Lance,not about the team ?

BikingBernie

jackhammer11 wrote:

He has donated millions to his own foundation.

Can you provide any proof of that?

BikingBernie

avalon wrote:

jackhammer11 wrote:

He has donated millions to his own foundation.

And drawn it out again utilising tax deductable charitable benefit perks maybe?

Quite possibly...

---

`Foundations... serve two immediate purposes: They can provide a hefty and long-term tax deduction on windfall signing bonuses and salaries. And they can supply positive public relations, if they flourish.

...On its own Web site, the National Heritage Foundation lists several reasons why agents should encourage their clients to start foundations. For one thing, agents may continue to be paid from the foundation after the athletes' retirement. Also listed: Community prestige, lower taxable income and the Pester Factor.

"Athletes are besieged with requests for funds by almost everyone they see," the site offers. "They would be able to say, 'All these matters are handled by my foundation.'"

On the 990 tax forms, charity for the wrong reason still counts as a write-off.`

http://www.sportsphilanthropyproject.co ... php?id=426

turkeytickler

pigman wrote:

I'm thinking Hitler and Thatcher. Both were effective at what they set out to do, but their egotistic, megalomanic and tenacious nature became their downfall. The former ended up with a gun to his head, the latter crying at the doors of No. 10 when all and sundry had deserted them, concluding that their judgements were not those of rational minded people.

Uh oh - time toinvoke Godwin's Law - this thread is technically over!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

iainf72

Bertie not impressed

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contado ... -armstrong

marie blanc2

For those sceptical about the car incident, it also comes up in an article in today's El Pais, which sums up Contador's relationship with his team in 6 incidents:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes ... idep_2/Tes

There are missing cars (to get him off the Ventoux, for instance) and some quotes from other riders, including Tom Boonen after seeing Contador unescorted at the tail-end of the peloton in the first week:
"I felt sorry for the way they were treating him. They were trying to break him."

dibdab

A thousand words

Arkibal

jackhammer11 wrote:

Arkibal wrote:

I've defended LA (and JB) many times here, but this Tour has really been an eye opener for me.
Let's just say I don't have anything good to say about LA (or JB) anymore.

AC didn't crack under the mental pressure from LA/JB, well done.
http://www.diariosur.es/20090727/deport ... 90727.html

They reporter names no source for this story.

If it's no coroborated elsewhere I wouldn't give it much attention.

I know his brother was at a couple of stages. Could be someone say the brother drive him to the stage and the rest is a product of an active imagination.

come on jack, LA is hard as nails, he did everything he could to crack AC...

le_patron

I am probably more impressed with how AC dealt with all this as I am in his ability to cycle round France quicker than anyone else.

It takes some nerve standing up to the LA machine and he kept a dignified quiet (whilst LA made patronising comments) and let his legs do the talking.

Winning 4 grand tours and beating Armstrong on the bike and off, takes some doing. He must be utterly exhausted.

No doubt LA sees this as round 1, more battles to come.

Arkibal

le patron wrote:

I am probably more impressed with how AC dealt with all this as I am in his ability to cycle round France quicker than anyone else.

It takes some nerve standing up to the LA machine and he kept a dignified quiet (whilst LA made patronising comments) and let his legs do the talking.

Winning 4 grand tours and beating Armstrong on the bike and off, takes some doing. He must be utterly exhausted.

No doubt LA sees this as round 1, more battles to come.

+1

podofdonny

As Brendan Gallaghher reports in today's Daily telegraph "Asked who his toughest opponent was he (Contador) answered simply "The Hotel".
Enough said
Thanks
podofdonny

knedlicky

BikingBernie wrote:

jackhammer11 wrote:

He has donated millions to his own foundation.

Can you provide any proof of that?

I don’t want to make a habit of this, but I think I have to defend jackhammer here – LA has according to his own words (i:e. first of all you have to believe LA for once) donated $7 million to his foundation and is the most generous individual donator. Since its creation in 1997, in total, the foundation has taken in about $250 million. This means, if true, he’s contributed 2.8% of its income.

