few low blows. This is, in the estimation of Armstrong’s attorneys, a personal attack.

Would that were the case. It’s very much a public attack, though–and not just against Armstrong, but against cycling. That the Armstrong opera would take place at the same time as the Tour seems weirdly appropriate for a sport that’s slowly devolved into a sad little exercise in disillusionment. How many times can we be made fools of before we start ignoring winners entirely? Eventually, every victory becomes contingent. Every win includes an asterisk. As fans, it’s a miserable situation to find ourselves in, but it’s where we are.

I don’t really care who wins this year’s Tour, assuming we actually have “verified” winner at all. It’s looking like eventually all of these things will be decided over the course of a year or two. I can’t help but be drawn to the quality of the racing, but winners? For the time being at least, there are no winners.