Everyone knew it was coming, but earlier today, The International Cycling Union officially stripped Lance Armstrong of his 7 Tour de France titles. They also said that Lance has no place in cycling and that later this week they will decide if Lance needs to return all the prize money he has ever won in cycling and whether to assign his titles to another rider. The thing is, were the other riders clean? Maybe they should just let cyclists take whatever they want to take and be done with all the testing organizations and the questions of whether someone is or is not cheating. Just let them do what they want and be done with it. Of course a whole bunch of doctors and drug dealers and shady delivery people will probably go out of business, not to mention all the people assigned to catch those people. How many people are really going out on the weekend to go watch cycling? Everyone knows about the Tour, but do you know of any other race? Have you ever gone to watch a race in person?
Looks like they're going along with recommendations of stripping him of the titles and not naming someone else as the winner of those races (i.e. no official winners from '99 to '05.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbc.ca/sports/cycling/story/2012/10/22/lance-armstrong-doping-titles-decision.html
You're showing you US bias. Cycling is huge in Europe. I know a lot of people who race as a hobby, and plenty who go see races when they can afford the travel. We had a cycling tournament in town last year and there were enormous crowds.
ReplyDeleteWell yhen, u hv your cycling, we hv our nascar races, lol
DeleteThat'd be funny if he had to return all that cash.
ReplyDeleteyes, I used to go to cycling races when I was younger, my friend's boyfriend raced. it was a yawn and the guys all had skinny, shaved legs.
I hv never and wld never go watch a bunch of boys riding bikes. Dopey "sport" to begin with. Look at his smugular face- hes not hurting. He already had the acclaim, attention, women he wanted. And he is still sitting on millions of dollars. So sure, he will say how bad he feels and how embarrassing it is, but i dont think he really cares. If u going to allow doping, make 2 leagues- one league that dopes, one that does not. Let peeps decide who they want to see.
ReplyDeleteauntliddy! I love you :)
DeleteSmugular Face - wins the day!!!!
And yes, he's rich now but I heard grumblings that sponsors may ask for some of that cash back. Then Smugular no more!!!
Your US bias, of course. Wish you could edit comments on this site.
ReplyDeleteI once made out with a professional cyclist from Germany in the Mekong in southern Laos. Couldn't believe that was an actual, full-time career. Still haven't been bothered to actually watch an event on TV or in real life.
ReplyDeleteLove that pic, Enty.
Cycling is big in Europe. I stayed at the same hotel as two of the teams in Majorca, coincidentally. Those cyclists are hawt. I am a casual triathlete, so have massive respect for my cycling brethren. I hate how Lance came into tri with the attitude that he was entitled to race Kona, and also am sad that this happened before he could popularize this sport the way he did cycling. Overall, he is a jerk and asshole -- at least he didn't drag tri down too.
ReplyDeleteSheryl Crow is probably thanking her lucky stars right now that she didn't procreate with that mess.
ReplyDeleteWell, just off the top of my head, the Tour of California, the Giro d'Italia, le Tour de Suisse, la Vuelta de Espana. And those are just the humongous multi-stage ones.
ReplyDeleteAnd I saw a stage of the Tour of Missouri before the redneck hater Governor pulled the state's support for it.
Sweaty, cut men* with ridiculous reserves of explosive energy and endurance - not really sure what's to hate on about that.
*Of course, cycling is a women's sport as well.
I enjoy watching cycling, although I seldom do. It's one of those things if I happen upon it while channel surfing, I stop and watch. I enjoy it during the Olympics, too.
ReplyDeleteI'd be all for letting athletes take whatever they want, but steroids are so damaging in the long run and those who don't want to do that to themselves would never be able to compete.
Maybe keep mainstream sports drug-free, but develop a new class of sport where anything goes? As a society, I think we've grown jaded enough to embrace that.
I read 'the secret race' by tyler hamilton and its a very interesting read. he raced w/lance for a few years.
