Irishgreen
Banned
"as the truly great riders had to resort to the same doping regimes as the journey men to be able to beat them".
My point. As I said, don't shoot me.
My point. As I said, don't shoot me.
Lance Armstrong to be stripped of all seven Tour de France titles
- Thread starter Brogan
- Start date
Have all of the other cheats been banned as well?
2005 Tour de France - Result
- [bg=#FFFF00]Lance Armstrong[/bg]
- Ivan Basso
- Jan Ullrich
- Francisco Mancebo
- Alexandre Vinoukorov
- Levi Leipheimer
- Michael Rasmussen
- Cadel Evans
Sad day for cycling as he was an Icon of the sport, but at the end of the day winners don't take drugs.
I think you'll find they do Johnny Carwash and not just cycling
Good, his actions forced good men to break the law and other desperate cyclists who couldn't understand why he was so much better to also dope. Him and USPS created an entire era of cheating and dishonesty that only now is beginning to end.
I'm not quite sure how you can be certain the idea originated with him or that team. That era was rampant with that sort of thing in most sports.
In any event, a sad day for the sport of cycling
Bus Stop Chicane
Points Scorer
Armstrong has, by stepping aside as the chairman of his charity and removing from his Twitter profile the statement that he'd won seven TdF titles, basically admitted his guilt. He really doesn't want to release a statement actually doing that for obvious reasons but there is no reason for a debate about the facts now. If he geniunely was innocent he would fight the accusations.
There was an interesting article in the newspaper USA Today yesterday, going over deaths in cycling dating back to the 1990s! It recounts the EPO blood-doping scandal of that era. EPO was a red-cell boosting drug, which had the unfortunate side effect of making the blood so thick, it occasionally couldn't be pumped!! In 1990, this resulted in the death of the Dutch cyclist Johannes Draaijer, who, according to his wife, had used EPO, and there were many, many more.
The article goes on to say that, in a 13 month period in 2003-2004, seven competitive European cyclist between the ages of 16 and 35 "mysteriously" died. Two had already retired. Two died in their sleep, one died in a race, one died in a psychiatric hospital and one had just left the dentist's office!
As these would hardly seem likely to have died of natural causes, given their ages and their physical conditioning regimen, you can easily suspect they were the result of other factors.
Thus, it is obvious that Armstrong did not invent cheating, as some would like to infer, and that cycling has seemingly been awash in doping of various types for decades. Indeed, at least as far as I am concerned, it puts every top-level cyclist under a cloud, as I see no way that anybody can say that any one of the competitors in that time frame has, without question, been free of drug enhancement.
The article goes on to say that, in a 13 month period in 2003-2004, seven competitive European cyclist between the ages of 16 and 35 "mysteriously" died. Two had already retired. Two died in their sleep, one died in a race, one died in a psychiatric hospital and one had just left the dentist's office!
As these would hardly seem likely to have died of natural causes, given their ages and their physical conditioning regimen, you can easily suspect they were the result of other factors.
Thus, it is obvious that Armstrong did not invent cheating, as some would like to infer, and that cycling has seemingly been awash in doping of various types for decades. Indeed, at least as far as I am concerned, it puts every top-level cyclist under a cloud, as I see no way that anybody can say that any one of the competitors in that time frame has, without question, been free of drug enhancement.
Pretty much what I posted here, except I don't believe it's limited to just cycling.
About the only top level cyclist I think hasn't cheated is Miguel Indurain and that is due to his physiology; he didn't need to.
That's just my opinion though... he may well have and we'll never know.
I don't think anyone thinks Armstrong invented cheating siffert_fan, he did raise to the industrial level though and, from what has come out, brow beat others into cheating which is pretty dispicable. There is another story about he forced a very talented young French rider off the tour as he rode clean and Armstrong thought he might speak out. What a scumbag!
ramilas1
Podium Finisher
I reckon there are now too many witnesses, and self-proclaimed co-conspirators, for there to be any defence for Armstrong.
I do, however, have serious doubts as to the motives behind the whole USADA investigation, based on their lack of endeavour to bring to the front pages the drug usage within so much of local American sport.
It seems to be almost accepted (just like it has been about cycling) that baseball, basketball, ice hockey and 'football' have an endemic problem, even at college level, while athletics has had a very dubious history of leniency toward any positive tests.
We can only hope that the terrier-like hunting down of Armstrong is now switched in other directions.
I do, however, have serious doubts as to the motives behind the whole USADA investigation, based on their lack of endeavour to bring to the front pages the drug usage within so much of local American sport.
It seems to be almost accepted (just like it has been about cycling) that baseball, basketball, ice hockey and 'football' have an endemic problem, even at college level, while athletics has had a very dubious history of leniency toward any positive tests.
We can only hope that the terrier-like hunting down of Armstrong is now switched in other directions.
The ICU has confirmed Armstrong's titles won't be reallocated: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20103406
That saves some column inches.
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