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Armstrong to Admit Doping on Oprah

PhillyDeac said:
Why the fuck is anyone going onto Oprah to discuss sports issues? Who the fuck is she? I can't stand that annoying bitch....
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Maybe he's not going on for free?

Someone needs to pull up the old LA thread about the gov't investigation etc. There were a lot of people that said just leave him alone and it was a waste of time.

FYI, Lance has always pretty much been a jerk, not just to people that crossed him, but even to the guys that sat in front of him all day pulling him up the Alps.

If anyone watched the TDF this year, I found it interesting because Wiggins, wearing yellow, a couple of time was at the front of the lead out train for Cavindish. There is no way LA ever does that. And I'm pretty sure Frome would have not gotten the mountaintop stage win either.

It was always about LA, no room for anyone else. I'm amazed that Contador and LA didn't kill each other when they were on the same team.
 
Deac83 said:
Maybe he's not going on for free?

Someone needs to pull up the old LA thread about the gov't investigation etc. There were a lot of people that said just leave him alone and it was a waste of time.

FYI, Lance has always pretty much been a jerk, not just to people that crossed him, but even to the guys that sat in front of him all day pulling him up the Alps.

If anyone watched the TDF this year, I found it interesting because Wiggins, wearing yellow, a couple of time was at the front of the lead out train for Cavindish. There is no way LA ever does that. And I'm pretty sure Frome would have not gotten the mountaintop stage win either.

It was always about LA, no room for anyone else. I'm amazed that Contador and LA didn't kill each other when they were on the same team.
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i'm pretty sure he's doing it for "free" (no direct appearance $$, anyway)

I have a hard time with this. That said, cycling is a dirty, dirty sport and anyone who follows it at all has their head in the sand if they don't think doping is totally a part of it all.
Lance is a douche of a guy, his own words and actions speak to that. It's unfortunate on a number of levels that his loud mouth and 'come at me bro' attitude are what pressed people on the issue of never letting it go. I hate that he made money on his denials.

....buuuuuuuut, he still beat cancer, still won TDF 7 times (by being the best cheater of all the cheaters). He's still an inspiration for what you can accomplish after overcoming a pretty large obstacle. Too bad he's such a crappy person.

I'm really interested to watch his interview and see how he carries himself. Ultimately, I don't think he's sorry he did it... at all. I think he's sorry for getting caught, if anything.
 
I couldn't care less about him doping or not doping. As one of my family members is a cancer survivor, I appreciate all the work he has done to find a cure. That's what is important in the grand scheme of things.
 
YoungBuck95 said:
I couldn't care less about him doping or not doping. As one of my family members is a cancer survivor, I appreciate all the work he has done to find a cure. That's what is important in the grand scheme of things.
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What about the people he bankrupted and black balled from working in cycling because they told the truth about him?

And what kind of work has he done to find a cure?
 
BeachBumDeac said:
What about the people he bankrupted and black balled from working in cycling because they told the truth about him?

And what kind of work has he done to find a cure?
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i don't know about a cure so much, but the organization provides a hell of a support network and inspiration for people dealing with cancer. that's worth something.
 
I acknowledge that. He and Livestrong have done a lot of good things (though not funding research towards a cure). He also has done a lot of awful shit. Both of them should be acknowledged.

IMO, still a piece of shit.
 
BeachBumDeac said:
I acknowledge that. He and Livestrong have done a lot of good things (though not funding research towards a cure). He also has done a lot of awful shit. Both of them should be acknowledged.

IMO, still a piece of shit.
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most definitely, but not a complete lost cause. at the end of the day, he's an asshole.
 
Lance is a tough one for me. My mother was terminally ill with cancer when I was in my mid-late teens, and racing bicycles heavily. The best young rider in the US was this tempestuous kid from Texas who was already a World Champion, but had just been struck down by cancer. In many ways, Lance's fight (which he won) and my mother's (which she lost) and the tens of thousands of miles of riding I did mostly by myself trying to punish myself to the point where I couldn't think or feel anything sort all became wrapped into one.

Armstrong's win on top of Sestriere in 1999 is probably the highlight sporting moment of my life (that or Will Bynum's circus layup against Oklahoma State to send GT to the Championship Game). I don't think anything can change that.



But I never had any illusion that he wasn't using synthetic EPO or something along those lines. EVERYONE in cycling was. Guys I was racing against in amateur races in the US were using it. It wasn't something that the top pros were just doing (i.e - 4 or 5 guys, whatever) ... literally everyone who was involved in the sport on a serious level was using it. When Armstong dueled with Marco Pantani up the moonscape of Mount Ventoux in 2000, Pantani had enough synthetic material - supposedly including horse tranquilizers - in his blood stream he probably barely counted as human. Of course Armstrong was doping, he was a cyclist. It wasn't "cheating" per se, it was simply participating in the sport. Nobody who was involved with cycling thought Lance wasn't doping. Nobody.

