Lance Armstrong out of retirement
Comments
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iainf72 wrote:I tell you one thing, if he does make a comeback that's me done with cycling forums and what not.
I could not stand the whinging and complaining.
As promised folks, I'm off.
It's been real but the "Lance is god" - "Lance is satan" debates were bad enough when he was retired but looking at the posts since last night I my fears have been realised.Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0 -
donrhummy wrote:I still don't get it. How does this really help the cancer fight? Even if he wins, how does that make more governments improve their funding for cancer reasearch (as well as other issues)? And it is only governments that have enough to get something done both in money and in regulation/law changes and creating grants, etc.
Arguably putting his cancer campaign across an event that drops in just behind the World Cup and Olympics in terms of spectators and which is broadcast in a fair few territories is a heck of a lot cheaper and more effective than spending the money on traditional advertising. Look at how it's worked for things like Make Poverty History and so on.0 -
Good job Astana have Levi in 3rd place on GC in the Vuelta - if Contador sees his own role in the 2009 TdF as doemstique to LA, he'll probably throw the Vuelta. If he has any sense, he'll be on the phone to the other teams this week.
As Bart Simpson says "I didn't think it possible, but this blows and sucks"'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'0 -
Well as a Lance supporter really glad to see him back.
Be interesting to see if he brings his own team or join an existing one.
I take Serge with leaving the employment of Cadel for the Tour next year.0 -
If he does ride the tour wouldnt it be great to see the entire peleton work against him
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It's got nothing to do with raising the awarness of cancer. Armstrong can't bear not being in the limelight with nobody sucking up to him. Funny how his high profile girlfriends never last long he needs all the attention.0
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kuota wrote:It's got nothing to do with raising the awarness of cancer. Armstrong can't bear not being in the limelight with nobody sucking up to him. Funny how his high profile girlfriends never last long he needs all the attention.
Isn't that the nature of the beast though? To be as successful as Armstrong requires utter self-centred dedication - me, me, me and a bit more me. He isn't unique in that respect.Regards
Whitbags.0 -
I dont believe the real cycling fans want him back. He epitomizes the darkest period of cyclings history and was central in creating a win at all cost drug taking mentality. The sport has since moved on and it does not need to have him back to remind of how bad it was. Why not just dig up the trial of destruction and lost lives and parade these corpses to all the races to remind us what the last 2 decades have been about. A bad day for cycling :-(
Lets hope the tour refuse him a start and nip this in the bud! If he shared a flat with Kimmage for teh next 10months I still wouldn't believe he is clean!!0 -
I so wish that this wasn't true... over the past few years we've got away from the cycling calendar effectively being hijacked by "Lance at the TDF", and now have top competitors turning their hand at a much broader range of races... the Vuelta and Giro have increased their profiles, not to mention the Classics... even the Tour of Britain now has an ITV slot :-) It's all so much more interesting!!
If Lance comes back with his focus on the one race, then I fear that the whole sport will suffer and we'll have lost the four years of progress that we've made in his absence.
Obviously if Lance wants to come back and compete in a full season and promote his cancer charity across all of the big events, then I'm 100% behind him... 'fraid I'm a bit of a sceptic though and doubt that, if he's planned his comeback, Lance will risk losing the TDF - the win will have been engineered already :-(
Cheers.http://www.mombee.com ... more than just bikes.
Cannondale CAADX Disc0 -
it would be poetic justice if he got his arse well and trully kicked by Contador next year at the tour.....can you imagine if it was the other way round....would you expect armstrong to work for Contador.....he`s not coming back for the love of it and he wont work for anyone else but himself. i wish these over the hill sportsmen would just retire gracefully ,you just know whats going to happen the testers are just looking for a big name to snare. i dont know why he`s setting himself up for folk who are just waiting on him to trip himself up.0
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yep, i wouldn't be surprised if they didn't let him ride. A PR gamble that could either damage the Tour or further damage armstrong
.... we're not letting you ride because we're convinced you're a cheat
i'd like to see him go up against bruyneel and astana0 -
I'm not a Lance fan.
