AS I WRITE, ON THE EVE OF THE 114th edition of Milan-San Remo, it’s been eleven years and five months since the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) dropped its 200-page H-bomb on the Internet, along with 1000-plus pages of supporting evidence including testimonies from eleven former teammates and fifteen other witnesses.
It was described as “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”.
On October 22, 2012, twelve days after the ‘Reasoned Decision’ was made public, the UCI, cycling’s governing body, said it would not appeal USADA’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, thereby accepting a lifetime ban for Lance Armstrong and voiding the Texan’s results from August 1, 1998, including his seven Tour de France victories.
Of course, there was that famous interview with Oprah on January 13 the next year, nine days before the
