Floyd Landis is a mediocre cyclist who tried to cheat his way to glory. What Landis does not understand is that Lance Armstrong is not a mediocre cyclist. Armstrong was dominating his rivals when he was a teenager, and has dominated at every level since. Was he taking performance-enhancing substances when he was a teenager?
Addendum: Here is a paragraph from the ESPN story:
"I don't feel guilty at all about having doped," Landis told ESPN.com.
"I did what I did because that's what we [cyclists] did and it was a
choice I had to make after 10 years or 12 years of hard work to get
there, and that was a decision I had to make to make the next step. My
choices were, do it and see if I can win, or don't do it and I tell
people I just don't want to do that, and I decided to do it." (brackets in original)
Landis knew that he couldn't "make the next step" on his ability. He had to cheat to make it. In his mind, the end justified the means. I'd rather not win at all than win by breaking the rules.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 