I have to get on my bike and ride over to Breckenridge to met up with Trudi and watch the start of the Pro Challenge stage right now, so am pretty short of time. But, obviously, the “Lance News” is the biggest news of the today.
I obviously have no first hand experience to whether Lance doped other than personal observations racing against him. That was enough for me to make a decision. But, when Floyd came out and spelled his guts to the press a couple years ago, right before the Tour of California, and Lance responded, I knew Floyd’s statements were true. I watched Lance do an interview with Johan standing by his side, responding to Floyd’s accusations. He said something like, “This isn’t new to us. (He always talks in plurals.) We’ve know about this since day one. Floyd called me as soon as he got the positive test back.”
I knew from Floyd, and through the media, that Floyd and Lance weren’t friends. That they didn’t really get along at all. I thought, “Why would Floyd call Lance first?” The only answer I could come up with that made sense was that Floyd knew that Lance was involved deeply with his doping and that he had ties that could help him “get rid of the problem”. I also though, “This is the reason that lawyers don’t let their clients make any statements.” It sounded so innocent, but told so much.
Anyway, I feel badly that this saga ended this way. You should click here and go see what Anna Zimmerman wrote about the end result. I agree with most everything she has written.
The one upside to this is that we can now put it to rest and go on with doing what we enjoy, which is just riding, and sometimes racing our bicycles.
Guess we’re going to have to wait until Lance’s birthday, September 18th, to get Tyler’s full disclosure on this saga. These 3 have had a pretty strange relationship.
Nice shot of Curly, Larry and Moe.
OUCH is right
Anna said “Since when do we excuse liars and cheats just because we like their charity work?” Do people not remember Bill Clinton? He cheated on his wife more than once, lied to us (“I did not have sex with her – No she gave you a hummer!) And he got away with it. Whitewater? Hello! Why is Lance this huge target? He is no saint, but does good deeds. He may have doped but we don’t know. Probably did, but probably 95% of his competition did too so what does this prove? He didn’t want to spend another $1 million defending himself AGAIN? And for what? So another suit can come up in another year from someone trying to make a name for themselves trying to take down Lance?
Sales for the Hamilton book will surely be bolstered by this. I think this is the only play LA had to keep the lie in tact.
Keep in mind that not only has it cost Armstrong a lot of money defending himself in the past and would continue to do so in the future, the guys that work for the USADA are getting paid for this, they have a basic financial interest in continuing this investigation, win or lose. The idea that government and quasi-government entities have only altruistic interests is truly naive.
Nah. This is the end game. this is where the outcome has become inevitable, and LA has conceded defeat, rather than let it play out to a definative conclusion. He lost, he knew it. truth will be out soon.
Jpete, you have hit the target, my friend. Bingo.
Scott don’t forget WMD’s. Cheat or be cheated in those years.
Lance Armstrong perpetrated the largest fraud in sporting history, period. 7 years, 7 TdF’s, Livestrong, millions of fans, $millions earned, $millions donated – all based on lies, deceit, coverups, and collusion. The impact of what he has done to cycling, indeed to all of professional sports, is only beginning to be felt. This ain’t over yet, not by a long shot. Indeed, truth will out – and there’s a lot more truth left in this tale.
Big Mess. all that evidence that may never be made public. Lance will just go on saying he never tested positive. USADA will go on saying they won since Lance caved-in and accepted the penalty due to the evidence they had. Most people now think Lance caved-in due to the evidence and would rather go down as a martyr with no evidence ( made public) instead of as a public disgrace. Rewriting all those Tour results will be a complete waste of time considering the guys that would move up. Ullrich get’s 3 more “wins” and he has admitted to doping during his career. Alex Zulle admitted to taking EPO. Isn’t Kloden being investigated right now? Ivan Basso admitted that he “attempted doping”. Beloki seems the least tarnished of all so I guess he deserves his new Tour “win”
Make no mistake, all of LA’s good deeds are purely for profit. Is making a profit a crime? I say no, but don’t paint yourself a saint to the general public all the while wrecking characters and pocket books of any poor basterd bold enough to defey or question him/LA. This is why I feel those in the know are so ambitious concerning taking LA down, he has been a bad, bad, boy and we are probably only aware of the tip of the ice berg.
Steve,
I always enjoy hearing your perspective on cycling.
Thanks,
Paul
I heard Rush Limbaugh talking about Lance this morning. He kept repeating that Lance has never tested positive, that there is no evidence. It requires a lot of reading to understand the Lance doped saga. More reading than most Americans are willing to do. Besides most of the information is on cycling websites, cycling magazines, and in cycling books. Not media that Rush Limbaugh reads.
Who should get Lance’s yellow jerseys? No one. You can’t go back and give it to confessed cheaters, and you can’t play the game of “who didn’t cheat/wasn’t caught”, so just take his name off the winners trophy and leave it empty.
