Pierre Ballester and David Walsh make a comeback, too!

drenkrom

Oh yes! Here we go again for another round of media snubbing and legal threats!

Ballester and Walsh launch another book on Armstrong, this time concentrating on the behind-the-scenes aspects of his return to competition. The foundations of Livestrong (and its new for-profit arm), Armstrong's desire to launch into US politics and the politics of cycling seem to be the focus. A plus for many on here, Hein Verbruggen seems to be in there for a washing as well.

Description and mini-interviews (all in French):
http://www.rue89.com/2009/06/03/argent- ... darmstrong

While the release seems a tad opportunistic, the subjects covered look very interesting. No word on an English release that I know of, though.

hommelbier

Further info in English on this book, published in VeloNews International. Looks to be highly controversial - LA for Governor of Texas? could he follow in Dubya's footsteps even?

http://velonews.com/article/11057

micron

I wonder if he could survive the scrutiny of an all out dirty tricks campaign? After all, there's more than enough ammunition and, the more stuff Walsh and Ballester get out there (they're promising new evidence and unpublished interviews), the more his potential political opponents have to work with.

leguape

drenkrom wrote:

Oh yes! Here we go again for another round of media snubbing and legal threats!

Ballester and Walsh launch another book on Armstrong, this time concentrating on the behind-the-scenes aspects of his return to competition. The foundations of Livestrong (and its new for-profit arm), Armstrong's desire to launch into US politics and the politics of cycling seem to be the focus. A plus for many on here, Hein Verbruggen seems to be in there for a washing as well.

Description and mini-interviews (all in French):
http://www.rue89.com/2009/06/03/argent- ... darmstrong

While the release seems a tad opportunistic, the subjects covered look very interesting. No word on an English release that I know of, though.

I'd imagine they'd be hard pushed for a UK edition because of the way libel works over here.

dave_1

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :roll:

blazing_saddles

Dave in fanboy mode again?

I predict a flurry of intense twitter activity!

According to Ballester and Walsh, Armstrong, after unsuccessfully bidding for shares of the company holding the Tour de France, came back to cycling to increase his personal wealth.

"Since last summer, his [non-profit] Livestrong foundation has a lucrative segment," said Ballester. "And when Armstrong receives 200,000 Euro to host a conference, he puts it into his pocket - unlike the leading cancer experts, who will donate the money."

The authors also claim that Armstrong has a political objective: become the governor of Texas in 2014. In the second half of the Book, Walsh and Ballester ask sports politicians about Armstrong's return, with former French sports secretary Jean-François Lamour saying, "This comeback is not a very good sign. It's even a kind of a masquerade."

Moreover, Ballester accused the organisers of the Tour de France, ASO, to privilege their business over the sports aspect at the Grande Boucle. "ASO's new strategy is more turned towards business than the credibility of the sport," said Walsh. "In allowing Armstrong to come back to the Tour, will be coming back also the ghosts of the past: doping, scheming, bribery... They must have weighed pros and cons, more important and less important, and decided in favour of Armstrong's return."

Starting to look that way, with the ASO, I'm afraid. Even appeasing his highness with the muzzling of L'Equipe.

DaveyL

That's astounding, what with ASO being, er, a business... Who'd a thunk it?

blazing_saddles

Uummm well, yes.
Reminds me of the old prositute joke about establishing what they are and just haggling over the price.
2007/2008 were years where it was commercially viable to take a hard line doping stance.
2009, time to spread zee legs again. Beaucoup de Lance dollars to be earned etc.

2008: 6 CERA'd by the ASO, while the UCI feared to tread.
2009: What price 0 positives, as the peloton breezes along at 50kph, waving their user friendly passports at Pierre and le lads. :roll:

DaveyL

Well, it's a nice reminder to anyone who might be tempted to think ASO are the knights in shining armour out to clean up the sport. They are a business, first and foremost.

flattythehurdler

Anyone lining up for a job which requires their seal of authority on a death sentance is odd in the extreme (unless they are intent on refusing)

aurelio_-_banned

DaveyL wrote:

Well, it's a nice reminder to anyone who might be tempted to think ASO are the knights in shining armour out to clean up the sport.

