Lance Armstrong

[rrhf]

Nailing the Crowe is another outstanding achievement.

[Denn Forever]

Enjoyed his cameo in Dodgeball.

[Estimator]

The case against Armstrong just leads to another set of questions. Should the authorities now pursue every winner of the TdF? LeMond won 3 titles, Indurain won 5 in a row, Contador was stripped of one title but allowed to keep another. Should these guys be hounded the same way as Armstrong? With drugs allegedly being rife in the sport should the Irish cyclists be looked at as well?

[Jonah]

Lance has been an inspiration to cancer sufferers everywhere and a positive force for charity.  it's a pity if he is involved in a sport where drugs appear to be necessary for success. It doesn't change my opinion that he has been a shining light to lots of people

That is hardly the case if he has been cheating.

Cheating in his sporting life shouldn't take away from the people he has helped through his charity.
Two wrongs don't usually make a right ( cheating to win and gaining financially from it) but in this case it has made a right though his charity work.

[seafoid]

If Armstrong hadn't cheated he never would have been famous and he never would have had the leverage to raise the money. It's hard to beat the modesty of the Kilkenny hurlers ."Sure we just got lucky there and won a few all Irelands"

[haranguerer]

Lance has been an inspiration to cancer sufferers everywhere and a positive force for charity.  it's a pity if he is involved in a sport where drugs appear to be necessary for success. It doesn't change my opinion that he has been a shining light to lots of people

That is hardly the case if he has been cheating.

Cheating in his sporting life shouldn't take away from the people he has helped through his charity.
Two wrongs don't usually make a right ( cheating to win and gaining financially from it) but in this case it has made a right though his charity work.

For one thing his charity work may not have been at all altruistic, more protectionism. For another, it was exploited by him and a global corporation as much or more for their own benefit as for anyone elses.

[AFS]

I'd have more trouble believing that the fastest 3 men in the world currently over 200 metres all come from the same athletics club. Just seems to good to be true for me.

That sort of clustering happens all the time in sport. Sure, the three best footballers in the world are all products of the same football club.

[LeoMc]

Lance has been an inspiration to cancer sufferers everywhere and a positive force for charity.  it's a pity if he is involved in a sport where drugs appear to be necessary for success. It doesn't change my opinion that he has been a shining light to lots of people

That is hardly the case if he has been cheating.

He has still given a lot of hope to people that there is life after cancer and that you can push yourself to the limits. Even with a bit of rocket fuel in the tank the TdF is no cycle in the park.

[LeoMc]

I'd have more trouble believing that the fastest 3 men in the world currently over 200 metres all come from the same athletics club. Just seems to good to be true for me.

That sort of clustering happens all the time in sport. Sure, the three best footballers in the world are all products of the same football club.

Have there not been a number of studies showing that Jamicans have a particular genetic advantage?

[trileacman]

I'd have more trouble believing that the fastest 3 men in the world currently over 200 metres all come from the same athletics club. Just seems to good to be true for me.

That sort of clustering happens all the time in sport. Sure, the three best footballers in the world are all products of the same football club.

[trileacman]

I'd have more trouble believing that the fastest 3 men in the world currently over 200 metres all come from the same athletics club. Just seems to good to be true for me.

That sort of clustering happens all the time in sport. Sure, the three best footballers in the world are all products of the same football club.

Have there not been a number of studies showing that Jamicans have a particular genetic advantage?

Yeah, cannabis.

[AFS]

I'd have more trouble believing that the fastest 3 men in the world currently over 200 metres all come from the same athletics club. Just seems to good to be true for me.

That sort of clustering happens all the time in sport. Sure, the three best footballers in the world are all products of the same football club.

McAteer started at Bolton.

[JimStynes]

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?s=8a3cb74acd66ef9f26adce54ba04fb0a&t=18295

good reading in that thread

[Declan]

good reading in that thread

Unbelievable stuff

[Bensars]

Just read this on another site. found it interesting

Christophe Bassons interview in Le Monde translated.

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2012/08/27/christophe-bassons-en-hiver-je-distancais-richard-virenque-dans-les-cotes_1751911_3242.html


Quote:
Christophe Bassons : "In winter, I used to drop Richard Virenque on the climbs"

Were you surprised by the Armstrong decision?

I wasn't surprised. He had to choose the best solution given the difficult circumstances in which he found himself. Knowing the person he is, he would really have to have his hands tied to give up the fight and choose some form of abandon. But even then, he maintains the fierce desire to control things: "I've had enough, I'm stopping this." The illusion of control is primordial. Armstrong, thanks to his money and political connections, can afford to behave like that. He lives for nothing more than putting himself above us mere mortals. I'm more sad for him than anything else. This need to feel superior, to crush all competition is certainly rooted in his past.

Without any particular suggestion of doping, just the American's announcement was enough to trigger a media scramble. How do you see the press' role in this?

It's right on time, since I'm organising a debate in November on the role of the media in doping activities. Until now, nobody has given any additional proof of Armstrong's doping. The media reversal depends on this simple decision of his. Journalists are the prisoners of judicial proceedings. Even if some of them wanted to talk about it, they can't get started with anything other than the facts we have so far. Sometimes that's a responsible attitude to have, but all these journalists and these former riders who have jumped on the bandwagon since Friday, all of them already knew about these sorts of doping methods. I think we're far from what the media's role ought to be in the prevention of doping. When we value winners and gold medals above all, how can we be surprised if a sportsperson finds no shame in cheating?

