Let it go Lance

Bakunin

Armstrong is at it again.


http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/armstro ... -entourage

dave_1

Bakunin wrote:

Armstrong is at it again.


http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/armstro ... -entourage

LA's a bit of a nob eh...AC had no sponsor to offer the riders..and LA doesn't mention how he put Astana guys on the front of that stage 3 split when AC was the leader... still, winter is boring so , a little shit stirring is to be welcomed... am sure LA will put some serious pressure on AC...watch those cobbled stages..it'll be dirty tricks, echelons and then team alliances...quite an exciting summer in 2010 IMO..

Echo et les Boniments

Good ol' script-flippin' Lance: looks like he's got a great future as a politician.

Bakunin

Here is a question -- did Armstrong beat up on Jan, Mayo, Basso, and Pantani in the press the way he does with Contador? That was before my time.

Echo et les Boniments

Sort of -never to that extent though. But then they were never on his team.

dave_1

Bakunin wrote:

Here is a question -- did Armstrong beat up on Jan, Mayo, Basso, and Pantani in the press the way he does with Contador? That was before my time.

Not Mayo nor Basso...but he was apalling to Pantani...name calling and the like, calling him a shit stirrer...one of my fav all time attacks was Pantani to Morzine 2000 and it so nearly worked. LA is a bully for sure...definitely AC needs to make and keep friends too

Kléber

Ed Pickering puts it well in the NY Velocity podcast (http://velocitynation.com/content/2009/ ... ng-round-3), saying something like "if you locked him in a room by himself he'd still start an argument in there".

I can understand the way his words can get exaggerated by the media but he needs to realise Contador's words get the same degree of inflation too. He'd look much more relaxed and champion-like if he let his legs to the talking.

afx237vi

The Pantani thing is interesting. It's quite similar, isn't it? Neither Pantani or Contador really did anything to deserve his criticism, but he just can't help chipping away with the odd dig in the ribs (excuse the mixed metaphor).

Echo et les Boniments

Dave, every cycling great has been a bully at some point or another. That includes that bespectacled guy with the tennis headband. Pantani, for one, gave Luttenberger a pretty hard time at Carrera.

Chip \'oyler

And let's not forget him bullying Fillipo Simeoni

dave_1

Echo et les Boniments wrote:

Dave, every cycling great has been a bully at some point. That includes that bespectacled guy with the tennis headband. Pantani, for one, gave Luttenberger a pretty hard time at Carrera.

fair enough.... Hinault..sounds much worse...

Slapshot

Basso, Ullrich, Pantani etc were not as big an issue to Armstrong as Contador is..... They couldn't beat him!! Berto can beat him as he pleases, it'll take some down right dirty tricks for Armstrong to beat him next year, and as Armstrong keeps pointing out its' about being clever, berto will be another year wiser, he can easily hang on to Armstrongs coat tails then dance away when the roads start going up

Lancey doesn't like coming second or third, Andy Schleck wants to watch his back as well

Harry182

I find LA's war-of-words shenanigans juvenile and tiresome.

My hope is that AC only provides the same classy retort as he did this year, ie let's his legs do the talking during the TdF!

Gazzetta67

EGOstrong is more of a Bully than Hinault ever was.

Armstrong thinks he`s bigger than the whole cycling community - he keeps his
"posse" close to him to use as a barrier ermm lets see Hincapie,Leipheimer,Popovych,Bruyneel,Rupert Guinness,Bob Roll,Phil Liggett,Paul Sherwen....yeah all that Brown NOSE Kiss Arse brigade.

Call me a cynic but all the riders he rode with all got done - and he` didnt yet he beat them by minutes....maybe its me that does not understand and dont gimmie he trained harder than them.

lucybears

Echo et les Boniments wrote:

Good ol' script-flippin' Lance: looks like he's got a great future as a politician.

LA interviewed 5 Jan 2009

Mark McKinnon
Is there a future for Lance Armstrong in politics?

LA
If you feel like you can do the job better than people who are doing it now, and you can really make a difference, then that’s a real calling to serve, and I think you have to do that. Do it because you can get in there and change people’s lives. That’s why you do it. So, there will come a time, or not, that I say to myself, “You know what, I can help affect change.” And if that day comes, then absolutely.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and- ... nate/full/

Gazzetta67

P.S EgoStrong states Contador is surrounded by YES Men ??? F**k sake that has to be the biggest JOKE ever coming from that Yankie Twat.

blazing_saddles

Seems old Lance can get pretty "toxic", when he wants too.
One law for him, another for the rest.
Tiresome and pointless.

lfcquin

Definitely a bully. Definitely a loud mouth. The thing is I can see some of logic in what he says.

If you were a pro rider and your livelihood depended on getting a contract every year then who would you rather ride for Armstrong or Contador?

I guess the first thing to consider is the ethics of riding for Armstrong, but is that any more questionable than riding for Contador? (neither proven cheats, but tainted by their historic associations). Once you overcome that then it seems to me that Contador is a bit of a loner and doesn't really look after those around him. Lance carries a big bandwagon, but if you are under his wing then you definitely benefit from that. I think that is the point he is trying to make.

iainf72

lfcquin wrote:

Once you overcome that then it seems to me that Contador is a bit of a loner and doesn't really look after those around him. Lance carries a big bandwagon, but if you are under his wing then you definitely benefit from that. I think that is the point he is trying to make.

I'm not so sure - Contador couldn't offer anyone much this year with his situation being so uncertain at Astana.