ReplyDeletewhile lance did doped and got blood transfusions, everyone in racing did it. it was common knowledge. one couldn't compete w/o doing it. lance just had the best docs and did it better than everyone else. his body responded well to the doping and he had a compulsion to win.
that doesn't make it right, and everyone lied to cover it up. but it wasn't just lance, it was everyone.
and according to hamilton, and I trust he told the truth in the book, lance told the authorities that hamilton wasn't clean after hamilton won a race that lance lost. so, lance was really a SOB.
but, he did bring alot of attention to a sport that few in america were concerned about before he got into it.
if lance had just fessed up and come clean, no doubt the american public would forgive him at some point. but, when 11 or 12 of your former teammates who worked closely with you say that you doped and you continue to deny it, you just look like a lying a-hole.
notice how the feds are not prosecuting him. yet they prosecuted marion jones who spent time in prison. its because he had so much pull that he tapped on someone high up in the gov't who told the feds to drop the case.
Thanks for the book rec! Sounds interesting. :)
DeleteCheater cheater pumpkin eater.
ReplyDeleteSo much money is involved in professional sport. Sometimes I wonder if most athletes aren't doping, but their respective organizations are looking the other way or dealing with dopers on the down-low because of the large scale damage that would be done. Especially when a star athlete gets caught and is shown to not be a superman.
ReplyDeleteLook at A Roid 's spectacular fail in the playoffs. Can 't do it without the roids. Lance deserves this, regardless of whoever else did it. They don 't deserve the respect and the money.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just outside the US. I'm in Boise, and cycling here is very well supported. Even as a non cyclist, I've been to many events in the area to cheer.
ReplyDelete"Everyone knows about the Tour, but do you know of any other race? "
ReplyDeleteThis makes me chuckle. The cyclists who ride on the weekends in my area like to dress like they are in a race. They are all alone, no race. We frequently comment on that as we drive by. Kind of a funny site.
FSP - most disturbing one yet. The Biebs with Boobs!
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't get is if they were ALL cheating how come HE'S the only one stripped of everything and losing his endorsements and how come he's never tested positive on the drug tests?
ReplyDeleteAunt Liddy for President - smugular is my new favorite word!
ReplyDeleteAnd Agent, high five for the A Roid statement. Oh, how the mighty have fallen - and I've got a front row seat, baby!
First off, auntliddy, you're an idiot. That is clearly an old picture of Lance, so your comment about his expression is pointless. Second, what bothers me about this whole situation is that the "evidence" against Lance was exactly the kind of evidence we don't allow in our court system for a very good reason. Who in their right mind would not testify against Lance in exchange for a vastly-reduced punishment? Most of the witnesses stood a chance of being banned from cycling for life, so when told by the agency they would only be suspended from cycling for six months if they would testify against Lance, after which they could return to cycling, of course they all jumped at the chance. If they had testified against Lance with no benefit to themselves then their testimony would be much stronger in my mind. In addition, many of the witnesses had already been caught doping, so it is quite conceivable that they would have no problem ruining someone else's life if that would give them a way back into the sport, especially if that someone else was someone who they no longer got along with. Finally, there are limits in arbitration that do not exist in the court system which make arbitrations inherently unfair. Arbitration takes place in front of a private judge (aka rent-a-judge). Parties are limited as to the number of witnesses who can testify on their behalf, the amount of evidence they can produce, and the amount of time they are allowed to question the witnesses (the arbitrator literally holds a stopwatch and tracks the time each side uses, and when your allotted time is up, that's it, you are cut off). Criminal and civil trials that would go on for months are completed in a matter of weeks before an arbitrator. The decision of the arbitrator is not appealable, unlike the decision of a court. Arbitrations are good for deciding disputes between corporations, but not where criminal conduct is alleged due to the limitations of the process.
ReplyDeleteDude - Calm. Down.
DeleteI was willing to go with reasonable doubt until George Hincapie came clean. Hincapie also never tested positive and had no reason to fess up except it was time for the truth to come out. Unlike Lance, Big George would like to be able to look his kid in the eye and have some credibility when he talks about doing the right thing.
Calm down, Joe (or should I say Lance?). We don't (for the most part) like Lance around here, so we're going to snark - deal with it, dude.
