Follow My Leader

Heroes are the kind of people who lead from the front - often as not into unchartered waters where others fear to tred.

For many years Lance Armstrong held himself out to be a hero - as a cancer survivor, as an unsurpassed 7 times winner of the Tour de France and founder of his Livestrong Charity. 

But now we know the truth - that Lance Armstrong was just a dope.

A serial cheat who broke every rule in the book and then some through his cynical use of performance enhancing drugs and other means - including blood transfusions - to steal his way to victory. 

Yet the lame excuse Lance has offered for his behaviour is that everyone was at it - that he was just levelling the playing field - according to the 'confession' Lance issued in a carefully stage-managed TV interview with Oprah Winfrey.

So instead of being a modern-day hero - a real leader of men - Lance would have us believe that he was simply following the pack which is, of course, as daft as it sounds.

I read somewhere that another famous cyclist after being caught with blood transfusion bags in his fridge - claimed that he was using these to make black puddings (also known as Boudain Noir in France or Morcilla in Spain).    

Now excuse me for thinking that these people must regard the rest of us as stupid.

Yet in some respects we are - or at least the authorities are - because the cycling cheats have been getting away with it for years.

As Lance Armstrong has now demonstrated - albeit in a friendly TV interview as opposed to the regulatory authorities - who should now demand his complete cooperation to expose the scale of the scandal and the other people involved - before throwing the book at him and banning Lance for life. 

Pundits have now renamed the Livestrong Charity as 'Liestrong' - which seems pretty apt in the circumstances - yet Lance only has himself to blame.