Lance Armstrong... greatest doper there was or ever will be

Levi Leipheimer has been sacked by Omega Pharma.

Jesus. That's like Strictly sacking Bruce Forsyth for cracking an unfunny joke.

A bit of opportunism for clearing the balance sheets a bit to bring in a certain diminutive Manx-man?

Best twitter comment, "win-win-win = appearance of strong anti-doping stance; more $$ for cav; not having to send team to cali, utah AND colo to support levi."

#omergta

There's already cases of low level riders cheating so it's not like there's no precedent.

I'm a prime example of a low level rider cheating. HH TL Sandbagger 2012.

Levi has a shitload of UCI points so someone will pick him up. Oh hai JV.

Without doping in golf I think we'd see a significant drop in competitors successfully staying awake.

Are you sure you don't want to include spectators? At least the competitors get to walk around.

As an aside, Tiger Woods has had laser eye surgery to give himself 20/15 (i.e superhuman) vision.

In a game where depth perception is crucial, isn't this cheating?

Chuck Yeager has 20/10 vision. He should try golf sometime.

I'd love to dope.

Quite seriously.

If medical science has solutions to help maintain a physical performance above the norm then I want them.

If it can improve hearing then I'd love to do it and go to a classical concert. If it can improve sight then I want it and will then tour galleries and go see the world. If it can improve mental ability, then fantastic for sometimes I'm a dunce.

In many ways I'm pro-doping. In pro-sports it is the deceit that bugs me more than the doping itself.

Just throwing that out there.

No no, you misunderstand.

I don't care for doping for sports... I dislike the deceit, want a level playing field, etc.

But... doping for personal enjoyment. To basically enhance the body, mind and senses such that a 60 year old could feel like a 30 year old or something. Performance enhancement to improve life quality.

I'll let you know what I think about this in 30 years.. :)

I'm with hippy; perhaps I'll change my view when I'm in a lot of age-related discomfort, but right now I wouldn't want to be doped. I also don't believe that it is without drawbacks, but that's a much longer story.

Vaughters wrote an article for Cycle sport mag in '99 that flew completely under the radar.

http://www.cyclesportmag.com/news-and-comment/jonathan-vaughters-crossing-the-line/

Vaughters wrote an article for Cycle sport mag in '99 that flew completely under the radar.

http://www.cyclesportmag.com/news-and-comment/jonathan-vaughters-crossing-the-line/

How on earth did that go unnoticed?

Because nobody wanted to see it.

We all ignored aspects of doping through the last fifteen years or so, me as much as anyone. You've kind of got to switch it off to carry on watching the sport without feeling sick and disillusioned.

True. At that point, in 1999, I suppose everyone hoped that was the end of it all after Festina.

Nike have categorically denied making a $500k payment to UCI.

But what about the $500k payment to Hein Verbruggen you were actually accused of?

Vaughters wrote an article for Cycle sport mag in '99 that flew completely under the radar.

http://www.cyclesportmag.com/news-and-comment/jonathan-vaughters-crossing-the-line/

And interesting too that in his allegory nobody does the right thing and loses out; those riders being cheated out of victories do not exist. No mention, no consideration, nothing.

On Ferrari's webpage:

"This collaboration consisted exclusively of advice on training, saddle height adjustments, aerodynamic positioning, locations for training programs and competitions: NOTHING to do with doping"

A million seems to be a fuck of a lot for saddle adjustments. Try again Mikey.

Enjoyed the 4 corners prog, Verbruggans comment to Dick Pound that its the FANS fault, and that we want to see people flying up mountains at 40kph, rather than 25kph, What! Cheeky fucker. That combined with this 500k Nike payoff rumour, and Lance's selective memory loss when he can't even vaguely remember the year he made the UCI donations, god i really hope they can nail those fuckers with this payment business, i mean blatent corruption....man i mean i knew that fucker was dodgy but he's even worse than I thought, that explains his Lance never doped ever ever ever comments...and I have a cool half mill in my account to prove it!. Don't the powers that be have powers to trace payments to Swiss bank accounts these days?

Honestly don't know where pro roadie cycling goes from here though, this talk of being clean since 96 is utter bullshit, the UCI clearly think their statements have the Men in Black memory erasing pen effect? How long can they keep pulling this shit. And whats going on with Puerto? Other than the UCI and the Spanish clasping the hands over their ears and singing LA LA LA LA, now I think the LA's stand for Lance Armstrong and its their way of saying but he did it...

UCI inaction for all these years has helped created this mess, it seems microdosing is pretty much indetectable. You either totally allow everything or you totally ban everything, there can be no middle ground, its human nature, or more specifically male nature to push the boundries, someone will always want to push and try that much more for an edge, and what starts of as something that may originally have been intended to make a 60 year old could feel like a 30 year old, before you know it the 70 year olds feeling 12 year olds, and that as we now know is a Jimmy Savile, and is crossing the line.

(hopeless idealist-wish I could watch it like General Lucifer above without feeling sick or disillusioned) .

And doping in football, but i thought they were supposed to be perfomance enhancing? How should would England be clean? Maybe in 10 years time Rooneys going to be ratted out and San Marino will be awarded those qualifiying point after all, and get free passage to the next World Cup at Englands expense, which may not be as bad thing as it'll probably be in Antartica or some such freakingly inappropriate place....and breathe......

I think that the idea that Armstrong should be condemned as a drugs cheat merely because his memory is not what it might be is grossly unfair.

You can't expect a man with a drug addled brain to have perfect recall.

i wrote my thesis on modafinil. its amazing

Anyone here popped a Viagra?

Since you ask, yes. Very good it was too. My vision was faintly tinged with blue for hours, like a very mild but thoroughly enjoyable trip. Recommended.

also viagra is a damn good drug.

When i used to take 'other' pills it made me very popular

Just listened to all of this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ngqxd/5_live_Sport_Peddlers_Cyclings_Dirty_Truth/

Interviews with Tyler Hamilton, Emma O'Reilly, David Millar, Jeremy Whittle and loads of others. 2 hours of detailed discussion. Worth a listen.

While Viagra might be seen as performance enhancing, is it really used in a competitive sport? I had always, possibly mistakenly, considered the activity for which Viagra is generally used to be a collaborative rather than competitive exercise.

I love Vaughter's 'white lines' story.

I think that the idea that Armstrong should be condemned as a drugs cheat merely because his memory is not what it might be is grossly unfair.

You can't expect a man with a drug addled brain to have perfect recall.

What the man needs is some decent memory doping.