Many of those who have followed the pro-cycling doping saga over the past few years have concluded that the reason most of the world's top cyclists doped is because most of the other top cyclists were doping, so if you weren't doping, you wouldn't be able to compete.
This didn't mean that doping was okay. It wasn't. And everyone who did it knew it wasn't, or they wouldn't have gone to such extreme lengths to hide it.
But when everyone's cheating, and everyone knows everyone's cheating, the act of cheating takes on a different meaning among the group than it does when only a handful of people are cheating.
And, based on some of the testimony that was released in the evidence against Lance Armstrong, it appears that this "everyone was cheating" view of pro cycling is accurate.
The testimony of George Hincapie, one of Lance Armstrong's closest teammates, spells this out in detail. It also reveals the moment in which Hincapie and Armstrong decided to dope.
Hincapie came clean publicly today. Below are two excerpts from the affidavit that Hincapie provided during the USADA's investigation of Lance Armstrong.
Then there came the decision to do it:
The testimony of Stephen Swart, the third teammate referenced above, corroborates Hincapie's recollection:
SEE ALSO: Here's How Lance Armstrong Never Tested Positive
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