he had no choice. It was a price to pay to compete at the highest level.
He would have been a much much better athlete if he took no drugs and finished 20th
He would have been a much much better athlete if he took no drugs and finished 20th
It might be cultural, but that attitude strikes me as the very heart of sport in all honesty.
e.g. if one of Lance's competitors on the Tour had (lets imagine) added some magically small but powerful electric motor to his bike and used that to win, would that be fair game?
But to answer your question, if the sport has a profusely well documented history of electric motor usage that’s over a century long [0], with a huge proportion of its winners using them, then arguably “yes”. For all intents and purposes it’s now part of it! Assuming you’re trying to win, at least.
And in the same way, getting caught is totally fair too. It’s just losing by another name.
Cycling
to
Cycling While Pretending Not To Be On Drugs
Everyone would know where they stood then.