crazy talk, right? ha! lemond claims he had to retire because he couldn't keep up with those that started doping in the early 90s. that, unfortunately, doesn't explain how he previously blew away those that we know know were doping earlier. not to mention his miraculous anemia recovery, in a matter of weeks, from 'b12' shots...
Yes, I noted that many posts ago, but overall, his up and down career, like Stephan Roche, is probably how the human body does react to competitive stress over years. Good year, bad years. On another note, SRAM dumped Lance today. Oakley is the only holdout. Rumors have it Lance is giving a speech tomorrow. What a soap opera.
Not sure if this was posted before. Pretty silly to read now. It's an internal PowerPoint presentation put together by TREK when they dumped LeMond, supposedly for "business reasons" that had nothing to do with his comments about Armstrong to the media. Now that the TREK/Lance love affair is over, perhaps it's time for them to apologize to LeMond for giving him grief about his comments. http://inrng.com/medias/docs/Trek_PPT_FINAL.pdf
Perhaps they do, perhaps they don't. I would like to think so. I wanted to believe Lance in the first few tours, but he seemed too over the top consistent. I didn't stop watching the tour, but really focused on just looking at the scenario from the helicopter shots after 03 or so.
I think LA will be speaking at the 15th anniversary of livestrong tonight but I doubt he'll talk about USADA/confess.
Big news of the consequences of a corrupt UCI. http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/10/news/rabobank-pulls-sponsorship-team-vows-to-continue_261940
UCI pulls his titles.. he deserves it, but the UCI is still a bunch of crooks an cheats...the entire sport is dirty.
Going to be a long cold winter in professional cycling. It's a shame, and I don't blame the athletes. I believe they were all doping - almost all anyway. Too bad regulators weren't quick enough afoot to run a fair race when the race was being run. Now that justice is here there are no winners.
Yup. The whole thing is dirtier than week old boxers It started out as a witch hunt and went downhill from there. I think he deserves to keep the medals. When he said he was tired of fighting it I think he realized that it didn't matter what he did - they would still assume him guilty. The fact is that none of his samples ever showed positive. Ever. I presume they were kept and have been tested again? If not then the agency is negligent and should not contest it. If they did retest it why continue this? It's all mute. Now the French can go back to claiming they can ride a bike better than anybody. Reality be damned.
Read the report. Sobering. The positives were covered up and lied about. People were threatened and bribed. It aint just about the doping, but about all the lies, coverups and bullying. Lessee, Betsy Andreu was threatened, said she should have a baseball bat smashed over her head for outing Lance. Greg Lemond was forced to apologize for publicly stating dismay that Lance was working with Dr. Ferrari. Trek then drops Lemond bikes, costing Greg 35 million. A rider is offered 300,000 by Lance to say Greg doped, rider wouldn't do it. Three lines there, and there's more. Where theres smoke, there's fire.
Yup. Other riders have doped and rightly deserve our contempt but Armstrong was just a bullying doping cunt who even now, can't admit to what he's done.
Lance made a critical mistake. He really thought he could get away with it. In retrospect, he did not have any results short of a stage win prior to his cancer. He was probably doped for that win as well. He should never have doped, and with his post cancer strength to weight ratio, would have probably got top ten in the Tour. He could have been still looked at as a demi god, I mean, no cancer survivor comes back to even race the Tour. Then, to get his aggression out, he could have started a dog fight ring, consisting of only lap dogs, like poodles, yorkies, etc. they would wear yellow rubber collars that said "dog strong". He would have made a lot of money, the French like underdogs and they would pay to see little poodles try to rip the yellow collars off the other little poodles. When busted, he would not have lost any endorsements or any results, I mean, what he did was not in his sport. He would have been lauded for sticking up for the little dogs, and more popular than ever.
I wanted to believe he was clean for years, but had doubts. Now the countdown has started for real to the day he comes clean, and admits he doped...
Hmmmm, did you get a preview of the Report???? The whole thing is pretty disappointing, I remember back in late '80s or early '90s reading about him when he was the Texas Jr. Champ and the name stuck so I kept an eye out for it. Zip ahead to '04 Tour and I'm in Iraq and explaining to my team how the Stage Races work and how important team work is etc. they're all hooked because it gives us a glimmer of pride and glory from a pretty lousy place. I'm not planning on contacting them to ask if they're tracking all this, I'd rather they keep the memories of us cheering for him in the Chow Hall after a hot and shitty day outside the wire....