No, that was Patrice Clerc. I wonder what he is doing now?

djfrey

Here we go again is right. From what I've heard, the Ballester/Walsh book accuses Lance Armstrong of using funds from Livestrong for his personal use in financing his cycling comeback, and his plans for using the charitable organization to further fund his 2014 bid for governor of Texas. Don't know if any of this is in the book. It seems rather stupid of Ballester and Walsh to print something so obviously false that Lance, and probably the Livestrong Foundation, will sue them for slander. But hey, attention and publicity is what they're after, to sell copies of an otherwise unsellable book. Really, those two guys ought to be loving Lance by now. He seems to be their cash cow

---

the only one they have.

dave_1

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Dave in fanboy mode again?

I predict a flurry of intense twitter activity!

According e.

Oh...I am sorry...it's so politically incorrect now on bikeradar to not trash a guy who wins worlds ahead of Indurain and Ludwig, mussuew... at 21, TDF stages at 23, beats EPO ferrari trained stage racers in stage races at 25...ah...yeah...I should sneer and making doping accusations against LA cause if not will be hassled on bikeradar pro race by you lot. I respect Armstrong's achievements on the bike...if that attracts the fanboy tag then so be it

As for twitter..I can't see it as the thought police have blocked that site here in Beijing so I will have to rely on the good Bobby and Pierre for some comment

aurelio_-_banned

djfrey wrote:

...the Ballester/Walsh book accuses Lance Armstrong of using funds from Livestrong for his personal use in financing his cycling comeback, and his plans for using the charitable organization to further fund his 2014 bid for governor of Texas. Don't know if any of this is in the book.

So not only do have you no idea what is actually in the book, in your foam-flecked eagerness to defend him you can't even write two sentences that don't contradict each other. :roll:

mercsport

djfrey wrote:

Here we go again is right. From what I've heard, the Ballester/Walsh book accuses Lance Armstrong of using funds from Livestrong for his personal use in financing his cycling comeback, and his plans for using the charitable organization to further fund his 2014 bid for governor of Texas. Don't know if any of this is in the book. It seems rather stupid of Ballester and Walsh to print something so obviously false that Lance, and probably the Livestrong Foundation, will sue them for slander. But hey, attention and publicity is what they're after, to sell copies of an otherwise unsellable book. Really, those two guys ought to be loving Lance by now. He seems to be their cash cow

---

the only one they have.

I usually keep out of this 'Lance -stuff ' on here and rely on aurelio to say it like it is . But I think it may be worth pointing out that Ballester and Walsh are professional hacks that know full well , if they want to make some easy money ,additional to their daily toil ,all they would have to do is to knock out another book on 'Jordan and Peter ' , Royalty , Beckham and related tosh without end . Why bother trying to nail the gob-shite that is LA ? That must come under the heading of ' hard work' .

I genuinely believe the pair of them are driven by what Jonathan Aitken once famously declared ' The Sword of Truth ' , except , in this case , without Aitken's accompanying deceit .

cougie

But they're not publishing in UK ?

If they can prove their allegations - why not publish here where they could be sued but make their case ?

alanmcn1

Dave_1 wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Dave in fanboy mode again?

I predict a flurry of intense twitter activity!

According e.

Oh...I am sorry...it's so politically incorrect now on bikeradar to not trash a guy who wins worlds ahead of Indurain and Ludwig, mussuew... at 21, TDF stages at 23, beats EPO ferrari trained stage racers in stage races at 25...ah...yeah...I should sneer and making doping accusations against LA cause if not will be hassled on bikeradar pro race by you lot. I respect Armstrong's achievements on the bike...if that attracts the fanboy tag then so be it

As for twitter..I can't see it as the thought police have blocked that site here in Beijing so I will have to rely on the good Bobby and Pierre for some comment

errrmmmmmmmmm......wasn't LA trained by a certain dubious Italian doctor

dave_1

alanmcn1 wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Dave in fanboy mode again?

