Lance Armstrong... cheater

[Wezil]

Thirdly, The US attorney in LA just finished a two year investigation without filing charges.

That's the joy of your system. So many ways to be prosecuted.

Fourthly, neither the ICU nor the ACO is taking this at face value.

Wait and see what happens now.

Fifthly, the judge that threw out Armstrong's case said that he had, and I quote, “misgivings about USADA’s conduct leading up to and during this case,” and said the agency was “acting according to less noble motives.”

It was a jurisdictional argument. He didn't hear the evidence.

Sixthly, this defense would likely have lasted until 2016 and cost further millions.

Watch how much his earning potential drops by 2016 by not defending this (presuming he was innocent as you do).

You need to see the whole picture.

I see the whole picture and I'm doing it without fan glasses on.

[The Mad Monk]

I have never followed professional cycling. I've only been following this since the announcement.

[Alexander's Horse]

if they got all the cheats out of the Tour de France, there is a very excited guy out there who came in 110th and has a yellow jersey on the way

[Wezil]

I have never followed professional cycling. I've only been following this since the announcement.

Which made me wonder why you would hold such a view....

I checked Limbaugh to see what his opinion is.

Dittoheads are fun.

[The Mad Monk]

Limbaugh was a latecomer to the party.

You, on the other hand, are arguing desperately enough to be a fanboy of one or more of Armstrong's competitors.

[Wezil]

There are no heros in cycling.

[The Mad Monk]

...or a dispirited and cynical former fanboy perhaps, who no longer sees any redeeming qualities in the sport he once loved?

[Wezil]

Yes, Canada is a hotbead of cycling enthhusiasts.

[Wezil]

Have you ever tried to bike in 3' of snow?

It makes it hard to hang on to your beer.

[The Mad Monk]

Yes, I can see how that would only make the feeling of betrayal all the more wrenching.

[MikeH]

I have never followed professional cycling. I've only been following this since the announcement.

They were basically all at it. Most of his contemporaries have been caught. It would be... surprising... if he'd managed to beat all those dopers without doping, and there is an absolute ton of evidence against him. He's just the highest profile of a long line to be found out.

I think his manager is still accused and is going to contest his case - so we'll get to see most of the evidence anyway.

[MikeH]

if they got all the cheats out of the Tour de France, there is a very excited guy out there who came in 110th and has a yellow jersey on the way

This.

[MikeH]

Also for those in the "Most tested, never positive" camp.

Well, it's a bit more complicated than that:

http://velocitynation.com/content/interviews/2009/michael-ashenden

AS: So out of the 87 usable samples that they gathered, they got 13 positives and 6 of them belonged to Lance Armstrong.

MA: Depending on which criteria you applied. Yes, six of them failed the definitive criteria. There were another two samples in fact where the EPO was visually there in the gel. You could see it was there, but for one reason or another, the percentage isoforms weren't calculated, or had to be re-analyzed, or it was a little bit too faint to get a definitive result. Yes, there were six samples with EPO in it, and there were another two samples where it was pretty plain to a trained observer that there was synthetic EPO in those as well.

So this drug testing expert who designed the EPO test was retesting samples which were given before there was an official test in place and Armstrong would have failed 6 in a that year.

[MikeH]

Oh and also, he claimed to be tested over 500 times, which also isn't true:

http://www.cyclismas.com/2012/07/the-legend-of-the-500/

[regexcellent]

I vaguely remember something about him being on steroids for his cancer.