Armstrong: too good to be true?

[Flubber]

I just read the Larry King transcript and to sum up

1. Armstrong vehemently continues to claim that he is and was always clean. ( As a side note he apparently took EPO in 1996 as part of his cancer treatements but that was always known and would have had no impacts in 1999)

2. He disputes the results and essentially claims he was set up. As he put it "there was no EPO when I peed in a bottle"

3. He questions the ethics of the whole thing where a newspaper gets involved like this.

4. He asked people to consider that he was FASTER in 2001 after there was an EPO test than he had been in 1999.

5. He reiterated that he was the most tested athlete in sport. They showed up out of season or in season to test him in Austin, New York etc etc

THats his story and he appears to be sticking with it

[Thorgal]

IMO most ciclist (even most athletes) do cheat if there is money at play, the point is that if nobody catch him they dont.

I always found Armstrong style evolution curious to say the least. Before cancer his style was similar to other riders but after the ill he began to pedaling at a much higher cadency moving less "weight" each time. It seems that after chemotherapy he lost about seven kilos of muscles so the couldnt apply so much brute force anymore. But in change, through some mysterious training method he managed to reach and keep a pedaling cadency much higher than any other rider.

His new style required less powerfull legs but more capable heart and lungs. However Armstrong heart and lungs are nothing out of normal (for a professional cyclist of course). Small compared for instance to the ones of Indurain (Indurain has huge heart and lungs, his heart beats about 25-30 times per minute), however Indurain pedaling cadency is/was at a normal level. So is there a secret involved in all this history? Maybe but without proves...

[Winston]

Jean-Marie Leblanc, chief organizer of the Tour, is now backing the tests carried out and the evidence against Armstrong. Leblanc is reported as saying that Armstrong is bound to be suspected of having been doped in the other races after 1999 as well.

[Sava]

just as OJ was guilty...

Lance is guilty...

Lanceophiles should get their heads out of the sand.

This is not a debate.

6 tests all test positive for EPO.

Case closed.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Winston
Leblanc is reported as saying that Armstrong is bound to be suspected of having been doped in the other races after 1999 as well.

The wounded French pride is pathetic.

[Sava]

Lance ass-licking is pathetic

[DinoDoc]

It's time to come out of the closet Sava. The constant gay sex references only serve to highlight a represed part of your psyche.

[Sava]

not a gay-sex reference... Lance just happens to be a guy... if it were a female cyclist, I would have said the same thing... also, my comment is not directed at males only.

perhaps you're the one thinking about gay sex

plus, you can check my pr0n collection if you want

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Given that juicing is rampant in cycling, it's impossible that LA could have been so successful without juicing, himself. Top level athletes in a particular sport are pretty much evenly matched in skill/stamina, so if LA wasn't cheating, he'd be finishing, oh, 143rd in the TDF. Even if juicing only gave the cheater a 5% advantage, that would be enough.

Two things stand in the way of accepting this:

1. LA is an feel-good story. A lot of people don't want to sully this, so they go into a bit of denial.

2. Yank and Euro pride. If there wasn't so much of both at stake here, we'd all be more rational. If LA had won the Tour De Wisconsin 7 straight times against Americans (instead of the TDF against mainly Europeans) his defenders and detractors would be far fewer. No one would care.

[Richelieu]

Well, well, well...

Washington - Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is considering coming out of retirement in a bid to take revenge on the hosts of the world's biggest race following a spate of doping accusations, an Austin, Texas newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"I'm thinking about it," the Austin American-Statesman quoted Armstrong as saying. "I'm thinking it's the best way to piss (the French) off."

[DanS]

That would be delicious.

Lance.

[Sava]

It's funny how Lance was all "VIVA LE FRANCE" when he was winning titles. But the second he gets proven a GUILTY CHEATER DOPER, he falls back on french bashing.

that's known as ad hominem debate fallacy... he can't counter the FACT that he's a CHEATER so he bashes the french...

way to go Lance Proving my point for me

edit: I'm sure he's got all new undetectable roids and blood doping agents he can PWN the other cyclists with too

having the best chemists money can buy

[DanS]

FYI, the paper inserted "(the French)". That's what the parentheses mean. Armstrong may have been bashing particular Frenchmen rather than the French as a people.

[Sava]

Originally posted by DanS
FYI, the paper inserted "(the French)". That's what the parentheses mean. Armstrong may have been bashing particular Frenchmen rather than the French as a people.

well I wasn't just referring to that... since this whole thing got started, Lance has fallen back on French bashing.

And why doesn't he put his money where his mouth is? Where is the lawsuit? It's the same with steroids and Jose Canseco's book. Not one player has sued Canseco.

Funny, if someone accused me publicly of cheating and tarnished my reputation, you bet your ass I'd sue the **** outta them!

But Lance says he hasn't the time or the money. Uhmmm... he's retired and made a gazillion dollars. Sorry, that's the lamest excuse in the world.

I think Lance is a smart guy. I know why he's not suing. He knows his hardcore fans are drinking the kool-aid and don't care if he's caught on videotape injecting himself with whatever. And conversely, he knows many people will not believe him no matter what. And I must admit, even if these French allegations prove to be false, I'll still have suspicions.

So from Lance's POV, he's got his money, he's got his trophies, he's got his rock and roll hosebag wife, why bother with the effort of suing the French newspaper or lab? Even though I hate Lance and think he's a cheating piece of ****, I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing if I was in his position.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Sava
. And I must admit, even if these French allegations prove to be false, I'll still have suspicions.

Hmm -- that says it about where you stand

I'm still waiting to understand how these french scientists could test for EPO accurately with 6 year old urine when the main doping scientist in Canada says that after 3 months the sample would degrade too much