ReplyDeleteSo here's what I don't get: it really sounds like pretty much everyone at that level was/is doping. So now are the results of ALL professional cycling races for the past--what, 10? 15?--years invalidated? They never happened? No one won, no one raced?
ReplyDeleteAnd now can we expect to see "clean" cyclists competing? If so, will the race times increase markedly?
When I went travelling around Europe, Lance was acknowledge as the greatest athlete of all time; but during the 90s he could not beat those using EPO, so he took the decision that he had to cheat and he did it in such a professional manner. Note only one other cyclist was found to be clean that finished in the top 3 of the Lance years, so you know how dirty that sport and other sports were in that era. That being said he was clearly was a talented cyclist but the era was so corrupt that no one could do it clean.
ReplyDelete"Mrs. Jones, your son was caught cheating on his exam." - teacher
ReplyDelete"What? Not my son! Was anyone else caught cheating?" -Mom
"Yes,and it will be discussed with their parents." _teacher
"Oh who cares if THEY WERE ALL DOING IT!" - Mom
"But ma'am, we don't condone cheating--"
"AND DON'T FORGET ALL THAT MONEY HE RAISED AT THE BAKE SALE!"
^that's what you apologists sound like. Give it up already. Your boy is a fucking CHEAT.
@jax That. Was. Amazing.
ReplyDelete@ figgy - They had this topic on Talk of the Nation last week. Guests were involved in cycling or something, said that there will always be people trying to get away with doping, but they're already seeing the effects of not doing it. In the last Tour De France, the times through the mountains were slower and riders who went all out were not somehow amazingly recovered by the next day.
ReplyDeleteRead The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and watch 60 Minutes interview with Tyler. Tyler made sure to implicate most riders and especially himself. He didn't get a short suspension so he could race later (due to outing Lance)--he retired from the sport.
ReplyDeleteAnd note that Lance did fail a drug test in 2001. The lab director provided a sworn statement that Lance met with the lab director and that the failed test "went away."
Read The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and watch 60 Minutes interview with Tyler. Tyler made sure to implicate most riders and especially himself. He didn't get a short suspension so he could race later (due to outing Lance)--he retired from the sport.
ReplyDeleteAnd note that Lance did fail a drug test in 2001. The lab director provided a sworn statement that Lance met with the lab director and that the failed test "went away."
Remember when Lance and Matthew McConaughey were having their "bromance?" They were photographed together all the time and then all of a sudden it stopped. Was there a falling out?
ReplyDeleteI did go to a bike race in San Francisco because it was a three-block walk away. But there were big crowds. I agree with you-make everything legal.
ReplyDeleteWill he refund the money of all the people who bought the Livestrong wrisband?
ReplyDeleteI see loads of people in the bay area who spend so much money on their outfits for their weekend rdes. They stand out because with their lumpy bodies they are quite clearly not athletes. It seems so silly to me.
ReplyDeleteThey allow doping in Rock and Roll they should allow it for this job too...(Just kidding!)
Thank god this has finally come to an end. Lance Armstrong is so fugly, and full of himself - despise everything this semi-humanoid is connected with. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteWhat's with putting the word cycling in quotation marks when referring to it as a sport? I would bet quite a bit of cash that the poster who wrote that couldn't cycle a fraction of what these athletes do.
ReplyDeleteStill not feeling one iota of sympathy for this tool.
ReplyDeleteYes, this shady prick should have to give back every dime with interest. Why not? He clearly has no integrity, in any facet of his public life, and would not be surprised if that lack of integrity leeches into his private life as well.
ReplyDelete@nerners oh yeah, wasn't Jake G part of the group too?
ReplyDeleteI guess technology improved enough to finally catch him. A shame that it took so long to catch up to him. I do feel bad for the shame his children must feel...
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they aren't awarding the titles to anyone else, because there's no way the rest of the pack wasn't doping as well.
ReplyDeleteyep, my theory too, let every athlete roid themselves to their eyeballs and then go for it!!!
ReplyDelete