I predict a flurry of intense twitter activity!

According e.

Oh...I am sorry...it's so politically incorrect now on bikeradar to not trash a guy who wins worlds ahead of Indurain and Ludwig, mussuew... at 21, TDF stages at 23, beats EPO ferrari trained stage racers in stage races at 25...ah...yeah...I should sneer and making doping accusations against LA cause if not will be hassled on bikeradar pro race by you lot. I respect Armstrong's achievements on the bike...if that attracts the fanboy tag then so be it

As for twitter..I can't see it as the thought police have blocked that site here in Beijing so I will have to rely on the good Bobby and Pierre for some comment

errrmmmmmmmmm......wasn't LA trained by a certain dubious Italian doctor

yeah...but was that not from 2000 onward?

aurelio_-_banned

Dave_1 wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

errrmmmmmmmmm......wasn't LA trained by a certain dubious Italian doctor

yeah...but was that not from 2000 onward?

Er, no, from 1995 onwards.

---

... Ferrari's help was both more significant and more extended than early reports had shown. In June 2004 Sunday Times writer David Walsh and French journalist Pierre Ballester published LA Confidentiel, a book that attempts to list every bad thing Armstrong has allegedly ever done. (Armstrong is suing Walsh, Ballester and nine other related parties for libel, and the French-language book has never been published in English.) The book doesn't spell out exactly what Ferrari is supposed to have done for Armstrong. But from Italian investigators, who had access to hotel records, Walsh learned that Armstrong had visited Ferrara on numerous occasions, which he listed: "two days in March 1999, three days in May 2000, two days in August 2000, one day in September 2000 and three days in late April/early May of this year [2001]." Those visits came at key points, for Tour preparation and just before the 2000 Olympics, where Armstrong wanted a medal.

Their relationship began as long ago as 1995, when Eddy Merckx had called Ferrari, asking him to take on a new client, a young American who'd won a Tour stage as well as the San Sebastian Classic that year. Ferrari wasn't interested, he says, but Merckx persisted, and in November of 1995 Lance Armstrong came to Ferrara for the Test.

At the time, Armstrong was riding for Motorola and living in Como, Italy, about three hours from Ferrara by car. He was primarily a one-day rider who aimed to win Classics: long, tough one-day races with short, steep climbs. Ferrari was impressed by the test results, and Armstrong became a regular visitor, coming every three or four weeks, Ferrari says. The doctor, Armstrong and Carmichael also went to San Diego that year for a personalized training camp of the sort that later became a centerpiece of Armstrong's training program. Armstrong started the next season, 1996, with increased strength. He won the Classic Flèche Wallonne, and America's biggest race at the time, the Tour DuPont, against an international field. But by the Tour de France, he was strangely off form, and abandoned halfway through. In October, he was diagnosed with cancer.

In January of 1997, just after he had finished chemotherapy, Armstrong paid Ferrari a visit and, when he resumed training in anticipation of his comeback in 1998, the close relationship with Ferrari resumed, the doctor says. Ferrari says he now traveled to meet his famous client, first to Nice, where he'd test Armstrong on the Col de la Madone climb just outside town, and then to Girona, where Armstrong moved in 2001. Ferrari also says he began working with Kevin Livingston and Tyler Hamilton, Armstrong's top lieutenants in those days. But even then, Ferrari's reputation was problematic for some riders. Frankie Andreu, another loyal Armstrong teammate, declined to work with Ferrari, he says, because of the doctor's reputation.

In the following years, Ferrari established a working relationship with the U.S. Postal Service team. He has tested George Hincapie and Floyd Landis, for example; often, he says, team director Johan Bruyneel would send him a new recruit or a young prospect for evaluation. During 2004, Ferrari paid several visits to Girona, and conducted training camps in Switzerland and the Canary Islands, according to Daniel Coyle's 2005 book, Lance Armstrong's War. Armstrong even bestowed a nickname on Ferrari, calling him Schumi, after Formula One driver Michael Schumacher.