On the other hand, I think you have to look at how this compares to his income. During the early 2000s, he was probably earning about $15 million per year, so maybe earned $100 million, between from the creation of the foundation till his first retirement.
It’s hard to judge what he earned in the last 3 years, but for the sake of argument, we’ll say $3.5 million per year, this including appearance money and book sales, $10.5 million over 3 years.

From racing this year, he's probably earned over $1 million appearance money and $200,00 prize money so far. More significant, however, is the money he’s received from sponsors when racing, from companies like Oakley, Nike and Trek. Apparently $½ miilion per year is the minimum they need to hand over for him to promote their products. In total this probably amounts to over $2 million per year, perhaps making his racing and sponsorship total at least $4 million this year, so far.

Then comes his fee for when giving a talk about his foundation, apparently about $120,000 per talk. Although he only managed one talk during the Tour, it’s said he manages about 50 talks per year, so meaning $6 million per year. If we just consider the last 4 years this amounts to $24 million. Note, this goes in his pocket, not the foundation’s. Also, for giving these talks on behalf of livestrong.org, he is also paid a fee by the foundation, although how much is undisclosed, but to be friendly to LA, we’ll say a nominal $10,000 per talk, so for 50 talks, $½ miilion per year, or $2 million over the last 4 years.

This means his income from cycling and working for the foundation since its creation is over $140 million. Add to this his income from livestrong.com, which is a purely commercial enterprise, and one can guess his income over the last 12 years is more like $200 million or more. His supposed donation of $7 million is therefore fairly paltry compared to both his verbal commitment to the cancer prevention cause and to his income.

dennisn

marie blanc2 wrote:

For those sceptical about the car incident, it also comes up in an article in today's El Pais, which sums up Contador's relationship with his team in 6 incidents:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes ... idep_2/Tes

There are missing cars (to get him off the Ventoux, for instance) and some quotes from other riders, including Tom Boonen after seeing Contador unescorted at the tail-end of the peloton in the first week:
"I felt sorry for the way they were treating him. They were trying to break him."

So, because AC says it, that makes it all true? Opps, sorry, you read it on the internet therefore it must be the word from on high. You think it's all cut and dried and everything is everybody elses fault except AC's. Did you ever consider that you might be wrong?
What makes AC's words any truer than anyone elses? You apparently don't buy into anything Lance says so why buy into AC. They could both be idiots or not but I doubt that YOU know one way or another.

Le Commentateur

dibdab wrote:

A thousand words

A thousand clicks of the mouse with Photoshop more likely. Just a bit too exaggerated to be believable.

thamacdaddy

What I don't get right about this its obvious there was a power struggle between AC and LA but there are 7 other guys on there and countless other staff. So was every member of astana against AC nd all trying to help LA? Does this say something about maybe how AC might actually treat others?

Its well documented LA can be a total single minded asshole apparently so how come riders and or staff stick with him? because of the money and success he brings helps them by too?

Be interesting to see anyways.

Le Commentateur

dennisn wrote:

marie blanc2 wrote:

For those sceptical about the car incident, it also comes up in an article in today's El Pais, which sums up Contador's relationship with his team in 6 incidents:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes ... idep_2/Tes

There are missing cars (to get him off the Ventoux, for instance) and some quotes from other riders, including Tom Boonen after seeing Contador unescorted at the tail-end of the peloton in the first week:
"I felt sorry for the way they were treating him. They were trying to break him."

So, because AC says it, that makes it all true? Opps, sorry, you read it on the internet therefore it must be the word from on high. You think it's all cut and dried and everything is everybody elses fault except AC's. Did you ever consider that you might be wrong?
What makes AC's words any truer than anyone elses? You apparently don't buy into anything Lance says so why buy into AC. They could both be idiots or not but I doubt that YOU know one way or another.

Well obviously Future Publishing needs to get in there with one of its magazines and set up an interview with Alberto. Publish and be damned and all that. Oh wait, might damage sales, especially in the US... and could Contador actually prove there were no cars or was he just mistaken? Might be a factor in a libel case.

dennisn

I'm always amazed at all the things people claim to know about other people. Yet how much do you or I or them even know about the people that live next to us? Or who we
work with 8 or 10 hours a day? How can you know someone and how they think through
newspapers, books, and the "media"? Doesn't make sense. Every time the athorities catch a mass murderer the people who knew him always say something to the effect
of "he was a quiet guy, minded his own business" or "I never thought for a moment
that he would be capable of things like that". So claiming that you know this or that about this person or that person is actually a pretty crazy thing to say. You don't know, you're only guessing.

