I never liked him, and I knew he was doping, along with a lot of others. He's just such an arrogant nob, who sadly should have been caught before he won all those Tours. I feel sorry for all his ex team-mates, and all the others that were involved with him. He deserves to go down in flames.
jeff
The thing about the whole Lance Armstrong case is that everyone put him on a pedestal and having it knocked out from under him when everyone found out "the truth".
Truth is that doping in cycling has existed since long before Lance and will long after. Over 50% of the tour de France top 10 finishers have been caught doping. The sport allows it. When people were riding 25mph nobody cared, they wanted 40mph riders... Well there's only one way to get those kind of riders. The only difference between Lance Armstrong and the majority of the peloton is that he won, and he got caught.
If Lance was racing a bunch of other dopers, and still won, shouldnt that still make him the winner? Lol.
Whoever thought Lance wasn't cheating is nuts, and you had no business expecting cycling to be such a pure sport... Or any sport where cheating has a benefit, because if it does, someone is going to cheat... Especially when millions of dollars are involved.
He's in a lot of trouble, and he's going to have many more questions to answer, lots of money to repay, and a life to rebuild. But put yourself in the shoes of a kid in the early 20's, touted as the American Messiah of cycling, aester aliasing what it takes to cut it in this sport. I'm not defending him, I'm just saying that it wasn't a 40 year old man who made the choice, it was possibly just some naive kid who got in over his head.
Truth is that doping in cycling has existed since long before Lance and will long after. Over 50% of the tour de France top 10 finishers have been caught doping. The sport allows it. When people were riding 25mph nobody cared, they wanted 40mph riders... Well there's only one way to get those kind of riders. The only difference between Lance Armstrong and the majority of the peloton is that he won, and he got caught.
If Lance was racing a bunch of other dopers, and still won, shouldnt that still make him the winner? Lol.
Whoever thought Lance wasn't cheating is nuts, and you had no business expecting cycling to be such a pure sport... Or any sport where cheating has a benefit, because if it does, someone is going to cheat... Especially when millions of dollars are involved.
He's in a lot of trouble, and he's going to have many more questions to answer, lots of money to repay, and a life to rebuild. But put yourself in the shoes of a kid in the early 20's, touted as the American Messiah of cycling, aester aliasing what it takes to cut it in this sport. I'm not defending him, I'm just saying that it wasn't a 40 year old man who made the choice, it was possibly just some naive kid who got in over his head.
I have known a couple people in the sport, and truer words could not be said. Doping in cycling is akin to shaving in swimming..
All the money he won he earned it. I would never allow my body to be treated in such a way - not for all the money in this world. Can't stand the sigh of blood, can't stand doctors and can't stand needles. The last doctor who tried to inject me a needle needed the help of two robust assistants.
You need two things in pro cycling , air in the tires and dope, this is personal and abusive , especially since he was never caught doping and kicked out like the rats who testified against him ...
+10
The guy beat cancer and then The worlds best dopers , this is so stupid and corrupt , where all these guys rode the guy coat tail and now this ...
7 best tours i have ever seen .....
Give them all the juice and let them loose or stop the sport since they cant effectively police it .
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Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong sued by Sunday Times for £1million to recoup libel payout | Mail Online
And a texan company who paid him $12 million for winning the TdFs is said to file papers this week.
And a texan company who paid him $12 million for winning the TdFs is said to file papers this week.
For me, this is just Hollywood. Saying that doping is cheating is no different to me than saying that breast implants in movie stars is cheating. Put your favorite bimbo on a pedestal and then find out she's completely fake. Someone will be disappointed. Of course, most of us are jaded by movie stars. So, the jading of sports heroes has begun... Thank God.
And, on the other hand, go back and watch movies from before the advent of plastic surgery. Notice the majority of women have what we would call "small" boobs. Of course, many of them wore corsets to get that wasp waist, but hey, they did what they could to look beautiful.
this was on the most read sport paper in France..
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I think it's time to change the title of this thread. Calling this guy a hero is an insult to the history of the competition and the ones who struggled on the Galibier (try driving up on the 3rd, or even 2nd gear!!) without drugs.
Obviously, mass media and $$$$ are the main cause for the Tour becoming a "show" and not only a sport event, pushing the need for drugs in. Do you want to see cyclists or gladiators on bikes?
BTW, I think one of the most challenging Tour would be Tour of Norway, I did 3000km there 10 years ago. Well, although amazingly beautiful, never again thanks!
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I think it's time to change the title of this thread. Calling this guy a hero is an insult to the history of the competition and the ones who struggled on the Galibier (try driving up on the 3rd, or even 2nd gear!!) without drugs.
Obviously, mass media and $$$$ are the main cause for the Tour becoming a "show" and not only a sport event, pushing the need for drugs in. Do you want to see cyclists or gladiators on bikes?
