Cycling 2012 (Page 5 of 6)

Last night at the family gathering for Thanksgiving I asked the bicycle racing son what the locals thought of the Armstrong debacle. He said it was a bad deal and due to the personal vendetta of the US Prosecutor. The prosecutor shopped judges for 6 years until he found one that would subpoena witnesses that he could coerce under threat of additional prosecution and financial ruin with the cost of defense of hearsay evidence.
The consensus among most US racers is that it was a put up deal by US Racing, and that Lance finally just tossed in his hand with the "whatever" response. Took his money and walked away since he had retired from racing and the cost of defense was getting out of hand. A business decision. Bad for the sport and still no physical evidence, just the hearsay presented under supposed duress. He said the thought locally is that any other major sport would have brought in some horsepower politically to stop the prosecutor from the witch hunt, but bicycle racing is too small to fight the power of law here. It is well known that NFL and Baseball are filled with doping and only the stupid get caught.  Cheaters prosper and doping continues with advanced techniques that are undetectable was his final word.
It is now history and moot.
Rick

"On the show, which was taped Monday afternoon, Armstrong admitted to his own use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to the Associated Press. "

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 … 26858.html

The Justice Dept. has to decide by Thursday (coincidence?) if they will join the Landis 'whistle blower' suit. Details in the above link.

Looks like I'll have to stay up for this on my Friday morning.

+1,000,000!!!  Just another cheatin' mofo.  My favorite Lance joke - What's a Lance Armstrong on the green reading a putt?.....One ball left.  Heard that one from my caddie at Pebble Beach.

I have no anger. I'm just really sad. I believe he could have won clean, had everybody else been clean too. Notice they had a terrible time finding a clean rider to declare the winner. I will always be grateful for what he has done for cancer patients. That's very close to my heart. I wish him well.

The baseball thing I think is a bit different. I'm not sure but the league didn't really have a drug testing system and looked the other way pretty much. I'm sure that some of the pain medication and uppers Mickey took in the day would of been illegal if there was a testing ability and I'm pretty sure the Babe has stoked full of Ball Park Franks. You know if they had them they would of used them too.

I wish the Bob Costas could have done the Lance dance....or better yet, Rick Reilly from SI....no wait....Piers Morgan....Piers would have had Lance walk off the set....anyone else got their favorite to the Armstrong affair

Shred

Piers Morgan? A guy who as editor of a National UK daily newspaper, knowingly used a mocked-up photograph to make a story of abuses by UK soldiers in the Gulf.

Not someone I'd cite as a benchmark of integrity.

+2

the Oprah interview thing..... - all a bit sad really, - and not just for LA as it is without doubt sad for the sport. So when will the Rolling Stones have all of their awards and platinum discs removed? Clearly their performances were enhanced   - Sorry but I could not make a serious comment on this LA thing, - just dumfounded.