Of the 25 surviving Tour de France champions, 12 say Lance Armstrong should be given back his seven titles. As this year’s race is underway, a survey was conducted and published by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. Ferdi Kubler and Roger Walkowiak were the only two who did not respond.

“Armstrong should stay on that list,” said Stephen Roche, who won the Tour in 1987, according to The Telegraph. “In the 100-year history of the race you can’t not have a winner for seven years. Doping has been part of sport, not only for cycling, for decades. Who tells me Jacques Anquetil won clean? Should we take his victories away? Or why does Richard Virenque get to keep his polka dot jerseys?”

After years of denial, Armstrong was finally issued a lifetime ban from any sport that abides by the World Anti-Doping Agency as well as stripped of his Tour de France titles, at which point he confessed.

In general, those who believed he should be allowed to retain the titles were older athletes such as Felice Gimondi, Federico Bahamontes, Jan Janssen, and Joop Zoetemelk. As for the younger winners, only Andy Schleck and Oscar Pereiro thought Armstrong should be able to keep the titles. Other younger riders, such as Chris Froome, Sir Bradley Wiggins, and Cadel Evans, disagreed. “Those seven empty places symbolize an era,” said Froome, according to The Telegraph. “We should leave it like it is.”

Image courtesy of de:Benutzer:Hase on Wikimedia Commons