the next time Lance Armstrong turns up for a mtb race.

boristhespie

So Armstrong turns up for another mountain bike race, should we flog him and burn him at the stake?

Opinions on how this may affect cycling including mountain biking?

nicklouse

What?

Huckfinn

I think I would be surprised as I always thought he was a road cyclist....

cooldad

nicklouse wrote:

What?

What he said

warpcow

I'm sure Lance is most distraught over losing those Leadville medals.

njee20

I think I would be surprised as I always thought he was a road cyclist....

Still does the odd MTB race though (and is pretty handy), most notably in recent years the Leadville 100.

The Rookie

Unless or until I read the USADA 200 page dossier (and WTF were they doing back then anyway? Knowing how useless they are in most sports I don't they take any blame on themselves) I'll refrain from coming to a decision, noting that Armstrong has stated he won't contest it due to the ever increasing cost (that he has to burden even if found to be innocent) of defending against the allegations.

welshkev

The Beginner wrote:

Unless or until I read the USADA 200 page dossier (and WTF were they doing back then anyway? Knowing how useless they are in most sports I don't they take any blame on themselves) I'll refrain from coming to a decision, noting that Armstrong has stated he won't contest it due to the ever increasing cost (that he has to burden even if found to be innocent) of defending against the allegations.

just after reading this and listening to what his former team mate is saying i think it's obvious really, i'm a bit gutted as he was a bit of a hero of mine

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19906657

cooldad

LANCE Armstrong has graduated from performance enhancing drugs to powerful hallucinogens, it has emerged.

gezebo

I'm not that bothered. Disappointed that it's quite likely he did dope, however it's very likely that the majority of the top cyclists of that era doped too. Therefore you could argue that if everyone (or at least the majority) was cheating along the same lines ie. drug use, was it really cheating?!

I think what's important is that cycling as a sport appears to have turned a corner and it's beginning to look as if the days of doping are in the past.

cooldad

Doesn't sh1t like this belong in the roadie section - I think there is a 47 cockzillion page thread there on doping.

Or the erotic effects of tight lycra, or something like that.

Chinley Churner

cooldad wrote:

Doesn't sh1t like this belong in the roadie section - I think there is a 47 cockzillion page thread there on doping.

Or the erotic effects of tight lycra, or something like that.

See my comment in "Not Lycra fan but this is quite cool and he has some skills" thread and stop being a tribalistic knobber.

cooldad

Chinley Churner wrote:

cooldad wrote:

Doesn't sh1t like this belong in the roadie section - I think there is a 47 cockzillion page thread there on doping.

Or the erotic effects of tight lycra, or something like that.

See my comment in "Not Lycra fan but this is quite cool and he has some skills" thread and stop being a tribalistic knobber.

Doesn't sh1t like this belong in cruddie where it is socially acceptable to be a tribalistic knobber.

lawman

Who gives a sh!t if he did, everyone else was doping, level playing field effectively, and in an era where doping was pretty much a given for everyone, so whats the issue? The guy has done far more than his tour wins, his charity has raised millions for cancer sufferers and frankly this alone makes the whole doping thing irrelevant for me. I'd respect alot more than I already do if he admitted it. Takes one hell of a bloke to put his whole rep and history on the line and come clean on the issues.

The fact is nothing has changed, he still won 7 tours, had this whole not come to public light we would never have known, so people saying he's a cheat are just jumping on the bandwagon for the sake of it

boristhespie

I agree with lawman. And yes while a "roadie" he has recently begun triathlon and mountainbiking.

For me he was just one in the culture. Everyone was .

His work with his charity for me is incrddibly important.

tarbot18

lawman wrote:

Who gives a sh!t if he did, everyone else was doping, level playing field effectively, and in an era where doping was pretty much a given for everyone, so whats the issue? The guy has done far more than his tour wins, his charity has raised millions for cancer sufferers and frankly this alone makes the whole doping thing irrelevant for me. I'd respect alot more than I already do if he admitted it. Takes one hell of a bloke to put his whole rep and history on the line and come clean on the issues.

The fact is nothing has changed, he still won 7 tours, had this whole not come to public light we would never have known, so people saying he's a cheat are just jumping on the bandwagon for the sake of it

what he said.....

DF33

gezebo wrote:

I'm not that bothered. Disappointed that it's quite likely he did dope, however it's very likely that the majority of the top cyclists of that era doped too. Therefore you could argue that if everyone (or at least the majority) was cheating along the same lines ie. drug use, was it really cheating?!

Ask Boardman about that.

He didn't last the week in every TDF he did.

smack148

what's wrong with dope before a cycle?

dhobiwallah

lawman wrote:

Who gives a sh!t if he did, everyone else was doping......

According to the allegations he is part of the reason everyone else was doping......

welshkev

dhobiwallah wrote:

lawman wrote:

Who gives a sh!t if he did, everyone else was doping......

