Lance 'hinting' he might not contest 2009 TdF

SpaceJunk

Check out this link:


http://au.sports.yahoo.com/news/article/-/5123161/armstrong-fears-safety-tour

Make what you want of it.

DavMartinR

If he did ride the tour with all the animosity he will had some security ?

A couple of 6ft 6" bodyguards in suits and long coats to hide the weapons, on blacked on mountain bikes riding on each shoulder??

SpaceJunk

DavMartinR wrote:

If he did ride the tour with all the animosity he will had some security ?

A couple of 6ft 6" bodyguards in suits and long coats to hide the weapons, on blacked on mountain bikes riding on each shoulder??

Yeah - I reckon the penultimate stage up Ventoux will see Lance 'dancing on the pedals' of his Trek issued bullet-proof bike, flanked by Clint Eastwood and Renee Russo who are ready to take a shot from a John Malkovich would-be assassin.

You never know, LA could asked the UCI to 'bend the rules' again and allow him to do the TdF in the Pope-mobile. I reckon an 8th win isn't too far away!!

LangerDan

Is there the slightest chance that a certain retired, middle-aged racer has just realised what he's just let himself in for and is planning an exit strategy?

I did point out last month, after the "TdF must repect me" statement, that we can probably expect some form of PR or press release every forthnight or so to keep the pot boiling. This week we have TT results, wind tunnel tests and personal safety. Any guesses on the topics for 19th November?

12 speed prototype SRAM kit for his personal use?
Don Catlin being offered to replace the defunct ACE testing programme in Columbia and Garmin, at Lances own expense?
New signings for the U-23 squad?

iainf72

Couple of amusing comments in hereabout the new "openess"

vermooten

He's gone lavender on us.

Jeff Jones

iainf72 wrote:

Couple of amusing comments in hereabout the new "openess"

Regarding the openess, fair comment but we (BR/CN) were also informed at the last minute, and did manage to get two journalists to San Diego to cover the story.

Cumulonimbus

Are we going to have another 8 months of this will he-wont he? I may be in a cynical mood today but i just think that he likes the attention

iainf72

Jeff Jones wrote:

Regarding the openess, fair comment but we (BR/CN) were also informed at the last minute, and did manage to get two journalists to San Diego to cover the story.

Can you ask the journalists if it's true his jowels flapped in the wind?

blazing_saddles

iainf72 wrote:

Jeff Jones wrote:

Regarding the openess, fair comment but we (BR/CN) were also informed at the last minute, and did manage to get two journalists to San Diego to cover the story.

Can you ask the journalists if it's true his jowels flapped in the wind?

Better run that by Dennis. See if second-hand knowledge is accepted as fact around here. :roll:
As we have said, nothing has changed. Give him and all the "stories" a wide berth, until he actually starts riding again......at the top table.

Frank Booth

Blazing Saddles wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Jeff Jones wrote:

Regarding the openess, fair comment but we (BR/CN) were also informed at the last minute, and did manage to get two journalists to San Diego to cover the story.

Can you ask the journalists if it's true his jowels flapped in the wind?

Better run that by Dennis. See if second-hand knowledge is accepted as fact around here. :roll:
As we have said, nothing has changed. Give him and all the "stories" a wide berth, until he actually starts riding again......at the top table.

Second hand knowledge is what BR/CN is all about, isn't it? :twisted:

le_patron

He's riding Flanders...that'll be interesting seeing him walk up the Koppenberg (unless he's near the front and rides up). I guess all that MTB will help.

iainf72

le patron wrote:

He's riding Flanders...that'll be interesting seeing him walk up the Koppenberg (unless he's near the front and rides up). I guess all that MTB will help.

He's done it before without walking AFAIK.

I think it was in 05. He went to Paris-Nice and was fat and rubbish. Abandoned, went to Tenerife and returned a month later in better shape.

Patrick1.0

"To them panache is the guy who suffers and is swinging all over his bike and looks like he's about to fall off. And I've never found that to be an effective way to try to win."


I found this bit funny. I think it's an interesting point because looking back at the pre epo Tours, people used to show a lot more emotion on their bike. I guess they weren't full up to the gills with oxygen back then and the suffering was different.

Wooliferkins

Was it not 2005 that Armstrong said he might not compete in the Tour? I seem to remember that had the press and forums buzzing as well. He is nearly as good a press manipulator as Diana was. (Dons body armour and waits for the assassins from the Express)

aurelio_-_banned

LangerDan wrote:

Is there the slightest chance that a certain retired, middle-aged racer has just realised what he's just let himself in for and is planning an exit strategy?

Could be. Either that or he is just indulging himself in one of his favourite pastimes- exploiting and feeding anti-French xenophobia.

His claim to feel threatened does seem rather odd given that most of `the French` couldn`t give a monkeys about the Tour, let alone Armstrong`s participation in it. What`s more Armstrong himself recently claimed that most road-side fans in France were rooting for him. As he said in that Vanity Fair interview:

The papers loved to write that I was the most hated athlete in France, but I’m the guy who rides through that kind of shit. They don’t sit on the bike with me and so, you know, out of 100 people, did you have 10 people throwin’ shit at you, yellin’, ‘Dopé, dopé’? Yeah. But you had 90 goin’, ‘Allez Lance! Allez Lance!’ I can do the math on that. My approval rating is 90 percent. Fuckin’ A. I like that.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/featu ... rentPage=5

dennisn

While the soap opera continues to gain steam it got me thinking about how many
"retired" athletes have made or attempted to make comebacks. Some make it some don't.
There was Arnold who just had to win one more Olympia crown. George Foreman,
who possibly retired early, making a good snowing of himself and selling grills on top of it.
I think everyone who has been "on top of the world", and even a lot who haven't, want
to give it a try again. Look at the Senior golf tourneys. Two years ago I swore that I
would never do The Bike Tour of Colorado again. Too brutal and I'm "too old for this sh*t".
So what did I just sign up for again??? Either I'm an idiot(very likely) or something in me
just won't let me stop. Probably a little of both but I think I understand why people don't
want to stop doing what keeps them going in life. I doubt that I will stop doing the Colorado tour until I'm physically unable or just finally scream "uncle" one last time. Can't
be much different for the "pros".

