# Explain to me why Armstrong's wins don't get reallocated
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [October 27, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994 "2012-10-27T01:34:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/1 "2012-10-27T01:34:13Z")
All I get from [this BBC article](http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20103406) is that the riders will understand. What will they understand? Why is it better not to reallocate wins? Why not say that the runner up was the real winner now, instead of saying there was no Winner for the Tour de France during those times when Armstrong apparently won?
I’d always assumed before that, when something like this happens, it was some logistics thing, but, according the article, that’s not the case. It claims it’s something about “honour.” But how in the world is it honorable to not recognize the fact that these were the fastest people who didn’t cheat, and thus the actual winners?
The only thing that makes sense to me is that they suspect these riders didn’t ride clean, either. Either that, or it is about logistics, but they are too chicken to say so.
Then again, how would it even affect the logistics? What would changing the first runner up to the winner do that would cause problems?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/2 "2012-10-27T01:40:03Z")
Because it’s likely that they all(or at least the majority) cheated. Even the backmarkers are among the best cyclists on the planet. If the race winner had to dope to stay ahead of his main challengers, the only way for the others to stay up is to also dope.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/3 "2012-10-27T01:49:16Z")
20 of the top 21 riders have been implicated in using PEDs. There are essentially no untainted riders.
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/4 "2012-10-27T01:49:20Z")
Did Joe Paterno’s wins go to other teams?
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/5 "2012-10-27T02:25:11Z")
That would be kinda awesome to have come in dead last multiple times and then win because every other rider had cheated.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/6 "2012-10-27T03:19:42Z")
It will also be interesting to see if some cyclists’ performance starts to drop drastically over the next few seasons…
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### Author:  [@BuzzSaw101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuzzSaw101)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/7 "2012-10-27T04:16:32Z")
I have watched a lot of cycling over the years and I think the majority of the riders are clean now. They actually seem to get tired during a three-week race and there isn’t nearly as many crazy attacks going up mountains.
I also think it’s silly to strip Armstrong of the Tour de France titles. I watched him win with my own eyes and everyone was cheating. I personally don’t mind that they doped. I think it was more exciting to watch when they were doping. This year’s Tour de France was quite boring.
Hell, cyclists have always cheated in the Tours. Back in the 1920s, they would use strychnine, cocaine and chloroform.
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/8 "2012-10-27T05:21:10Z")
A glance at several of the runners up shows that many of them were also implicated.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/9 "2012-10-27T05:46:56Z")
Is it too late for me to enter the 1998 Tour? If all the other riders get disqualified, I could still win.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/10 "2012-10-27T20:24:27Z")
Sorry, our latest tests on you came back positive for machine oil. Admit it, **Robot Arm** , you’ve been greasing.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/11 "2012-10-27T21:32:36Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> It will also be interesting to see if some cyclists’ performance starts to drop drastically over the next few seasons…
The overall performance of the cyclists has dropped in recent years.
> **[Tour cleans up with a slower peloton › News in Science (ABC Science)](https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/06/3539817.htm)**
>
> Blood tests collected over the past decade show the Tour de France peloton is actually getting cleaner.
> [@](#):
>
> “We are to a point where climbing rates by the winners and the top 50 riders are similar to what they were in the mid-1980s, which was a time before EPO had been invented,” Vaughters says.
>
> “The winning time of Alpe d’Huez (a steep, 14.5-kilometre climb in the French Alps) last year would have gotten 40th place in 2001.”
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/12 "2012-11-02T17:16:09Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> 20 of the top 21 riders have been implicated in using PEDs. There are essentially no untainted riders.
Okay, thanks. That makes a lot of sense. And that explains the honor comment, as well.
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### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2012, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/13 "2012-11-14T12:49:22Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> 20 of the top 21 riders have been implicated in using PEDs. There are essentially no untainted riders.
What about the person who hasn’t been implicated?
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-why-armstrongs-wins-dont-get-reallocated/638994/14 "2012-11-14T13:32:59Z")
She’s too busy having a baby.