In regard to Armstrong's penalty, in my view, it is both fair and proportionate.
A few years ago I held the view that he almost certainly doped but that as pretty much everyone in the pro tour was also on the juice then it was a sort of level playing field.
I now hold a different view.
Drug taking for those at the top of the tree was an "almost" risk free decision. Forget about being caught, We now know that was risk free. The real risk was with the athletes health or indeed their life.
With access to the best doctors, monitoring equipment, and staff to assist, there was a very low risk of killing yourself using epo, testosterone etc etc. However, for those who were riding in the poorer teams or indeed trying to crack into the big time, and who had no such access to the best advice, it was a bit of a lottery when they doped. In 2003 - 04 alone there were seven young men who died, in all probability due to PED use.
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/39997062/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; There are of course the mothers and fathers, brothers, wives etc of those men who would no doubt continue to grieve.
What has this got to do with LA?
Clearly, he did not put the needle in their arm, nor did he push them to dope directly - as he is reported (but denied), doing to those in his team who rode with him.
No, what Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and all those involved with Tailwind Sports are guilty of, apart from the doping itself, is that they raised the bar so high, with their elaborate and highly sophisticated doping regime that others with less resources felt compelled to roll the dice with the hope of some how keeping up. Some of those others drew the short straw and ended up in an early grave.
LA with US Postal was the major force in road cycling for the a big chunk of the nineties and beyond. What they did, how the conducted themselves, had a major influence on the sport itself and on every other team on the tour.
They ramped it up to the max, others followed, some died. In my view LA deserves every minute of his life ban.