According to the allegations he is part of the reason everyone else was doping......

i read the USADA evidence last night...it's very compelling against armstrong that he was more than just using and expected his team members to use as well so that they could attain the same standard as him.

welshkev

tarbot18 wrote:

lawman wrote:

Who gives a sh!t if he did, everyone else was doping, level playing field effectively, and in an era where doping was pretty much a given for everyone, so whats the issue? The guy has done far more than his tour wins, his charity has raised millions for cancer sufferers and frankly this alone makes the whole doping thing irrelevant for me. I'd respect alot more than I already do if he admitted it. Takes one hell of a bloke to put his whole rep and history on the line and come clean on the issues.

The fact is nothing has changed, he still won 7 tours, had this whole not come to public light we would never have known, so people saying he's a cheat are just jumping on the bandwagon for the sake of it

what he said.....

this quote from the evidence really stuck out to me:

"Twenty of the twenty-one podium
finishers in the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005 have been directly tied to likely doping
through admissions, sanctions, public investigations or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold."

so there's no way they can give the tour wins to someone else is there really?

njee20

That's my thought on the matter, what are they seeking to achieve with this? I'm sure he was doping, they all were. All this is doing is making me think less of riders I actually liked before (notably Hincapie at this point, but sure there'll be more as it goes on). It's just a smear campaign to ruin someone's reputation.

He's still done more for cycling than any other athlete of his time.

nicklouse

njee20 wrote:

He's still done more for cycling than any other athlete of his time.

+ a Potato full of EPO.

passout

Well, he is guilty as hell and it very was wrong AND it's a witch hunt - the two aren't mutually exclusive.

njee20

+ a Potato full of EPO

An EPOtato if you will! :-)

ElliesDad

cooldad wrote:

Or the erotic effects of tight lycra, or something like that.

Lycra can look quite good on the right person.........

I'll get my coat.......

welshkev

njee20 wrote:

That's my thought on the matter, what are they seeking to achieve with this? I'm sure he was doping, they all were. All this is doing is making me think less of riders I actually liked before (notably Hincapie at this point, but sure there'll be more as it goes on). It's just a smear campaign to ruin someone's reputation.

He's still done more for cycling than any other athlete of his time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19927300

UncleMonty

njee20 wrote:

He's still done more for cycling than any other athlete of his time.

WTF, he's dragged the sport & one of the best sporting competions in the world into the gutter, how is that good for cycling ?

Red.Devil.Ghost

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19930514

That says it all really for me. This guy has more courage than Armstrong and I respect him a lot for doing the decent thing. How can you compete against cheats?

20 out of 21 podium finishers in 7 years linked to drugs cheating is horrendous. You can come out with whatever crap justifications you want, such as everyone was doing it so it was a level playing field, its cheating plain and simple. Not good enough to win normally. I'd rather never win it than do it like that. So many people looked up to and were inspired by the likes of Armstrong.

He absolutely should be stripped of his titles. If he isn't, it sends out completely the wrong message to the younger generations getting into this or any other sport. The sport does not need ambassadors like this when it has decent people like Wiggins and Cavendish.

As for this whole anti-roadie bullshit going on, get a life. Just because someone else enjoys something you don't, there is no need to be a twat about it.

I read something online the other day, I can't remember who said it. "You can be whoever you want on the internet. It always surprises me why so many people choose to be stupid."

welshkev

Red.Devil.Ghost wrote:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19930514

That says it all really for me. This guy has more courage than Armstrong and I respect him a lot for doing the decent thing. How can you compete against cheats?

20 out of 21 podium finishers in 7 years linked to drugs cheating is horrendous. You can come out with whatever crap justifications you want, such as everyone was doing it so it was a level playing field, its cheating plain and simple. Not good enough to win normally. I'd rather never win it than do it like that. So many people looked up to and were inspired by the likes of Armstrong.

He absolutely should be stripped of his titles. If he isn't, it sends out completely the wrong message to the younger generations getting into this or any other sport. The sport does not need ambassadors like this when it has decent people like Wiggins and Cavendish.

As for this whole anti-roadie bullshit going on, get a life. Just because someone else enjoys something you don't, there is no need to be a fool about it.

I read something online the other day, I can't remember who said it. "You can be whoever you want on the internet. It always surprises me why so many people choose to be stupid."

I read that earlier, what a top guy for having morals and standards, I like the quote about his wife saying he doesn't have to tell his kids he's a lier and a cheat :-)

As for the roadie hating, take it with a pinch of salt.

Northwind

In the end he was the product of a guilty system, and that goes from top to bottom- UCI, team bosses, medics and riders. The system was almost designed to produce cheats, so acting surprised and shocked now is just daft.

TBH I find the whole thing pretty distasteful. Armstrong's a total cock, and so I take a bit of guilty satisfaction from seeing the holier-than-thou fall but it was a competition for cheats then, and he will remain the best cheat, from the team of best cheats. The time to act on it isn't now, you can't undo those years.