However I don't think it would be a bad thing him coming back. If he submitted himself to daily/weekly french federation dope testing (expensive I know), and he was continued to be targetted during the tour, and he still won, I reckon it would give him some credibility.0 -
well, as someone that's followed cycling for a while, but only recently started riding myself. And only just joined the forum, man there's a lot of whining about the pros on here!
My Dad has just turned 60 and I now have to let him know how often he moans about everything, are the majority on here over 60?
I'm all for the whole Lance comeback thing, it adds interest. Everyone likes a great story. The ammount of stick that Cav gets on here is unbelieveable and i've read quite a lot of the "proof" that lance doped. But, to me it's all "he said that", "she said this" and to be honest, it just strikes me as people trying to make a name for themselves or other mischevious reasons... So far it strikes me as an everyone was doping, and yet he still won, so he must have been kind of thing. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
And the cancer thing? Well, before it he wasn't bad was he? And then he lost a lot of upper body weight and his whole shape changed. Giving hima climbers physique.
Maybe i'm just naive, but maybe his acheivments shouln't be scorned because of other peoples bad choices.
For the record, i'm not a Lance fan and would rather someone else won it.http://www.KOWONO.com - Design-Led home furniture and accessories.0 -
haha - rob ... I'm not over 60
without being particularly knowledgeable I've always agreed with Lance's line that ageing is over-rated for decline in performance (at least in 30s and 40s). Older people who are still very fit have told me that only in theier 50s did they really start to notice changes.
so that is encouraging for us all.
and i take my hat off to guys like malcolm elliot for riding at that age ... it's needed to counter the excuse of getting old
maybe he can do the tour and still bury himself in the olsen sisters which sound not a bad way to spend the year0 -
The winner in the Women's Marathon in Beijing was 38 (i think). I think Endurance athletes can survive much longer in professional sport.http://www.KOWONO.com - Design-Led home furniture and accessories.0
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You are naive. We all start out like that. Ask Iain. Well, actually you can't now. Bet he can't avoid it for that long.....0
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This does open up so many questions, amongst others :
- Following conventional (cycling forum) wisdom he’ll need to be packed with cells and have a very strong team around him doing the same to have a chance, how will he get on without this ?
- Do we expect an LA riding at Sestriere 99 speeds or something slower ? What if he is at the same speed as before ? What if he isn’t ?
- What does these mean for the other GC contenders ? Will they be in his new team or riding against him ?
- Why not have kept Discovery going if he wanted to ride again and needs to create a team ?
- How will ASO react to this ? Will they let him in ?
- Will winning ‘clean’ make any difference to the perception of his previous wins ?
One thing is for sure, his will to win borders on derangement, so I can’t see him getting dropped on a summit finish in a hurry. I presume that after some training he has done the tests that showed his wattage is >= to that of the Grand Tour winners this year and as such on paper he should win.
Also, it’s a marketing mans dream, it’s story (again) that transcends sport. And with Basso and Contador back, and Cavendish winning consistently next years tour will be ridiculously big. ASO have sporting dynamite next July whatever happens. The next nine months are going to be very interesting.0 -
i 'd much rather have a tour like 2008 ... no huge cheating scandal that wrecks the GC and less "superstars" . instead just a good race0
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Of course being the cynical conspiracy theorist that I am, lets just look at what might happen.
Johan Bruneel, formerly DS (Director Sportif) of Discovery team, and now DS of Astana,has already said that he is NOT interested, yeah right!. Signs up LA with one goal in mind, TDF, with LA on the team ASO could not refuse Astana a ride. LA rides the first week, and then bails, goes home and picks up a big fat pay cheque (or is that check?).
Who at Astana is going to give up their berth for him, Contador? not a chance, Leipheimer, well those 2 have history, so not a chance. Without some VERY strong Lieutenants he won't win TDF. Other teams may want him, but won't be able to support either his big fat salary or Ego.
Of course he could just want to come back to prove that he CAN do it without any "Outside" help.0 -
yesssssssssssssssssssssss.....he's back
the legend returns....cmon Lance0 -
I think it's almost certain he'll have to create his own team. Which will probably be distinctly average.0
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maybe ... he could presumably afford to pay riders some big $$ to ride with him for a seaon though. the sponsorship he'll be able to get will easily cover some fat pay cheques for domestiques.0
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Its been possible to win the tour in the past without a strong team. Look at Lemond when he was with Agrigel. Did they even send a team ?
