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Cape Town - The revelations that Lance Armstrong doped during his career has left Sport24 readers feeling disillusioned with cycling and the Tour de France.
Here's what Sport24 readers had to say:
"From Hero to Zero." - Johan.Jacob.5860
"There are only two types of 'athletes' in the Tour de Farce, those who take hard-to-detect steroids, and those who haven't been caught yet." - Charles Dumbwin
"The past 20 years of cycling has been a farce. They were ALL doing it. Those that didn't do it simply couldn't compete and they never rode for top teams. Why USADA launched this massive witch hunt to discredit Armstrong makes no sense. All that they have done is confirm that the sport was tainted and raised questions about every cyclist that ever succeeded during the past 20 years. Armstrong IS the best there ever was, he competed on a level playing field against all the other dopers and won." - frank.vankaapstad
"They should legalise the drugs. It will make it more interesting and a level playing field!" - Bruce.Williams.1044106
"Lance cheated and his life is a lie." - siyabonga.khumalo.108
"Sanity prevails at last - now just please jail him and reclaim every cent of sponsorship and prize money - let future generations in the sport realize that cheating does not pay." - derek.francois.3
"One sport that I will never watch again. We all admired a CHEAT." - Albertus Viljoen
"In Lance's days everyone did it! As a matter of fact, all 20 samples tested retrospectively in 2003 from TDF in 1999, were positive for EPO! That was 20 different riders at the prologue!Lance has to take the fall for EVERYONE, because he was so successful. As Tyler Hamilton said: 'we had to find a way, everyone else did'." - jurie.grobler
"That's why I have suggested they drop all results from that era. No-one can rightly claim the crown convincingly now. The sporting body and doping agencies were asleep at the wheel and THEY should also take the fall and be charged for incompetence." - John
"Laurent Fignon, TDF winner 1983 and 84 (yes, nearly 30 years), wrote in his autobiagraphy of the drug which dominated his era - cortisone, which was undetectable - pretty much all he tells us is this: "We didn't feel like we were cheating: each of us settled matters with his own conscience. And in any case, everyone did it." His attitude to the doping of his era is perhaps best summed up thusly: "I would never have dreamed of taking a drug that might be detected on the day of a race." Which pretty much sums up the attitude of too many cyclists to drugs: it's not doping if you can get away with it." - rinus.groeneveld.7
"If you check, the earliest admitted "doping" was in 1923 when the cyclists were using ether as a painkiller. I don't care what anyone says, they ALL dope, just some get caught and some don't. The only reason they are getting caught now is because they are keeping samples until the testing technology catches up with the drugs." - Gungets Tuft
"I will never ever watch the Tour De France again!" - marius.croucamp.3
"He still won the Tour de France 7 times though, he just cheated his way to the top." - JamesHurleyZA
"Finally, I can tick 'win as many tour de france titles as Lance Armstrong' off my bucket list. Zero." - evert.vanstaaden
"Armstrong's book moved to the fiction section..." - andynct
"I think it's clear that it certainly wasn't about the bike." - Al
"Fun fact, if they had to give his wins to the next person who was eligible and not involved in a doping scandal in some way shape or form, it would go down to the 23rd place on average." - zander.venter.14
"If we were to lock up all the performance enhancing users in sport there would be very few sportsmen left to compete. Performance enhancement is taking place in most forms of sport and there are scientists designing drugs that are difficult to detect all the time." - watchman
"Bolt u are next." - Tsatsi golden
Can the sport of cycling recover after the fall of one of its most recognisable icons? (AP)
Here's what Sport24 readers had to say:
"From Hero to Zero." - Johan.Jacob.5860
"There are only two types of 'athletes' in the Tour de Farce, those who take hard-to-detect steroids, and those who haven't been caught yet." - Charles Dumbwin
"The past 20 years of cycling has been a farce. They were ALL doing it. Those that didn't do it simply couldn't compete and they never rode for top teams. Why USADA launched this massive witch hunt to discredit Armstrong makes no sense. All that they have done is confirm that the sport was tainted and raised questions about every cyclist that ever succeeded during the past 20 years. Armstrong IS the best there ever was, he competed on a level playing field against all the other dopers and won." - frank.vankaapstad
"They should legalise the drugs. It will make it more interesting and a level playing field!" - Bruce.Williams.1044106
"Lance cheated and his life is a lie." - siyabonga.khumalo.108
"Sanity prevails at last - now just please jail him and reclaim every cent of sponsorship and prize money - let future generations in the sport realize that cheating does not pay." - derek.francois.3
"One sport that I will never watch again. We all admired a CHEAT." - Albertus Viljoen
"In Lance's days everyone did it! As a matter of fact, all 20 samples tested retrospectively in 2003 from TDF in 1999, were positive for EPO! That was 20 different riders at the prologue!Lance has to take the fall for EVERYONE, because he was so successful. As Tyler Hamilton said: 'we had to find a way, everyone else did'." - jurie.grobler
"That's why I have suggested they drop all results from that era. No-one can rightly claim the crown convincingly now. The sporting body and doping agencies were asleep at the wheel and THEY should also take the fall and be charged for incompetence." - John
"Laurent Fignon, TDF winner 1983 and 84 (yes, nearly 30 years), wrote in his autobiagraphy of the drug which dominated his era - cortisone, which was undetectable - pretty much all he tells us is this: "We didn't feel like we were cheating: each of us settled matters with his own conscience. And in any case, everyone did it." His attitude to the doping of his era is perhaps best summed up thusly: "I would never have dreamed of taking a drug that might be detected on the day of a race." Which pretty much sums up the attitude of too many cyclists to drugs: it's not doping if you can get away with it." - rinus.groeneveld.7
"If you check, the earliest admitted "doping" was in 1923 when the cyclists were using ether as a painkiller. I don't care what anyone says, they ALL dope, just some get caught and some don't. The only reason they are getting caught now is because they are keeping samples until the testing technology catches up with the drugs." - Gungets Tuft
"I will never ever watch the Tour De France again!" - marius.croucamp.3
"He still won the Tour de France 7 times though, he just cheated his way to the top." - JamesHurleyZA
"Finally, I can tick 'win as many tour de france titles as Lance Armstrong' off my bucket list. Zero." - evert.vanstaaden
"Armstrong's book moved to the fiction section..." - andynct
"I think it's clear that it certainly wasn't about the bike." - Al
"Fun fact, if they had to give his wins to the next person who was eligible and not involved in a doping scandal in some way shape or form, it would go down to the 23rd place on average." - zander.venter.14
"If we were to lock up all the performance enhancing users in sport there would be very few sportsmen left to compete. Performance enhancement is taking place in most forms of sport and there are scientists designing drugs that are difficult to detect all the time." - watchman
"Bolt u are next." - Tsatsi golden
Can the sport of cycling recover after the fall of one of its most recognisable icons? (AP)