Wouldn’t that feel a bit hollow and meaningless? It should. There have been no winners in pro cycling for decades (at least, not at the Pro Tour level). The fans haven’t won, as they don’t know who to cheer for. The riders haven’t won, as clean riders watch others climb the podium and sign big contracts. and anyone who speaks out is shunned from the sport. The sponsors haven’t won, unless you hold to the cynical belief that any publicity is good publicity.
Everything has changed; not because of Lance, but because in his desire to be the best he helped create a fraud on such a massive scale. Companies and organizations such as Motorola, USPS, Discovery Channel, Nike, the UCI, even cancer agencies, were more than happy to get on board and sell this fantasy which never should have developed in the first place.
To me, the saddest part in all of this is reading the comments on various sites supporting Lance. What can you say to these people? Have they read any books on what has happened over the past 22 years since EPO arrived at the top level? Read anything about the history of cycling ‘doctors’ and ‘advisors’, and who they have worked with? Used any critical thinking skills to try and piece together any kind of coherent narrative to explain what they have witnessed? Or are they happy just to believe in miracles?
Lets not forget that Bruyneel has requested a public arbitration hearing. The dirty laundry still may be aired.
Kinda ironic that one of Armstrong’s closest confidants may be the vehicle for the information he is trying to keep under wraps.
I should have said “some of the information”
Well–he didn’t do this alone!
Like the rest of you, I know a lot about this subject. It hard not to be feel smug when I see errors in the headline of articles from large newspapers like the Washington Post.
“USADA strips Lance Armstrong’s titles, bans him from cycling”.
My first thought was no, the USADA has banned him from all sporting events under the jurisdiction of the USADA. This means badminton, croquet, fencing and synchronized diving are no longer part of Lance’s Olympic bucket list.
Don’t think this is over yet. If you know how the process works, you know that USADA has to send the UCI, the proof that led them to convict Lance of doping. If the UCI comes to a different conclusion, they can take the matter to arbitration themselves. I sort of expect that to happen.
Bryan – BINGO. I love cycling and don’t have the time to read all the info. It’s hard enough to find time to read all the comments that come from people when Steve does a doping related blog post. I did however greatly enjoy the last blog post on the Pro Challenge. My folks are out there spectating. Nice inside pics from the BMC team as per usual. Thanks!
Fergie hit on perhaps the most interesting point of this whole deal today…Bruyneel says he is going to arbitration which opens a whole other venue.
For Lance to do the “I’m going to take my marbles and go home, I don’t want to play with you anymore” move is sort of consistent with Omerta in a twisted way.
By not going to arbitration, none of the evidence that USADA has against Lance comes out publicly in an official way (I’m sure we will see leaks) and he is able to protect, in a roundabout way, those that were forced by law to testify against him, but who have not publicly gone after Lance unlike Floyd & Tyler. (see George, Van Velde, Livingston, etc. Even Vaughters speaks in broad generalizations about that time and doesn’t specifically throw Lance under the bus)
If Bruyneel actually goes to arbitration, all the Omerta is off the table, and all that testimony comes into the public eye, an interesting break from the Lance/Johan lockstep strategy of the past.
Impact to professional sports my ass….you really think anyone in our major league sports gives a fuck that LA stopped defending himself? Lance and his story is irrelevant to any non-endurance sport…..except the fact you could potentially become rich and famous
First and foremost – the UCI has to abide by the USADA findings. The UCI oddly did a U-TURN wanted to take over the case after stating they were not interested in the process and actually backed USADA.
Deep down there is a lot of deceit and payoff’s – just look at the LA “donation” to the UCI which years later the UCI publicly admitted it was wrong to accept it.
BEST COMMENT is by Rad Renner.
LAF.org is a front for LA – he gets his G-IV jet as a write off and Livestrong.com was SOLD to an outside company that makes money selling products associated with LA.
Livestrong.org mission statement is to raise cancer awareness – NOT CREATE A CURE.
I think Tilford at this point can do the same if he wanted to.
SCAM SCAM SCAM
Glad the POS finally hit a brick wall!!!
and in other news, the sun came up today
I say give the Yellow jersey to the Best mechanic in each year. I mean if you can’t give it to the riders, and team managers.
Every generation has individuals that excell at an activity to a greater degree than others… Mozart, Babe Ruth, Gretzky, Pele, Einstein… Has Pro Cycling has become such a pathetic little sport, that when someone excells they assume he must have cheated, even after passing all of the drug tests the sport gives him? Sad.
(Yes, I know there are ways to “get around” drug tests.) I’m just saying, I think it is possible he didn’t cheat.
The doper beat the rest of the dopers fair and square, he should keep his Jerseys. There’s a dude like in 80th place who might be clean because his team forgot his drug kit back in Spain, give it to him. If you all only knew, really know what’s going on. Oh and Hank Aaron just reamed over Baseball for the same thing. Don’t be naive.