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

He'd have got the same punishment as the others if he had behaved the same as the others. USADA asked everybody to come in for a chat, only LA refused. He's not the only one in the frame for perjury, nor is he the only one at risk from civil recovery, so it's not fair to say that he had more to lose by confessing than Levi, George, Floyd et. al.

The rest of that sentence read:

but he was the most systematic and sophisticated doper there was, and backed it up with mafia-style intimidation. He painted a target on his back in the long run

I have no sympathy for him, but equally I have little sympathy for the riders that rode with him or against him. They all deserve equal censure, not just Lance. It has been a collective sin in cycling, and characters like Coppi, Anquetil, Indurain, Virenque, Pantani and Ullrich are all implicated, either convicted or damned by association. Landis is in the mire,although now everything he has said is verified he may have a second coming. Tyler Hamilton must be sitting pretty right now, with the sales of his book. The whistleblowers have got six month bans, yet they were utterly complicit in Lance's crimes. Most will be racing next season, others will be running teams.

There's a lot of 'Lance is the bully, he made us do it'. Don't mistake for a second I don't believe that is true to a degree, but these are grown men, they could have said their grievances a decade ago, as a group, but they didn't. Now it;s 'wha wha my pussy hurts, Mr Lance made us take these drugs and win these races and make this money, now we regret it'. Was Lance the worst? Yes. But did his stink either infect or come from the peloton he was riding in? Double yes.

Millar and Vaughters castigate DB for firing anyone that admits to doping, to me it reallky looks like they are desperate to wave goodbye to a dirty past they are culpable in, and a cheery 'eh-oh' to a clean, shiney future, where Millar is president oif the UCI and Vaughters is the second coming

^ Fair point to a degree, but I think we should keep in mind that a lot of the dopers did it just to be able to keep up. There's so many domestiques who rides basically for food. They work hard their whole life, just to when finally getting close to their dream, realise they have to dope to stay in there.

What would you do? Not dope is easier said than done I think. Not saying it's ok at all, just saying it'd be a very hard decision indeed when everyone around you does, and therefor it becomes default.

I still have some sympathy for most of the peleton, they were stuck with the choice of either stay in the peleton and dope, or quit and have a mundane job for the rest of their live.

same argument goes for bank robbers

Valverde calls Armstrong "a disgrace, a cheat and a liar"

Has Wiggo now made the 2009 TdF podium, or are they going to annoy him with an empty 3rd place?

same argument goes for burglars who steal from bank robbers

ftfy

Has Wiggo now made the 2009 TdF podium?

UCI will decide in their closed management meeting on Friday. Prudhomme/ASO says no, and might be pissed enough with the UCI to take their ball away if UCI doesn't follow suit, but with Fat Pat in charge anything could happen.

And given that Contador was on the steak, and Schleck might also have been, I think they should just send him another yellow jersey and have done with it.

Has Wiggo now made the 2009 TdF podium, or are they going to annoy him with an empty 3rd place?

Ha - that was a bonkers tour. Cont-odor was on the serious juice for that one (suspect the schleckles must have been too)

Remember him smashing Cancellara on the Lake Annecy TT, the day after scuttling off into the distance up to Grand Bornand?

But think of all the money he raises for cancer research! Leave him alone!

oh... sorry.

Bad habits die hard.

Could anyone point me to a strong anti-doping statement ever made by a Spanish professional road cyclist, I have a bet on. Just unfuckingbelievable.

You mean like this one of Valverde's?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/valverde-voices-support-for-lance-armstrong

Like you say unfuckingbelievable, The Spanish are on a different planet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Tondo

I think he is about as close as Spanish cycling gets. There is an interesting element to his story involving Jonathan Vaughters too.

This is reaching far and wide. Just read about a norwegian cyclist accusing a swedish cyclist for handing out amphetamine tablets during a race in Falun in 1983. According to the swede it was caffeine tablets though.

I dunno... bit too long ago to dig up stuff from a local race?

Let's be thorough about this, shall we?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/alpe-dhuez-mayor-wants-armstrongs-name-removed-from-climb

Cycling's status Stateside, succinctly summarised
http://www.theonion.com/articles/this-last-story-ever-written-about-cycling,30063/

Whenever I read 'ICU', I think 'Intensive Care Unit'.

same argument goes for bank robbers

Well they're allowed to steal as much money out as long it doesn't exceed a grand...

Just bought an n.o.s Kelme jersey as the start of my 'Doping Hall of Fame' collection. (I actually like the jersey, even if it is symbolic of roid rage and epo sponge baths)

I don't think I can bring myself to do USPS or anything with LS on it. Maybe Motorola.

In honour of big 'Lance is Innocent' Mig Banesto probably needs to be next.

This is reaching far and wide. Just read about a norwegian cyclist accusing a swedish cyclist for handing out amphetamine tablets during a race in Falun in 1983. According to the swede it was caffeine tablets though.

I dunno... bit too long ago to dig up stuff from a local race?

I once took some ibroprofen whilst on a Swedish sportiv. Please direct all press enquiries to my attorney.

@uber_gruber - you need a Gewiss jersey. Sadly I just sold one.

I had a USPS bidon. I left it in the pub. boo.

Did it have syringes in it then?

Only lance item I ever bought was 'The Lance Armstrong Performance Program' at a second hand stall for the princely sum of 98p, more out of morbid curiosity than anything else. Was pretty nauseating the way its written but had some good training advice in it i suppose...

Chris Carmichael is a lying bastard too though, isn't he? Where's his 2 cents on all of this now he's been shown up as a cardboard man for Ferrari?

Did it have syringes in it then?

Copella apple juice.

Where is Chris Carmichael, the world's greatest cycling coach, in all of this? All the money he made on the back of being Lance's coach when he failed to tell the punters that to be like Lance, you needed to have a sophisticated juicing programme on top of the training.