One early indication of Ferrari's importance arose during the 2000 Tour, when Johan Bruyneel called the doctor from the team car during Stage 16 to Morzine. Marco Pantani had opened a threatening gap with a hard attack on a climb, and Bruyneel and Armstrong knew Ferrari could tell them if the wispy climber could maintain the withering pace. Like most Ferrari stories, this one was reported as a kind of mini-scandal-as if Ferrari had somehow injected some kind of drug over the phone. Bruyneel was less interested in EPO than in VAM, a measurement devised by Ferrari to quantify a rider's ability to climb.

"I remember, I was walking in the woods," Ferrari says. "I probably said three words: 'Let him hang.'"

Pantani cracked.

In September 2001, the trial of Dr. Michele Ferrari began. By that point, the Italian police had been investigating him for more than five years. They had noticed that a pharmacy in Bologna was moving a huge volume of EPO and other performance-enhancing drugs and supplements, so they wiretapped the store. On one recording, the store owner cackled, "Ferrari has emptied my pharmacy!"

On August 12, 1998, police had raided Ferrari's home, seizing files and records, including riders' training diaries. At one point, Ferrari says, he asked the lead officer what exactly they were looking for. "He says to me, 'We want to see what you do.'"

Instead they found out who Ferrari did it with. Among the riders whose files were found were Claudio Chiappucci, Axel Merckx (son of Eddy), Kevin Livingston and Gianluca Bortolami, whose Festina team had been at the center of that year's Tour de France drug scandal. They also seized the diary of a young rider named Filippo Simeoni. There was very little pertaining to Armstrong, who'd spent the 1997 season battling cancer.

There were charts and tables of the riders' blood tests, with their all-important hematocrit values, showing the percentage of red cells in their blood. (Livingston's went from less than 42 percent to 49.9, just one-tenth shy of the 50-percent limit imposed by the UCI in 1997; Armstrong's highest was just below 47 percent.) None of the diaries seemed to document drug use. They appeared to be ordinary training logs, with each week's workouts detailed in Ferrari's own hand. The investigators noticed asterisks on specific days, but there was no key to help them decipher the marks.

Six months later, the asterisks were decoded. In February 1999, prosecutor Giovanni Spinosa-himself an avid cyclist-questioned several riders at an early season race in Italy. After two hours and 45 minutes of post-race interrogation, a weary Bortolami admitted that the marks on his training program were coded reminders of when he should take EPO and steroids.

From the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Bicycling magazine.

dave_1

aurelio wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

errrmmmmmmmmm......wasn't LA trained by a certain dubious Italian doctor

yeah...but was that not from 2000 onward?

Er, no, from 1995 onwards.

---

... Ferrari's help was both more significant and more extended than early reports had shown. In June 2004 Sunday Ti
From the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Bicycling magazine.

whatever...you still don't know much about what it takes to succeed in the sport and everyone can see that no matter how serious you take yourself to be...numpty

FOAD

Dave_1 wrote:

aurelio wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

alanmcn1 wrote:

errrmmmmmmmmm......wasn't LA trained by a certain dubious Italian doctor

yeah...but was that not from 2000 onward?

Er, no, from 1995 onwards.

---

... Ferrari's help was both more significant and more extended than early reports had shown. In June 2004 Sunday Ti
From the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Bicycling magazine.

whatever...you still don't know much about what it takes to succeed in the sport and everyone can see that no matter how serious you take yourself to be...numpty

I could be mistaken, but I do think we have a bite......

drenkrom

... you guys always keep banging the same nails, don't you? There is information that half of Livestrong is a for-profit company since last summer, that revenues go into that half of the "foundation" and that Livestrong execs admit that, if the for-profit part goes well, they'll shut down the non-profit half. Might I remind you that Armstrong's not getting "appearance fees", but "substantial donations" for his racing this year? Which half do you think that goes into? How much of a war chest do you think Livestrong is becoming?

The whole point of this book is that things go way beyond sport. Sport is a political and financial tool used to massive effect. Ballester and Walsh set off to explore that through Lance Armstrong's return to competition. This book is not about doping.

