He inspired countless cancer patients.
He founded Livestrong. I think the organization does good things, although maybe not as much as the
PR suggests.
Lance Armstrong and Livestrong | Lance Armstrong | OutsideOnline.com
He provided excitement to a generation of cycling fans. I still think the videos of Lance's great TdF rides are thrilling, even though I know they are the product of dopage. Kind of like the last years of Can-Am which was just a parade of 917/K30s, or a woman with a platinum wig, pneumatic breasts and gel-filled lips.
He helped revive the popularity of road cycling in the US. Remember when road bikes were practically going away?
He tainted an entire generation of American cycle racers. With only a few exceptions like Chris Horner, almost
every top-level American road racer of that era has been exposed as a long-time, systematic doper. That doping was both compelled by and enabled by Lance. We think of the Spanish as notorious dopers, but on the hard evidence, we were the dirtiest country of all.
He quashed the careers of talented competitors who could have won, but not for the unstoppable train of doping riders. Admittedly he had plenty of company here. But think of the promising young riders who labored for their whole careers and retired, legs and youth spent, with nary a result at the top level, because the top 10 or 15 spots were filled with cheaters.
He hurt people who tried to stop doping in cycling, from Greg LeMond, a real hero whom Lance tried to destroy, to journalists who tried to report the truth. He did so while lying blatantly, deliberately, and pathologically.
He has hurt the sport of cycling, badly, and it continues to hurt. Again, he's not the only doper to harm cycling as a sport, but he's the biggest one.
In the end, it is complicated. I've realized that from the earliest threads on Lance and the USADA. To me, it is black and white that he be stripped of his wins. Whether he should be erased from the history of cycling and thrown down into the eight circle of the inferno, is unclear.