BTW, I think one of the most challenging Tour would be Tour of Norway, I did 3000km there 10 years ago. Well, although amazingly beautiful, never again thanks!
there are a lot of people with a desperate need for heroes, I think those actually want gladiators on bikes.Obviously, mass media and $$$$ are the main cause for the Tour becoming a "show" and not only a sport event, pushing the need for drugs in. Do you want to see cyclists or gladiators on bikes?
\this was on the most read sport paper in France..
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I think it's time to change the title of this thread. Calling this guy a hero is an insult to the history of the competition and the ones who struggled on the Galibier (try driving up on the 3rd, or even 2nd gear!!) without drugs.
Obviously, mass media and $$$$ are the main cause for the Tour becoming a "show" and not only a sport event, pushing the need for drugs in. Do you want to see cyclists or gladiators on bikes?
BTW, I think one of the most challenging Tour would be Tour of Norway, I did 3000km there 10 years ago. Well, although amazingly beautiful, never again thanks!
Please take your time and name the ones who struggled without taking drugs in the tour, err, I will give you 10 yrs to respond, so take your time and you can go back as far as Merckx ...
Only if their contract stipulates he had to be drug free when winning and the statute of limitations is 5 yrs from 2005 ....
So good luck on that ....
so what's this about in the end?
a hero still being a hero? a hero needs to be real, otherwise just pick one from any Bruce Willis movie. that's the whole point of having a role model/hero/whatever you wanna call it, to look up to someone who was able to do it on his/her own and hope you can do it too. I can't see how anyone can still look up to him.
a hero still being a hero? a hero needs to be real, otherwise just pick one from any Bruce Willis movie. that's the whole point of having a role model/hero/whatever you wanna call it, to look up to someone who was able to do it on his/her own and hope you can do it too. I can't see how anyone can still look up to him.
Well, I'm no Lance Armstrong apologist, and I'm disappointed in him - more for taking so long to admit doping than for actually doing it (which is also disappointing). But c'mon:
Finally, all the vituperation aimed at LA is just plain misplaced. Be pissed at him, sure, but be pissed at ALL dopers equally, recognize that your favorite athletes of most sports probably are doping, and keep your anger at LA in it's place.
Exactly. By all accounts (mostly annecdotal, but that's changing) virtually all TDF cyclists (and many others) dope. Almost certainly those at the top do. So it's a level (if illegal and immoral) playing field, and he still won 7 times. That still puts him at the top of the heap. Add to that the cancer factor and his accomplishments remain pretty incredible (whether or not the cancer was caused by doping - it's still a difficult thing to recover from). I think he still deserves some recognition for that. And is it cheating if it is virtually universally accepted AND tacitly approved by the authorities? How many of us have "cheated" by using illegal substances, by hiding our sales of audio equipment from IRS, etc. etc.? Let him who is without guilt cast the first stone.
This is one thing that really burns me. I mean, his sponsors made TONS of money using his name, and now they want more by suing him? Pot calling the kettle black. The slow unveiling of Armstrong's doping has given sponsors plenty of time to pull the plug gracefully and protect themselves from consumer backlash, so I am highly skeptical that any of them suffered any loss due to his sponsorships. They made a killing sponsoring him, so take the money and be happy about that.
Finally, all the vituperation aimed at LA is just plain misplaced. Be pissed at him, sure, but be pissed at ALL dopers equally, recognize that your favorite athletes of most sports probably are doping, and keep your anger at LA in it's place.
if I were to be really cynical, I'd say that I really don't get the cancer thing. what does it have to do with all this? he's a statistic. ok, he had a strong gene and he followed a treatment and (probably most important) got lucky. how does this change anything at all? separate issues.
imagine this wasn't about entertaining (this is what pro sports are to us, right?) but something serious like killing, stealing money from people or whatnot. it'd suddenly change perspectives.
imagine this wasn't about entertaining (this is what pro sports are to us, right?) but something serious like killing, stealing money from people or whatnot. it'd suddenly change perspectives.
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Have you been through cancer treatment mr_push_pull? Felt the ravages of chemo and radiation and had to recover from them? Do you have any idea what it does to your muscle structure and physical conditioning? I don't know much about what LA experienced, how it was treated, etc.. But a separate issue? I think not.
One summer I did Amsterdam - Warsaw on a bicycle. A Dutch bicycle without gears. It wasn't planned, I just felt like going for a ride but ended up in Warsaw. Average was 60km daily. I had some LSD with me but I didn't feel like taking it. I was just feeling trippy with the excellent weather and the exercise, no need to overdose. One day I was close to Hamburg but not close enough, 40 km left and was feeling pretty tired so I thought no way to get there before dark. That's when I remembered my LSD stash. Well, it was a terrible mistake because I got there alright on time but couldn't stop and did an extra 150 km....yeah it was all dark by then but didn't matter....I just had to keep going, glorious pedaling rhythm.....my internal chemistry was on a roll.....I even thought of getting to Berlin without stopping. That's what drugs can do for you.
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