And you're still banging the Ferrari nail...

micron

But you have to wonder where Armstrong would have been without the old family friend - would he have won 7 straight TdFs? Unlikely, given his previous form in the race - not to say that he might not have competed for the GC at some point but unlikely to have been so dominant. And that dominance at the TdF - not the early reasonably successful Classics career - is what he will aim to build his political career on. It is acceptable, therefore, just to accept that that dominance may be entirely fraudulent? Or does an investigation of corruption at the UCI, of the dubious provenance of Livestrong.com (set up by a renowned spammer), of political ambitions funded from appearance fees not deserve to explore the fraud that underpins it all?

dave_1

micron wrote:

But you have to wonder where Armstrong would have been without the old family friend - would he have won 7 straight TdFs? Unlikely, given his previous form in the race - not to say that he might not have competed for the GC at some point but unlikely to have been so dominant. And that dominance at the TdF - not the early reasonably successful Classics career - is what he will aim to build his political career on. It is acceptable, therefore, just to accept that that dominance may be entirely fraudulent? Or does an investigation of corruption at the UCI, of the dubious provenance of Livestrong.com (set up by a renowned spammer), of political ambitions funded from appearance fees not deserve to explore the fraud that underpins it all?

you can give Sinkewitz and Kohl all the drugs and doping Drs in the world but they would never win the TDF 7 times on the trot..... totally ACCEPT the livestrong stuff is bolloxss though

jimmythecuckoo

I am softening my stance on Armstrong a bit based on that last sentance.

If they were all at it... Basso, Ullrich, Pantani et al... does that not still make LA the best rider?

Not saying doping is right or anything, merely pointing out my stance.

iainf72

Brilliant Walsh interview on the new book

http://velocitynation.com/content/inter ... avid-walsh

Kléber

Fantastic interview, thanks for spotting it.

andyp

I've finally had the chance to read that interview in my lunch hour. Thanks for posting it Iain, a very interesting read.

dave_1

thanks for the link Iain....interesting stuff...some of what's in it will have LA's blood boiling...Andy Shen, whoever he is, is providing some top quality interviews ...the likes of which i have not read anywhere before

dave_1

One thing re Walsh's comments...he says LA is sacred of ever going back into court again to have the issues "thrashed out"...but from Greg's comments a few days back, isn't it very much going to another court case about Lance A's and doping? ...looks like a very dirty messy court case coming up for LA thanks to TREK but I bet LA gets TREK to do a deal...kinda agree with Walsh

aurelio_-_banned

iainf72 wrote:

Brilliant Walsh interview on the new book

http://velocitynation.com/content/inter ... avid-walsh

From that interview.

---

Why can't you just let this all go and move on? Why are you always after Lance Armstrong?

DW: Because it matters. Because it's important. Why should I let it go? Why should I? I only speak for myself here, 'cause Pierre can answer his questions, but my attitude is, "I still have a view on this, I feel my view is valid, I don't see any reason for letting it go, 'cause Lance is still around."

We're going into a Tour de France now and he's a serious contender for the Tour, and my feeling was as soon as he came back, "Hold on, before we jump into this comeback, Lance, there's a few other issues we need to clear up about your past." You come back, and the first thing you say, virtually, is "I'm going to be transparent". Anyone who believes that Lance has been transparent, and the implication was he was willing to answer all questions, well that just hasn't happened. Nothing about his past has been discussed, that has not been entered into dialogue about, all the allegations remain, as far as Lance is concern, are buried in the past. And for me they shouldn't be.

Because we have to know if the guy who won the Tour de France seven times is a genuine champion or not. Because in my view, if he doped to win the Tour de France, which I believe he did, he's not a genuine champion. And other people will say, "Oh well, most of the other guys who rode those Tours were doping, so therefore he was the best." Well, I don't subscribe to that view. My view is that there were plenty of people who rode those Tours clean who were absolutely screwed by the system, and if we don't stand up for those people we shouldn't be in the jobs we're in.

---

I am glad to see that you regard this as being a 'brilliant' interview, instead of accusing Walsh of running a 'tedious campaign' against him....