He'll gain time on the time trials no doubt so he has that ace. He just needs some teams to keep control in the hills and not let silly breaks go on flat stages. So thats Columbia who are all too keen to get the bunch sprints going.
I'm excited about all of this. I think he'll set up a new team. Maybe it wont be as successful as his former one, but nothing ventured....0 -
I think the sport has moved on from the Armstrong era, and i think its a shame that he's decided to come back, but at the same time, for all of those that have been swayed by the mass of theories on supposed doping (like myself) it will be interesting to see how he does, because you can guarantee he'll be massively tested, and i'm guessing he may be way off the pace. It would be a shame to see him getting spanked, but at the same it would tell us a lot.0
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stueyc wrote:yesssssssssssssssssssssss.....he's back
the legend returns....cmon Lance
agreed +10 -
Do people expect him to charge off up the mountains and defend every attack by himself ? Bet Riis is plotting right now. I hope no-one plans a wedding or anything silly like that on the mountain days.
As an side, I'm just trying to contemplate the zillions of posts there will be on this subject coming up, it will keep a dull winter interesting but I do feel for the rest of cycling, it just gets swallowed up.
Can't believe we are even discussing this, it's bizarre !0 -
off the back wrote:I dont believe the real cycling fans want him back. He epitomizes the darkest period of cyclings history and was central in creating a win at all cost drug taking mentality. The sport has since moved on and it does not need to have him back to remind of how bad it was. Why not just dig up the trial of destruction and lost lives and parade these corpses to all the races to remind us what the last 2 decades have been about. A bad day for cycling :-(
Lets hope the tour refuse him a start and nip this in the bud! If he shared a flat with Kimmage for teh next 10months I still wouldn't believe he is clean!!
The sport is considerably less wealthy than it was during his peak. It was one of the most lucrative in the history of the sport. Yeah was really bad
Darkest period in the sport? Far better than the period when riders were routinely taking industrial amounts of amphetamines, barbiturates and opiates and riding for pocket change 200 days plus a year. Or that bit where Telekom and the Italian Federation were making it a matter of course to dope their riders, both of which sort of pre-date the prime of Armstrong's career.0 -
robthehungrymonkey wrote:And the cancer thing? Well, before it he wasn't bad was he?
He couldn't been that bad before the cancer to be a World Champion0 -
Just when I was beginning to think that cycling was really moving on from the bad old Epo and `800 ml of packed cells` days, first Hamilton returns to racing and now this!
I too have little inclination to waste time `debating` Armstrong`s `comeback`. I have just about had enough of the circus pro-cycling has become. and if is this for real I certainly can`t see myself going to see the Tour next year, something I had promised myself I would do if the good work by the ASO continued to save cycling from the pit is has fallen into.
Just a couple of passing observations: Firstly, explicit in Armstrong`s comments is the acceptance that when he `won` his 7 Tours, it was quite possible to get away with doping. For him to claim he was the exception he would have to race at a level comparable to when he `won` those 7 Tours. However, even if his test data was made public would this really prove he was clean? For example, what about `800 ml of packed cells` autologous blood doping? As far as I understand there is still no certified test for this.
So what is Armstrong up to? Given he is a master of spin and propaganda we can`t be certain. Looking on the positive side perhaps he believes that the racing is cleaner these days and his arrogance is such that he also believes he can still win if the rest of the field is no longer doped, even if he needed to dope in order to win during the Epo era. On the other hand perhaps the new `clean` era is just another sham and he knows that with careful manipulation of one`s parameters, micro-dosing and all the rest the careful doper can still stay one step ahead of the testers.
Given that the name Armstrong and the issue of doping have become synonymous, I cannot see how his `comeback` can be good for cycling.
Anyhow, that my tuppence worth. For now I`m just going to wait to see what comes of this `comeback`. You can read William Fotheringham`s views on the issue via the link below.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/se ... e.cycling10
