Professional cycling is no longer as sick with doping as it was when Armstrong, Landis and Hamilton — all now retired — got into it. Cycling's 3-year-old pioneering program that monitors riders' blood values has weeded out some, but not all, cheats. Police and prosecutors are catching others.
Yet, for each step forward, cycling steps backward to i
ts even dirtier past with each fresh allegation against Armstrong, the sport's most famous star. That is not fair for those riders who are racing clean, who help fund cycling's anti-doping program and who shouldn't be tarred with the suspicions that linger from the era of which Armstrong, Landis and Hamilton were part. Nor is it fair to Armstrong if the allegations aren't backed up with proof.