Peakraider

dennisn wrote:

I'm always amazed at all the things people claim to know about other people. Yet how much do you or I or them even know about the people that live next to us? Or who we
work with 8 or 10 hours a day? How can you know someone and how they think through
newspapers, books, and the "media"? Doesn't make sense. Every time the athorities catch a mass murderer the people who knew him always say something to the effect
of "he was a quiet guy, minded his own business" or "I never thought for a moment
that he would be capable of things like that". So claiming that you know this or that about this person or that person is actually a pretty crazy thing to say. You don't know, you're only guessing.

You come out with this banal drivel repeatedly.


That Stalin bloke. How d'ya know he was a big meanie? Eh? You don't even know your own workmates.

Etc.

BikingBernie

knedlicky wrote:

BikingBernie wrote:

jackhammer11 wrote:

He has donated millions to his own foundation.

Can you provide any proof of that?

LA has according to his own words... donated $7 million to his foundation

I wasn't trying to claim he hadn't made any donation / doesn't have charitable giving as part of his tax management plan, just looking for some certifiable figures. Do you have a link for that figure?

knedlicky wrote:

his income from cycling and working for the foundation since its creation is over $140 million.

That is probably an under-estimation. For example his income was reported as being over 26 million dollars per year by 2005.

All in all, I am sure that whatever he contributes to the LAF is chickenfeed compared to the value of the PR he gets from the LAF in return. It is possibly infinitely greater, given that the tax deduction angle probably means that the net additional cost of his donations is zero!

Firecrakka

And with his political aspirations, is there an ulterior motive behind all this goodwill?

gabriel959

dennisn wrote:

marie blanc2 wrote:

For those sceptical about the car incident, it also comes up in an article in today's El Pais, which sums up Contador's relationship with his team in 6 incidents:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes ... idep_2/Tes

There are missing cars (to get him off the Ventoux, for instance) and some quotes from other riders, including Tom Boonen after seeing Contador unescorted at the tail-end of the peloton in the first week:
"I felt sorry for the way they were treating him. They were trying to break him."

So, because AC says it, that makes it all true? Opps, sorry, you read it on the internet therefore it must be the word from on high. You think it's all cut and dried and everything is everybody elses fault except AC's. Did you ever consider that you might be wrong?
What makes AC's words any truer than anyone elses? You apparently don't buy into anything Lance says so why buy into AC. They could both be idiots or not but I doubt that YOU know one way or another.

That newspaper is one of the most respected in Spain - and if you read it properly you also have other riders and people telling how it was. If you are not going to believe anyone then there is no point on reading anything ofc!

andyp

le patron wrote:

I am probably more impressed with how AC dealt with all this as I am in his ability to cycle round France quicker than anyone else.

It takes some nerve standing up to the LA machine and he kept a dignified quiet (whilst LA made patronising comments) and let his legs do the talking.

Winning 4 grand tours and beating Armstrong on the bike and off, takes some doing. He must be utterly exhausted.

No doubt LA sees this as round 1, more battles to come.

I tend to agree. Contador kept his own counsel throughout the Tour whilst Armstrong used the media to try and undermine him. That he coped with this pressure whilst winning the race shows remarkable resilience and strength of character.

dennisn

gabriel959 wrote:

dennisn wrote:

marie blanc2 wrote:

For those sceptical about the car incident, it also comes up in an article in today's El Pais, which sums up Contador's relationship with his team in 6 incidents:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes ... idep_2/Tes

There are missing cars (to get him off the Ventoux, for instance) and some quotes from other riders, including Tom Boonen after seeing Contador unescorted at the tail-end of the peloton in the first week:
"I felt sorry for the way they were treating him. They were trying to break him."

