Barry Gibson: Who cares if Lance Armstrong was doped to the eyeballs during his Tour de France wins?

I’M delighted, as I’m sure everyone reading this is, that the Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire.

We already knew that the great race was coming to God’s Own County. But last week we found out the route, discovering that the tour is not just coming to Yorkshire, but to West Yorkshire. And not just to West Yorkshire, but to Huddersfield.

OK, it would have been nice if the French had included the Colne Valley on the itinerary, but I’m getting picky now. I’ll make the journey over to the Holme Valley next year for the special occasion.

And what a special occasion it will be. I didn’t realise until last week’s announcement, that the Tour de France is the world’s largest annual sporting event – bigger than any football final, tennis tournament or rugby rumpus.

Well done to everyone who helped bring this massive jamboree to Yorkshire – what a great opportunity it will be to show off the stunning landscape of God’s Own County to the world.

The victory was given added sweetness by the knowledge that Yorkshire won, not because of the Government, but in spite of it.

Apparently the chair-moisteners in Whitehall wanted the French to kick-off 2014’s race in Edinburgh to give the “please don’t leave” campaign a boost in the run-up to next year’s independence referendum.

How Nick Clegg could allow his ‘home city’ of Sheffield and the rest of Yorkshire to be snubbed in this way is beyond me.

But despite official opposition, Yorkshire succeeded in winning the Gallic heart.

A shared suspicion of the letter ‘h’ probably sealed the deal (think how a Tyke pronounces the word ‘hotel’, then think how a French person says the same word).

I am quite surprised at just how pleased I feel that our part of the world is getting a taste of the Tour de France, because I’m no fan of cycling, either as sport or pastime.

As a sport, I just don’t get it in the same way that I just don’t get any racing event. One competitor goes a little faster than everyone else. If you haven’t got money riding on the outcome, who cares who’s riding on the bikes?

As a pastime, cycling hasn’t interested me since I started big school more than 20 years ago. I prefer to take in the beautiful landscape of Yorkshire at a leisurely pace on two feet rather than rushing through it on two wheels.

And some cyclists aren’t exactly great diplomats for their chosen pastime. I know most bike riders are model citizens, so I’m sure they share my annoyance with the two-wheeled terrors who act as though any surface, whether road or track, belongs to them.

I hate those indignant bell rings which interrupt many a towpath ramble as some would-be Bradley Wiggins demands I leap aside to let them whizz past.

The fact it’s called a footpath rather than a wheelpath should give them some indication as to who should have precedence.

But I’ll put all these quibbles to one side for a day to cheer the Tour de France hopefuls as they whoosh past Huddersfield.

One man who is unlikely to be in that lycra-clad pack next year is seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, who admitted last week to taking performance-enhancing drugs to achieve his extraordinary string of victories.

Many people are indignant about the American’s serial cheating but I’m not sure what the fuss is about.

It’s not as if bingeing on EPO in the run-up to the races turned Armstrong into a superman.

He still had to drag his exhausted body up and down all those mountains for days on end, showing a level of endurance and determination that most of us can’t even comprehend.

The drugs only enhanced his performance, they didn’t create it.

And it’s not as though doping gave Armstrong a huge advantage over his competitors – some of whom, we now know, were also up to their eyeballs in banned substances.

Until someone invents a drug so powerful that it allows Ann Widdecombe to win the tour with her arms folded, I don’t see how widespread doping undermines the event.

Let’s be honest, when we line the streets and hillsides of Huddersfield next year to watch the Tour de France go past, we’ll be there for the spectacle. We’ll be there to see dozens of super-fit athletes begin an epic battle for supremacy.

Who cares if one or two – or 10 or 20 – of them spent the previous month mainlining some banned substance or other?

There’s no need to get worked up about it. After all, it’s only cycling.