It now seems beyond reasonable doubt that the great American cyclist and seven times winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, is not so great after all and, if the evidence revealed this week by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is true, he is no more than a liar and a cheat.

Like many people, I find the whole episode quite astounding though, for me, the overwhelming emotion is one of disappointment followed by sadness. Here was a man who, defeating the curse of cancer, went on to become one of the greatest cyclists of all time. A man who, when he wasn’t racing, devoted much of his time to charitable causes. How on earth can he have turned out to be a fraud? 

Here was a man admired and respected by the world of sport and beyond. He was a hero to many and maybe that is why the USADA revelations, that he regularly took performance-enhancing drugs in his successful quests for glory, are so shocking. The fact that he was held in such high esteem has meant that his fall from grace has been that much more dramatic. He had longer to fall but fall he has and the rest of us mere mortals can only shake our heads in wonder. 

Sport must learn from this and so must we all. There is a lot of good in the world of sport but there is clearly a lot that is not so good. Whatever your views on the man, one thing should be a given, there can never be a place for cheats in any sport, nor in life for that matter.