Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong

As a dedicated cyclist, Lance was certainly a hero to me. I can remember the cycling forums back in the days of S.A.A., rec.bicycles.racing There was little hope he would live, it looked dark. But come back he did and his book was an inspiration.

But any thinking person had to always suspect he was doing something, to believe in him as a hero required a certain amount of denial. His performances were superhuman and his competition was caught time and time again..

Lance, a hero for certain, a liar, most likely.

Jon

let's see - what evidence is there against him? the "sworn" testimony of convicted cheaters and liars.

Ernie Spragg said:

let's see - what evidence is there against him? the "sworn" testimony of convicted cheaters and liars.

Unfortunately that does not seem to be the case... George Hincapie, who was very close to Armstrong, and others in the inside circle were apparently prepared to testify against Armstrong.

"But neither had the credibility of Hincapie, Leipheimer, Vande Velde or Zabriskie, riders who also were once a part of Armstrong’s inner circle. Hincapie, Vande Velde and Zabriskie have never tested positive for doping or admitted to any doping. (Leiphemier tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine at the 1996 United States Amateur National Criterium Championships and said it was because of the use of allergy medicine. He was stripped of his victory.)

Hincapie’s word would be especially harmful for Armstrong, considering the two have said they are as close as brothers."

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/lance_armstrong/index.html

As much as I would like to believe Armstrong was innocent of all charges, I have to think that the prospect a public confrontation by Hincapie and the others would have been conclusive and any credibility Armstrong has now would be gone. He saw the writing on the wall and made the wise decision.

Bicycle racing is primarily about strategy. To win a stage race, you don't need to win any stages, you need to know how to play your cards to their best advantage. It looks to me like Lance recognized this was one race he was not going to win and decided to save his energy for another day.

Jon

Why did the USADA and Travis Tygart go after Lance. He wanted to run for Congress as a Republican and the Democrats knew he would win big. So take him off the board and humiliate him was the goal. By refusing to play their game, Lance does keep his political options open in few years. USADA is a kangaroo court that has :"convicted" 58 out of the 60 folks who were brought up on charges. Many with no hard evidence.
Lance has had over 700 blood and urine tests run by the best labs in world. He was tested after each TdeF win taking 4 blood samples and two urine samples processed at two different labs. OF the 700 tests, NOT A SINGLE TEST CAME BACK POSITIVE. This is simply a political witch hunt.

I agree 100%. Testing samples from an uncontrolled environment years after the actual test is pure nonsense. I can't believe that 45% of members think that Lance is a liar. I thought we had rational thinkers in this group...Dave

"A liar most likely". ?????
How many urine tests does it take to " prove" one's innocence? :S
This IS a Which Hunt - "most likely".

Clear skies to all!

G

George Saar said:

"A liar most likely". ?????
How many urine tests does it take to " prove" one's innocence? :S
This IS a Which Hunt - "most likely".

Clear skies to all!

G

George:

Are you familiar with bicycle racing, the use of EPO and the measurement of the "hematocrit?" The hematocrit is a measure of the number of red blood cell in the blood. By the way, cyclists face blood tests which are more sensitive than urine testing.

- EPO is a drug that increases the red blood cell count, it was originally meant for use by recovering cancer patients but it is the drug of choice for endurance athletes since it gets more oxygen to their muscles.

The use of EPO is banned but there is no test for the use of EPO. In lieu of a test, a maximum hematocrit level of 50% was established. Anyone with a hematocrit of over 50% is automatically out of the race, Marco Pantani was leading the tour when he was disqualified for having a hematocrit of over 50%.

Basically it's a game, take enough EPO to increase the number of red blood cells but make sure you don't go over 50%. I am sure the team doctors were/are monitoring this...There are other drugs that cannot be detected, other procedures.. It is indeed possible to pass 700 drug tests and still be using performance enhancing drugs.

- George Hincapie was Lance's trusted domestique during his 7 tour wins and the person closest to Lance. The domestique is the rider who tows the team leader for most of the stage and Lance and George were very close. George has ridden in more tours than anyone in history and George has never tested positive for any performance enhancing drugs...

Apparently George was prepared to state that he and Lance had taken EPO together and had supplied it to other members of the team. This was the problem Lance faced, confronting his trusted friend who had also never been caught. There were also 3 other members of Lance's teams who were essentially clean that were prepared to testify against him.

This was the showdown Lance shied away from.

Drugs in sports are big business, doctors and laboratories work on synthetic drugs that cannot be detected. They try to stay ahead of the authorities and often do. Balco was an example. Balco would send blood samples of their athletes drugs to other testing labs to see if the other labs could detect anything. Drugs in cycling is huge, since the days of Miguel Indurain, there have been very few tour de france winners who have not been caught cheating..

Jon Isaacs

What about the 10 other teammates ready to testify they saw Armstrong doping (and blood transfusions count as cheating).

Sorry, one the WADA tests is the hematocrit test which can detect blood transfusions up to 7 weeks after the the blood is transfused, even if itis the reciepients own frozen blood. This test was used 6 out iof the seven TdeF's . Testmony is good evidence, no question, but here the USADA is charging epo doping which is an easy to detect "dope" within 24 hours of injection. Lance has has 700 blood and urine tests....If even ONE were positive it would have been headlines arounf the world. Lance never even had a positive "A" sample, much less a positive "B'" sample. All this many YEARS after his last race. This is a WITCH HUNT.

Bottom Line: The French, who still really hate Lance, and the Tour organizers who also hated an American winning, ran 100"s of drug tests for every kind of doping and blood doping, in season and out, toseed his hotel rooms and buses looking for needles and vials.....NADA- ZIP -ZERO.. and they were gunning HARD for him. No doper is that clever, that careful, or that lucky..

This is a WITCH HUNT.