I think Lance should just shut up already about it. I don't think Contador gets particularly unsettled by LA's venting of his spleen and in all likelihood the net result will be Contador will make sure he humiliates LA on the bike whenever he pleases.

micron

It's quite sad really watching someone allow another rider nettle them so badly. Were I Contador I'd be reading this kind of thing and taking great satisfaction from the fact I had got so far under Armstrong's skin.

The childish whinings of a bad loser - very sad.

dave milne

I'm far from an LA fan but everyone is being very quick to dismiss everything he's said as rubbish - none of us were there how do we know?

Kléber

It's not so much his rebuttal, it's the way he seems to rise to the bait each time, he just can't sit back. Like I say, there are always arguments and division, over the internet we all end up ranting and raving when essentially we're all interested in the same thing.

He's a household name, a multi-millionaire and has seven tours and a rainbow jersey to his name, he should be able to say something like "do you know what, I'm relaxed and am trying not to worry about Alberto too much, at my age it's enough to stay upright and arrive at peak condition in July".

I actually found Bruyneel's mention of wanting cycling to have a "Formula 1" structure far more interesting and worthy of discussion. It's been known for sometime that Bruyneel, Armstrong and Verbruggen, along with private equity investors, are trying to turn the sport into a money-making thing.

iainf72

I also thought Bruyneels comments were interesting. And Bruyneel seems a far more astute politician than Lance is

The F1 comments were like JB was channelling Hein. The question remains though, what's in it for ASO and RCS. They practically own everything interesting anyway.

ultimobici

dave milne wrote:

I'm far from an LA fan but everyone is being very quick to dismiss everything he's said as rubbish - none of us were there how do we know?

It's not the stuff about wheels etc, it's the quips about being "just a kid from Pinto" and the like. Petty and just makes LA look childish.

The funny thing is LA was "just a kid from Plano" and even if you ignore 96-98, didn't win his first Tour until he was effectively 25. Contador by contrast won his first at 25 and has won 4 GT's by the age of 26. Armstong took until he was effectively 27 to get to 4.

Neither record is shabby by any measure, although Merckx has them both beat by winning younger and also completing the 4 by 25. Neither EM nor LA can however claim to have won all 3 GT in as shorter timespan.

Echo et les Boniments

ultimobici wrote:

Neither EM nor LA can however claim to have won all 3 GT in as shorter timespan.

Bernard Hinault can -he did it in 11 months (1982-83). (Vuelta a España used to be held in April-May.)

kléber wrote:

He's a household name, a multi-millionaire and has seven tours and a rainbow jersey to his name, he should be able to say something like "do you know what, I'm relaxed and am trying not to worry about Alberto too much, at my age it's enough to stay upright and arrive at peak condition in July".
I actually found Bruyneel's mention of wanting cycling to have a "Formula 1" structure far more interesting and worthy of discussion.

But Lance is no ordinary cycling champ -he runs this business. He's got seven Tours under his belt. Lance's life is one big Hollywood blockbuster so he has to play his part and deliver the goods. The mainstream media need this kind of crap and he knows it -it's all part of the Tour build up. I don't think the American media care much about the Formula 1 structure thing anyway.
Like it or not, Lance ain't just one of the very best in a fairly minor pro sport, he's a world class hero: Lance dates movie stars, Lance gives hope to the diseased, Lance meets world leaders. Lance is the best, the biggest, the greatest, he's Muhammad Ali, 50 cent, Bill Gates, Superman and Lex Luthor all rolled into one. Now he is almost 40 and he claims that he has nothing to lose and that he can win the Tour again: Contador is the villain, I'll punish him. Quite an extraordinary claim and even more extraordinary, we are all taking him seriously. So do you think a guy coming from this perspective is going to act coy and all?

ms_tree

Dave_1 wrote:

Bakunin wrote:

Here is a question -- did Armstrong beat up on Jan, Mayo, Basso, and Pantani in the press the way he does with Contador? That was before my time.

Not Mayo nor Basso...but he was apalling to Pantani...name calling and the like, calling him a shoot stirrer...one of my fav all time attacks was Pantani to Morzine 2000 and it so nearly worked. LA is a bully for sure...definitely AC needs to make and keep friends too

Re Pantani +1
He showed him at Courcevel tho' and so did Valverde some years later.

moray_gub

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Tiresome and pointless.

Was actually think that myself but in a different way , Lance retorts to AC's barbs the last three months and he is called a bully etc etc........one rule for one and one for the King of Spain it would seem.

moray_gub

Ms Tree wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

Bakunin wrote:

Here is a question -- did Armstrong beat up on Jan, Mayo, Basso, and Pantani in the press the way he does with Contador? That was before my time.

Not Mayo nor Basso...but he was apalling to Pantani...name calling and the like, calling him a shoot stirrer...one of my fav all time attacks was Pantani to Morzine 2000 and it so nearly worked. LA is a bully for sure...definitely AC needs to make and keep friends too

Re Pantani +1
He showed him at Courcevel tho' and so did Valverde some years later.

Yea and both went on to win the Tour that year iirc.....................wait ......................maybe they didnt !

Gazzetta67

Moray your gub is full of Brown Shyte from licking your lover lance`s back end

Oh lance please have my babies cries Moray Brown Gob - I wont let these people call you big bad names even tho your a Texan Nob-end

moray_gub

Gazzetta67 wrote:

Moray your gub is full of Brown Shyte from licking your lover lance`s back end

Oh lance please have my babies cries Moray Brown Gob - I wont let these people call you big bad names even tho your a Texan Nob-end

are you depriving a village somewhere of an idiot ?

maltiv

That Contador kid really think's he is something, ey? Keeping his old friends from childhood, staying with his girlfriend who he's been dating since he was 15 and so on. What a jackass!