Not Lance's Best Interview

Today, in Australia, commenting on Floyd Landis's return to the peloton, next month in California:

"Other people serve their time just like everybody else, and when their time is up they get to go back to work,” Armstrong said. “Sometimes I get frustrated when people will pooh-pooh his return, when you’re going to stand up and cheer when David Millar returns. It’s the same thing. There was a suspension, (now) get back on the bike and let’s race.

British cyclist Millar was banned from cycling for two years in 2004 after admitting to using EPO earlier in his career.

“There’s no point in criticizing (banned cyclist Ivan) Basso or criticizing Landis,” added Armstrong. “I mean, you’ve paid your penalty. That’s normally the way society works. Let’s forgive and forget and get on down the road.”

My buddy seems to forget, although of course he knows full well, that Millar has confessed to using doping and since that time has become a vocal supporter of a more credible anti-doping system in professional cycling. Landis, instead, has continued to deny doing anything wrong (although during a notorious telephone conversation with Greg LeMond August 2006 he implicitly acknowledged breaking the rules). And Basso? He is another Lance friend. Well, he did confess, but only to the intention of sometime, perhaps, using the blood he had stored in Spain with Dr. Fuentes of Operation Puerto fame. You can certainly believe this if you want--we live in the free world, as they say. Yes, Landis and Basso have served their time, so they're certainly entitled to a new beginning. But let's not pretend their situation--or the respect they now deserve--is identical to Millar's. The fact that Lance did just that today doesn't say good things about his new commitment to clean bike racing.