Cycling, at it's core, is a broken sport. It's the cruelest, most punishing of all sports. Stripped bare, it's simply turning a human being into the engine for an F1 car - and then driving it until the engine fails. Cyclists since the very early days of the sport have been drugging themselves (or being drugged) to simply survive. In the 1880s through early 1900s the popular things were mixtures of cocaine, caffeine and strychnine or straight nitroglycerin to stimulate the heart. Later riders rode with chloroform soaked rags on their handlebars to numb the pain and push them past their normal thresholds. The 1930 Tour de France rulebook had to clarify that drugs would not be provided by the race organizers, that was the responsibility of each rider. In the 60's through 80's, guys popped amphetamines like they were tic-tacs, etc, etc, etc

Lance Armstrong being a titantic asshole and undermining the Livestrong organization is a far, far bigger crime to me than him doping. Of course he doped, he was a cyclist. It's what cyclist do, and have always done. It's as much a part of the sport as lycra shorts and skinny tires.
 
Jacques Anquetil (one of 5 greatest cyclists of all time, first man to win 5 TdF's) took the best approach:

only a fool would imagine it was possible to ride Bordeaux–Paris on just water
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cyclists had to ride through "the cold, through heatwaves, in the rain and in the mountains", and they had the right to treat themselves as they wished, he said in a television interview, before adding:
"Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope."
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Deac83 said:
If anyone watched the TDF this year, I found it interesting because Wiggins, wearing yellow, a couple of time was at the front of the lead out train for Cavindish. There is no way LA ever does that. And I'm pretty sure Frome would have not gotten the mountaintop stage win either.

It was always about LA, no room for anyone else. I'm amazed that Contador and LA didn't kill each other when they were on the same team.
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Lance had some very talented riders with him during his 7 wins.

3 of his riders went on to win tours and 7-8 went on to lead their own teams. I think it is often forgotten how strong some of his teammates were, especially during his early years
 
I don't know much about the people lance trampled on, but was there anybody that was 100% clean that he trampled on?

The examples I remember we're people that had smuggled drugs and distributed drugs and things like that.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
I don't know much about the people lance trampled on, but was there anybody that was 100% clean that he trampled on?

The examples I remember we're people that had smuggled drugs and distributed drugs and things like that.
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The press (he threw around libel suits for a while - European laws are much stricter in that area) in particular, but also the vast majority of his teammates.

I don't think it's any secret that Lance Armstrong is a world class asshole.
 
What does doping have anything to do with? EVERYONE in the entire sport was/is doping. Doping was/is a non-issue inside the pelton ... there weren't "good" and "bad" guys because of their usage of synthetic EPO, anymore than the NBA has good and bad guys over drinking Gatorade. Trying to paint anyone in the story with a moral brush using drugs is just ridiculous.

Armstrong is a world class asshole because he's a world class asshole, not because he and his teammates and competitors did something that every single other person in the sport was doing.
 
vadimivich said:
Lance is a tough one for me. My mother was terminally ill with cancer when I was in my mid-late teens, and racing bicycles heavily. The best young rider in the US was this tempestuous kid from Texas who was already a World Champion, but had just been struck down by cancer. In many ways, Lance's fight (which he won) and my mother's (which she lost) and the tens of thousands of miles of riding I did mostly by myself trying to punish myself to the point where I couldn't think or feel anything sort all became wrapped into one.

Armstrong's win on top of Sestriere in 1999 is probably the highlight sporting moment of my life (that or Will Bynum's circus layup against Oklahoma State to send GT to the Championship Game). I don't think anything can change that.



But I never had any illusion that he wasn't using synthetic EPO or something along those lines. EVERYONE in cycling was. Guys I was racing against in amateur races in the US were using it. It wasn't something that the top pros were just doing (i.e - 4 or 5 guys, whatever) ... literally everyone who was involved in the sport on a serious level was using it. When Armstong dueled with Marco Pantani up the moonscape of Mount Ventoux in 2000, Pantani had enough synthetic material - supposedly including horse tranquilizers - in his blood stream he probably barely counted as human. Of course Armstrong was doping, he was a cyclist. It wasn't "cheating" per se, it was simply participating in the sport. Nobody who was involved with cycling thought Lance wasn't doping. Nobody.

Cycling, at it's core, is a broken sport. It's the cruelest, most punishing of all sports. Stripped bare, it's simply turning a human being into the engine for an F1 car - and then driving it until the engine fails. Cyclists since the very early days of the sport have been drugging themselves (or being drugged) to simply survive. In the 1880s through early 1900s the popular things were mixtures of cocaine, caffeine and strychnine or straight nitroglycerin to stimulate the heart. Later riders rode with chloroform soaked rags on their handlebars to numb the pain and push them past their normal thresholds. The 1930 Tour de France rulebook had to clarify that drugs would not be provided by the race organizers, that was the responsibility of each rider. In the 60's through 80's, guys popped amphetamines like they were tic-tacs, etc, etc, etc

Lance Armstrong being a titantic asshole and undermining the Livestrong organization is a far, far bigger crime to me than him doping. Of course he doped, he was a cyclist. It's what cyclist do, and have always done. It's as much a part of the sport as lycra shorts and skinny tires.
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This is my view on it. Lance is an asshole, but cycling is a fucked up sport. Everyone was doping and I'm sure they are still doping. In order to succeed at the top, you had to use and Armstrong still beat everyone.
 
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