No one could deny the guy's record or his stature in the sport, it was how he came by that record and stature that was the gnawing issue.

The talk that he got some part of the way there via weird science was something he could not adequately silence.

So it was no surprise to anyone that Armstrong made such a big point in announcing his comeback that he would subject himself to, and make the results available of, the most rigorous doping tests available to mankind; albeit so long as the person doing the tests was approved by Armstrong.

The man he chose for that task was Don Catlin, the Californian scientist famous for developing a test for tetrahydrogestrinone, the drug of choice for the disgraced sprinter Marion Jones.

All hunky dory, at least on the surface.

Former three-time Tour winner and fellow American rider Greg Lemond made a telling quote last week, though, when he said Armstrong's return was "not good news… it's like a nightmare, that we have lived through all these years, returning".

Not exactly what Armstrong would have wanted to hear, especially from one of his own, but Lemond was dead right.

Armstrong's set himself up for a big fall and actually done the Tour itself a massive disservice.

This is a race that has been assiduously trying to clean up its tarnished image; to try to ensure (even if quixotically) doping is never mentioned in reports of the event.

Of course it's done that with mixed success - 2008 wasn't exactly drug-scandal free - though it was a massive improvement on years past and notable for the fact that (so far at least) the eventual winner wasn't revealed to be as high as a kite for those 20-something days in July.

But just by declaring his intention to return to the Tour, Armstrong has guaranteed drugs will be the talking point of the race from now until well after it finishes in Paris on July 21, 2009.

And already his "clean routine" has been shown up for being a hollow charade.

The French Anti-Doping Authority (AFLD) took Armstrong's offer to be tested at face value and said they would happy to retest the urine samples that were taken from Armstrong during the 1999 Tour de France; the very same samples that the French paper L'Equipe alleged in 2005 showed traces of erythropoietin or EPO.

Armstrong's retort then was that the samples were tainted or compromised and he's sticking to his story.

Said Armstrong: "In 2005, some research was conducted on urine samples left over from the 1998 and 1999 Tours de France. That research was the subject of an independent investigation, and the conclusions of the investigation were that the 1998 and 1999 Tour de France samples have not been maintained properly, have been compromised in many ways, and even three years ago could not be tested to provide any meaningful results. There is simply nothing that I can agree to that would provide any relevant evidence about 1999."

Pierre Bordry, the chief of the AFLD, a one-time supporter of Armstrong, was unimpressed: "It would have been very good for him. But he doesn't want to do it and that's his problem."

His problem indeed. And of his own making.

It's now a laydown misere that the numbers 1,9,9 and 9 will dog Armstrong from the start to the finish of the 2009 race. It's the elephant in the peloton.

Armstrong can well hold on to his conviction that the samples held in the French National Anti-Doping labs at Châtenay-Malabry are suss, but good science - vetted by the French, by the Americans, by Dr Bunsen Honeydew from the Muppets, everyone - could clearly have settled that issue once and for all.

Just as the tests could have proven Armstrong did take EPO, they could have proven he didn't take them at all.

So while Armstrong's camp claim the samples are worthless, Bordry holds a markedly different view: "They have been kept in good condition and we have enough quantity to [test them]. Everything is correct."

Armstrong might conceivably have a lot to lose in agreeing to the tests, but cycling itself stands to lose a lot more the longer he holds out against the inevitable.

:: For more Fink musings on the big issues in football, check out Half-time Orange on The World Game.