So, because AC says it, that makes it all true? Opps, sorry, you read it on the internet therefore it must be the word from on high. You think it's all cut and dried and everything is everybody elses fault except AC's. Did you ever consider that you might be wrong?
What makes AC's words any truer than anyone elses? You apparently don't buy into anything Lance says so why buy into AC. They could both be idiots or not but I doubt that YOU know one way or another.

That newspaper is one of the most respected in Spain - and if you read it properly you also have other riders and people telling how it was. If you are not going to believe anyone then there is no point on reading anything ofc!

Sorry, didn't realize that you got your info from "one of the most respected(newspapers) in Spain". Why what was I thinking? Probably some racially tinged thought like "Spanish paper, Spanish rider". But now that you tell me they are "..... most respected...." I've done a complete turnaround. I'm sure that the paper has gone out of it's way to cast LA in a very favorable light. After all they are "..... most respected...".

Doobz

dibdab wrote:

A thousand words

lol @ this pic..

dennisn

Peakraider wrote:

dennisn wrote:

I'm always amazed at all the things people claim to know about other people. Yet how much do you or I or them even know about the people that live next to us? Or who we
work with 8 or 10 hours a day? How can you know someone and how they think through
newspapers, books, and the "media"? Doesn't make sense. Every time the athorities catch a mass murderer the people who knew him always say something to the effect
of "he was a quiet guy, minded his own business" or "I never thought for a moment
that he would be capable of things like that". So claiming that you know this or that about this person or that person is actually a pretty crazy thing to say. You don't know, you're only guessing.

You come out with this banal drivel repeatedly.

I would agree with you about the banal drivel. With one exception. You said "you come out......". I would change that to "you AND I come out with......".
I guess the difference between you and I is, I know it's mostly drivel that I put out, but
you have yet to admit that you're doing the same thing.

BikingBernie

dennisn wrote:

Why what was I thinking? Probably some racially tinged thought like "Spanish paper, Spanish rider".

So, what do you make of all the fawning over Armstrong in the US media? Jingoistic bullshit perhaps?

dennisn

BikingBernie wrote:

dennisn wrote:

Why what was I thinking? Probably some racially tinged thought like "Spanish paper, Spanish rider".

So, what do you make of all the fawning over Armstrong in the US media? Jingoistic bullshit perhaps?

I'm sure it's also sort of "racially tinged", American paper, American rider. Little bit of nationalistic pride. Happens everywhere. Can Wiggins do any wrong over there in the UK? I'm also going to assume that anyone who might have prevented him from reaching the podium is lower than low.

robmanic1

BikingBernie wrote:

dennisn wrote:

Why what was I thinking? Probably some racially tinged thought like "Spanish paper, Spanish rider".

So, what do you make of all the fawning over Armstrong in the US media? Jingoistic bullshit perhaps?

Fawning/ hatred, I'm not sure which is worse.

dennisn

It has occurred to me that LA's legend(whether good or bad) will live forever at the rate
things are written and said about him. He will always be the "one", in the minds of people,
when the TDF is mentioned. 7 tour wins? Ya can't argue with that. Cancer survivor makes good. Accused of being everything from a demon to an angel to a doper to a hero to a regular guy(well, not very often). Worshipped by some. Probably a few others out there trying to put a curse on him. People just dying to meet him and others wishing he were dead. There is almost a whole industry of books being published about him. And they all sell pretty well. Weird thing about it is, that while a lot of this is what I would call "bad publicity", it seems to be the very engine that drives the legend. If he were perceived as a regular sort of guy I doubt he would be anywhere near as famous as he is now. Because of all the hoopla surrounding him he simply grows more famous day by day. There will be stories told and retold about him until they don't even vaguely resemble any event that actually took place.
But I ramble on(go figure).

frenchfighter

Le Commentateur wrote:

dibdab wrote:

A thousand words

A thousand clicks of the mouse with Photoshop more likely. Just a bit too exaggerated to be believable.

No not shopped.

Reuters

frenchfighter

When people talk about Lance's 'family' I have to say it does confuse me.

Are we talking about Kristin Richard? Sheryl Crow? Tory Burch? Kate Hudson? Anna Hansen?

A good role model for relationships and family life...

AP Photo