Lance Armstrong:The Witch Hunt Never Ends with Tyler Hamilton the Latest Accuser

It's a witch hunt worthy of Salem and reminiscent of McCarthyism at its worst.

Even in retirement, the constant stream of self-righteous accusers continue to pursue Lance Armstrong with their own irrefutable proof that the seven-time winner of the Tour de France is a doper.

In what must be a remarkable coincidence, all of these accusers seem to be either convicted dopers themselves seeking to atone for their sins or are writing a book or magazine article that would otherwise struggle for publicity.

After all, autobiographies of doping cyclists are hardly in short supply.

What better way to gain recognition could there be for has-beens suffering from relevance deprivation than to spout for with damning eyewitness accounts of Armstrong’s cheating ways?

The latest to do so is Armstrong’s former teammate, Tyler Hamilton, who claims to have seen EPO in Armstrong’s fridge in an interview for CBS' 60 Minutes program, which airs on Sunday, May 22.

Adding even more fuel to the fire, rumors abound that CBS will cite another longtime teammate, George Hincapie, of admitting to doping to the ongoing grand-jury investigation and has accused Armstrong of doing likewise.

If true, we may finally have some credible evidence. Hincapie has never been accused of anything, except by serial liar Floyd Landis, so if—and that’s still a big if, as Hincapie refused to comment—he has admitted personal wrongdoing, then that would be hard to ignore.

He brings a credibility that Hamilton, who denied the truth for years, could never have.

The fact remains, however, that Armstrong has only ever tested positive for a tiny amount of corticosteroid resulting from the use of a steroidal cream for saddle sores that was well below the acceptable limit. This is despite over 500 tests.

If Armstrong is a doper, he could make a fortune teaching people how to beat the tests.

Tyler Hamilton joins a couple of other dopers who have seen the light and are now avid campaigners against the use of performance enhancing drugs in Frankie Andreu and pathological liar Floyd Landis.

At least Andreu admitted his wrongdoing. Landis even wrote a book about how innocent he was and maintained the farce for four years before he finally admitted the truth and forced librarians the world over to move his book from the autobiography section to the fiction shelves.

Armstrong is, however, an experienced campaigner when it comes to dealing with doping allegations. French sports daily L’Equipe embarked on a decade-long crusade to discredit Armstrong, culminating in the 2005 allegation that he tested positive to EPO during the 1999 Tour de France.

The testing methodology was at best suspect and was described by the UCI’s official report as “so different from the analysis procedure required by WADA...it doesn't even qualify as a finding.”

Not that L’Equipe let that get in the way of their story.

The irony to all of this is that Armstrong is possibly the only rider who openly admits to having used EPO without failing a drug test, but he used it for what it was intended. While battling cancer, Armstrong needed the drug to boost his hematocrit levels to aid in his recovery.

He has one of the most compelling stories in sports. His battle with cancer, his near-death experience and his recovery to dominate cycling’s toughest test has an almost fairy-tale quality. The only problem is that, while everyone loves a fairy tale, no one really believes them.

Throughout his career, the allegations have come thick and fast, but none have been proven. It doesn’t take too much imagination to assume that they won’t stop anytime soon.

Who knows, one day proof may actually come to light. Until then, Armstrong’s entitled to the presumption of innocence.