Is nobody talking about Lance Armstrong?

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  • EKGO wrote (see)

    So (playing devils advocate) why would you be an also-ran average earner/competitor when you can cheat?

    Because the odds are, (and have been, for the last 10 years or so) that you'd be caught and banned before you 'won' anything like what Armstrong did.  Despite him, Contador, Virenque (the French still hero worship him without a trace of irony), there are a lot of others who got caught and faded into obscurity.  Ricardo Ricco, anyone?  Raimondas Rumsas?

    Whether riders consider that risk against the 'reward', alongside the moral dilemma of knowing they're a cheat is I guess something only they can answer.  Lance said that he didn't consider it cheating so he presumably only had to consider the risk of getting caught and as he demonstrated he was good at not being caught.

  • I'm listening to the Bespoke podcast about Lance and watched the interview. I am saddened by what has happened, I believed in him and the Postal team and just don't know if cycling will be the same again. I've been hooked since Stephen Roche's win and was happy to see Cav win yesterday.

    Anyway had my stimultants (strong coffee) and now heading out for a run.

  • Yes there is the chance to be caught, always, but he is a wealthy man, and very likely after films and books etc he will still be considerably richer than for example Bradley Wiggins will ever be.

    I'd like to add, that persoanlly I would like to him lose more than just respect, medals and sponsorships, but it doesn't seem to happen.

    Another hypothetical one, if I was the first clean rider home in any of his TDF wins, could I not make a legal claim that his cheating (now fully admitted) had cost me my similar status and wealth?

  • Now caught up with the interviews.

    He displayed absolutely no remorse during the interview and some of his answers which tried to place the blame elsewhere saying "I'm flawed" (or the answers he gave that could roughly translated as "cancer made me cheat", "the fans made me cheat", "the media made me cheat").

    The only thing he seemed remotely sorry about was his comeback, and that's because he blames that for being the straw that broke the camel's back and made Landis go ahead with the whistleblowing.

    The worst thing was listening to him saying that he wanted to help clean up cycling! After not only cheating himself but pushing clean riders out of the sport! Who does he think he is, Frank Abagnale?!  Cycling is already trying to clean itself up without help from Armstrong. We've got a clean TdF winner - Bradley Wiggins, who threw his team jersey in an airport bin rather than be associated with a team that was involved in doping. We've got a team like Sky who aren't afraid to cut ties with people previously associated with doping. We do not need Lance Armstrong to worm his way back into the sport on his quest for another fat payday from Nike.

  • EKGO wrote (see)

    Yes there is the chance to be caught, always, but he is a wealthy man, and very likely after films and books etc he will still be considerably richer than for example Bradley Wiggins will ever be.

    I'd like to add, that persoanlly I would like to him lose more than just respect, medals and sponsorships, but it doesn't seem to happen.

    Another hypothetical one, if I was the first clean rider home in any of his TDF wins, could I not make a legal claim that his cheating (now fully admitted) had cost me my similar status and wealth?

    I'm not sure that a legal claim like that would actually succeed, but I'd love to see them try it just so they could make Armstrong squirm even more! Maybe even a class action lawsuit of all the clean riders at the time of LA's wins. People bring more ridiculous cases than that all the time.

  • Does anybody think that he was being honest at any stage of the interview, particularly towards the end when he was talking about having to tell his son ? Do you think the 'distress' he appeared to be in was genuine ? Any sympathy at all for him ?
  • No sympathy at all.  He may have had a moment of genuine emotion, but he was willing to put even his family up there to garner public support.  He also lied about his prognosis (85%, not 50/50). Yuck. 

  • No sympathy. If anything I have even less sympathy for him now than I did before seeing the interviews, he seemed incredibly cold, calculating and dispassionate, even when talking about the people whose lives he destroyed like Emma O'Reilly and the Andreus. Considering how stage-managed the whole interview was, he should have taken some acting lessons and learned how to dredge up a few tears.

  • ...well - at least he finally had the ball to come clean image

  • gfb - like I said before, he's just trying to get back into racing by showing willing to  "help" the USADA with names and methods etc. so they will reduce his lifetime ban from sport. Don't waste your time thinking he did this for any other reason.

    (edited for typo)

  • gingerfurball wrote (see)

    ...well - at least he finally had the ball to come clean image

    Erm............BI, I'm thinking you may have missed the joke!

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    And if Lance Armstrong had met the author.

    /members/images/493151/Gallery/bastards5_0.png

     

    🙂

  • Nursey - no I didn't, I just chose to ignore it.

  • BarklesBarkles ✭✭✭

    I bought on of his books - its not about the bike. Where do I go for the refund?

  • But it isn't about the bike, it's all about the dope
  • BarklesBarkles ✭✭✭

    Well the dope can fork out my four pound-odd! image

  • Bionic Ironwolf wrote (see)

    gfb - like I said before, he's just trying to get back into racing by showing willing to  "help" the USADA with names and methods etc. so they will reduce his lifetime ban from sport. Don't waste your time thinking he did this for any other reason.

    (edited for typo)

    Bionic IronWolf - I was just having a wee joke - image

  • Barkles wrote (see)

    I bought on of his books - its not about the bike. Where do I go for the refund?

    If you move to California you can join the class action:

    http://road.cc/content/news/74646-class-action-launched-california-buyers-lance-armstrongs-autobiography

  • I am just really disappointed as I have been a big tour fan since the days of Stephen Roach and Sean Kelly... I really wanted to believe him. I watched the interview and I think he is still lying and only doing it so he can compete again.

    I bought all his books and feel really cheated as I was foolish enough to support him and argue his corner.

    No more he is despicable.image

     

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Race again! 

    I'm surprised he thinks he can just turn up and join in.

    After all, he has to be allowed to enter a race.

    And then, the other competitors can refuse to start until he buggers off.

    🙂

  • No, he can't just join in - but the point is, if he makes use of the USADA clause that says a ban may be reduced or revoked if a person "actively participates" in assisting them with details, names, dates etc. then he may be allowed to race again. I just hope justice will prevail and his transgressions are seen to be so egregious that even a very detailed account of all the doping that went on won't be enough  to change his ban.

  • A disturbing new twist!

     

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BCMi8P0CYAAVA7i.jpg

     

  • Cheat, LIFE Ban  Ful stop.

    People have always cheated in cycling I was just doing the same.

    Blimey - there have always been murderers but doesn't mean I should go out and kill my neighbour.

    No worse than the East German 80's drugs approach. Er well actually I don't see a lot of difference.

    Ok so East Germany was communist and did it for State reasons. USA is capitalist and does it for money. East Germans didn;t always know what was going on and if they did were forced into drug taking by coaches, state machine. Lance Armstrong knew exactly what he was doing and bullied others.

    Note I said USA above rather than Lance Armstrong.

    The good thing about this is that USDA took him down because up until now with Armstrong in cycling, Balco in Athletics and a number of other areas, the USA is looking like the new Drugs cheat country in the world and needs to clean up rather than going to WADA and complaining about the BOA life ban.

     

     

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Lance Armstrong.

    Wasn't he somebody once?

    🙂

  • "People have always cheated in cycling I was just doing the same."

    well you should be ashamed of yourself then!

  • So he's now been given two weeks to come up with the dirty and then the USADA will reduce his ban - point proven!

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