How do you take the return of suspended riders like Valverde or Contador?

It isn't right that a sportsperson suspended two years for doping comes back full of pride for winning races. Why don't they own up? Why aren't they ashamed at having cheated?

In 1999, you were under enormous pressure, notably from Armstrong, to decide to quit the Tour. Can you recall for us this painful episode in your career?

I was riding my first Tour de France in the colours of FDJ. The year before, my previous team Festina had been thrown out of the race due to the scandal we all know about. Up to then, I had never been in line for selection, given my refusal to dope. I was writing a column for Le Parisien in which I would describe my first Tour. I was already known by then as the peloton's "Mr Clean". Very quickly, I realised that we were going a lot faster. Guys would do 200 kilometres without letting up, they were in better shape after eight or nine days' racing than at the start. This is why I say that, not only can you not win the Tour without doping, you can't even really put the hammer down on everyone during a stage. Very quickly, I was sidelined by my DS, Marc Madiot, my teammates. Then Armstrong won a really hard stage to Sestrières. The next day, the peloton decrees that we ride steadily for 100km before disputing the victory in the last 80km to Alpe d'Huez. Being blacklisted, I didn't know any of this, and I ended up hearing about it from a mechanic in my team. So I decided as a provocation to attack from the gun. Lance Armstrong got his team to ride and my own team helped him. I was caught quickly and the American grabbed me by the shoulder, told me I had no place here and finished with the famous "flip you". I just smiled. Two days later, I abandoned the race, worn out by the pressure I'd put up with for the last two weeks. Then I put up with six months of depression.

At the time, your DS, Marc Madiot, blamed you for your views

Today, the FDJ is in a better place with regard to doping. Young guys now have the opportunity to finish their education, which makes them more balanced and shows them there's more out there than just sport. On the '99 Tour, he yelled at me and told me to shut up. But he and Lance Armstrong were the only ones who openly let me know what they thought of me. I credit them at least for their honesty. Madiot is old school. Perhaps he has changed. Anyway, he's fortunate enough to have a really decent sponsor.

Peut-on parler d'un comportement mafieux de la part d'Armstrong et du peloton ?

Can we say Armstrong's and the peloton's behavior was like that of a mafia?

He has always sought to position himself as the patron. But I think he didn't have the same authority as someone like Bernard Hinault in his day. Lots of French riders thought and still think like me. However, they think about their careers and they know well enough how easy it is to get dropped from the sport. If you break the vow of silence, you can count on never winning another race.

What do you say to those who defend Armstrong by saying that all riders are doped and therefore he was still a great champion who was better than the rest?

I speak from personal experience. At Festina in winter, I used to drop Virenque on the hills, I tested better than Zülle (world time-trial champion, twice runner up in the Tour). Then, as soon as the programme got underway, I slipped down the hierarchy of the team. You can't hide from that: a rider on EPO gives himself the advantage of a turbo. I think that, between a clean guy who finishes in the top 80 in Paris and the winner who shoots up, there's no difference. If you put them on an equal footing, the 80th guy could perhaps beat the yellow jersey. Anyway, a truly great champion is not the same as a sportsperson who dopes. To be that champion, you have to be completely solid, mentally, physically and socially.

You now work in doping prevention. You speak out against the presence of doctors in the heart of teams

The team doctor is there for performance, not for medical care. The issue of doping includes everything that's forbidden in terms of doping activity. Without going into extreme, Doctor Mabuse examples, all the means of recovery that are available are used by these doctors to optimise performance. In fact, that's the doping practice. If tomorrow they legalised EPO, I'm certain all the peloton would be using it. What annoys me about this "recovery management" is the fact that proper fatigue is of reduced importance. Riding a 21-day race is not so very tough if you don't let yourself get too worn down. In six years as a pro, I never had cause to visit a team doctor. I had my general practitioner and the race doctor if necessary.

Can you tell us about your work with the AFLD?

I'm the local anti-doping representative in the Aquitaine region. I make myself available to conduct doping controls as required. I'm also a member of the regional commission on trafficking of doping products.

What experience do you get from these activities?

The big worry right now is over dietary supplements. In the rugby schools and in other sports, these supplements are becoming part of the training regime. And if you're using them, the day when they no longer provide any benefit, you might try something else. At the end of the year, I also think that the use of corticosteroids will be really bad. The law has altered and now they're almost legal. Cyclists use them a heck of a lot.

Why do people dope in your opinion?

I don't think we take enough notice of the psychological aspect of doping. We hear often that it's nothing more than a question of money in sport. So how does that explain the fact that the sport in which doping is most pervasive is weightlifting? The majority of them don't do it for money, but for love and acceptance. On the issue of drug addiction, we have known for a long time that talking up the health dangers is not the best way to approach the matter. A doped rider who wins races feels better in his head, he gets social recognition and I can't even be sure that he is putting his health in danger. We dope for our mental wellbeing, whether that's motivated by a lack of money, a need for personal recognition or a desire for social recognition.

So does that make Armstrong a disastrous example?

What example does this affair set? A rider who dopes can beat the tests and only gets caught, if he ever does, fourteen years after the fact. And the worst thing of all, he's still as sure of himself, still has no shame at having cheated. There's a real education problem and the role of the media, I insist, is essential in this. That's where we need to do some work.