Dennis Noward

DavMartinR

There's life in the old dog yet Dennis?

It's odd isn't how we can't let somethings go.

I heard of a couple that won a million on the football pools. They both worked in the local abattoir up to their nuts in guts, so they pack their jobs in and have 2 weeks in the sun.
Three weeks later they are knocking on the abattiors managers door asking for there jobs back?? They just missed their jobs.

It takes alsorts.

dennisn

DavMartinR wrote:

There's life in the old dog yet Dennis?

It's odd isn't how we can't let somethings go.

I heard of a couple that won a million on the football pools. They both worked in the local abattoir up to their nuts in guts, so they pack their jobs in and have 2 weeks in the sun.
Three weeks later they are knocking on the abattiors managers door asking for there jobs back?? They just missed their jobs.

It takes alsorts.

It's hard for me to quit doing something I like. Maybe all those hours of climbing at high altitude will eventually beat me down(like they seem to do each year) but I really love just being in Colorado. The mountains do something for me, whether I'm cycling, skiing, camping, whatever. For some reason each year I swear no more and each year I find
myself looking forward to the next one. It must really be hard to retire from something you
love and know that you're still good enough to go out and play with the big boys. Maybe not what you used to be but still out there having a go at it is what it's all about.

Dennis Noward

blazing_saddles

1998 Pantani wins the "double" (Giro and Tour)
2006 Basso, if not OP'd, would have won the same "double", by most people's assessment.
2007-2008 Contador wins all three GT's, including a 2008 "double".

LA's year's bookmarked by these exploit's? I think someone's ego blew a gasket, hence the Giro attempt.
If, by some miracle, he wins, Bertie can forget leading the TDF team and get those water bottle carrying honed.
LA want's a "double" too.

He should have thought of that, back in 2002, when he thrashed a pathetically weak Tour field and Savoldelli, riding for a Pro Conti team took the Giro title, from a guy with a broken shoulder.
I'm afraid that boat has sailed, Lance.:oops:

Aggieboy

dennisn wrote:

While the soap opera continues to gain steam it got me thinking about how many
"retired" athletes have made or attempted to make comebacks. Some make it some don't.
There was Arnold who just had to win one more Olympia crown. George Foreman,
who possibly retired early, making a good snowing of himself and selling grills on top of it.
I think everyone who has been "on top of the world", and even a lot who haven't, want
to give it a try again. Look at the Senior golf tourneys. Two years ago I swore that I
would never do The Bike Tour of Colorado again. Too brutal and I'm "too old for this sh*t".
So what did I just sign up for again??? Either I'm an idiot(very likely) or something in me
just won't let me stop. Probably a little of both but I think I understand why people don't
want to stop doing what keeps them going in life. I doubt that I will stop doing the Colorado tour until I'm physically unable or just finally scream "uncle" one last time. Can't
be much different for the "pros".

Dennis Noward

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I'm with you on this Dennis. People think I'm an idiot for doing things people half my age can't be bothered to do,such as going off cycling and camping for a month in the Picos mountains in Spain,but I'm fit and I enjoy it. Profound as it sounds for me I think it's also to do with getting older and not wanting to stop while I'm stll able. You're a long time dead!

dennisn

Aggieboy wrote:

dennisn wrote:

While the soap opera continues to gain steam it got me thinking about how many
"retired" athletes have made or attempted to make comebacks. Some make it some don't.
There was Arnold who just had to win one more Olympia crown. George Foreman,
who possibly retired early, making a good snowing of himself and selling grills on top of it.
I think everyone who has been "on top of the world", and even a lot who haven't, want
to give it a try again. Look at the Senior golf tourneys. Two years ago I swore that I
would never do The Bike Tour of Colorado again. Too brutal and I'm "too old for this sh*t".
So what did I just sign up for again??? Either I'm an idiot(very likely) or something in me
just won't let me stop. Probably a little of both but I think I understand why people don't
want to stop doing what keeps them going in life. I doubt that I will stop doing the Colorado tour until I'm physically unable or just finally scream "uncle" one last time. Can't
be much different for the "pros".

Dennis Noward

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I'm with you on this Dennis. People think I'm an idiot for doing things people half my age can't be bothered to do,such as going off cycling and camping for a month in the Picos mountains in Spain,but I'm fit and I enjoy it. Profound as it sounds for me I think it's also to do with getting older and not wanting to stop while I'm stll able. You're a long time dead!

".... while I'm still able." I think that's it. That or be a couch potato. I'm going to Colorado
next year and while it probably won't be very pretty I'll give it my best shot.

Dennis Noward

leguape

iainf72 wrote:

Couple of amusing comments in hereabout the new "openess"

I read it as "we're too disorganised to have a stringer in the States who could do an overnight and too tight to buy in a freelancer we can trust". If they've got a problem with the PR, take it up with the PR, don't pin it on Armstrong for a cheap shot.

It'd have much more weight if they'd printed the number of requests they've made and dates alongside a list of the press releases received rather than attempted to editorialise it. Points scoring doesn't get you access.

And by the looks of things (from Jeff's comments and pictures etc I've seen) quite a few other publications did decide it was worth the effort. EDIT - and I've no idea since when it became incumbent on the interviewee to fit their plans around the press.