If you haven’t heard yet, Lance Armstrong has given up on fighting the US Anti-Doping Agency. He’s throwing in the towel.

I don’t really have a dog in the fight. I’m never cared much for competitive cycling. But it really does seem horrendous and un-American to me that a quasi-government agency, mostly funded by the government, gets to pretend it is not a part of the government and throw out due process to harass an athlete after he’s largely left the sport and all prior investigations turned up in his favor.

The USADA has gone back decades to reinvestigate doping allegations against Armstrong who is probably the most tested athlete in history. He’s surrendered blood and urine and everything else they’ve asked for over and over at frequently unannounced visits and somehow, if you believe the USADA, beaten them every time.

Or . . . he wasn’t doping.

There’s a lot of jealousy in the world. I don’t know whether Armstrong cheated or it is all jealousy. But he tested clean every time and the USADA has ignored its own statute of limitations to make an example of Armstrong.

The horror stories of professional athletes and the abuse they suffer at the hands of anti-doping bureaucrats can boggle the mind. There’s something very much of the feel of a witch hunt to this. If Armstrong was doping, then by God take away his awards and give him a medal for being the smartest damn athlete on the planet.

You can read Lance Armstrong’s statement here. Again, I’ve got no dog in the fight and I haven’t much cared for Lance Armstrong since he left his family for Sheryl “one piece of toilet paper” Crowe. But objectively, it seems the investigation of the USADA amounts to holding Armstrong under water until he dies to declare him human or, should he survive, burning him at the stake for being a witch. In the process they’ve taken a sport made relevant by Lance Armstrong and put the whole thing under a cloud of suspicion that the anti-doping bureaucrats’ tests can’t even beat Lance Armstrong.

Michael Phelps better watch his back with this as precedent.

Exit point: if we’re going to go through this witch hunt every time an athlete gets too famous, maybe we should just let them dope and then, on the same competitive level, see who is best.