friend of mine posted this on Facebook. hits the main points pretty well:
1) People keep saying he didn't fail a drug test, so this investigation is stupid. Two things to consider -- A) allegedly, part of the USADA case is that there's solid testing evidence of blood doping during his comeback and evidence that positive tests from ~2001 were, in fact, covered up. So that should be kept in mind. B) as everyone points out, testing positive is good evidence of being dirty, but not testing positive doesn't mean being clean. Everyone knows that the testing protocols can be beat. As they say, fail an in competition test, you've failed two tests -- Drugs and IQ.
2) Witness testimony is not hearsay. Hearsay is evidence from one person, which he/she got from another person. EYE-WITNESS TESTIMONY IS NOT HEARSAY. In the case of Lance, there is not one, but almost a dozen people who claim to have DIRECTLY OBSERVED doping or evidence of it. It's not just rumor. If we accept eyeball witness in murder cases, certainly we can in doping cases. Given how beatable drug tests have proved to be, I whole-heartedly support eye witness accounts for doping. Especially when there is not just one, not just two, but ten.
3) Lance was a doper among dopers and he won convincingly. Given the playing field, he was the best. I do not doubt he worked harder and raced with more guts than everyone out there. Nevertheless, one thing we will never know is if Lance would have been the best in a clean field. There is variation on how people respond to drugs, so perhaps there are dopers who are "low responders" who could have beat Lance clean. Vaughters explains this well in his piece on Cycling news (followup to the NYT piece). This is all besides the point, however, because all the top cyclists were doped.
4) If they take away his TDF wins, I don't think they should be handed down to anyone. It's comical how many people below him have already been busted. What's the point?
5) Lance's real moral failing is not doping. Everyone doped and if you wanted a shot, you had to dope. That's pretty clear. So I'll give him a pass on that. However, I think he has had a chance to come clean and thereby really help clean up the sport. Instead he has lied, lied, and lied. And not only has he lied quietly, he has lied loudly and without shame.
6) Giving up the fight right before all the real evidence is about to come out is pretty transparent. He plays the role of the persecuted and tired right before the witness testimony exposes his lies. I wonder how many of the witnesses will be called in the case against Dr. Ferrrari.