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

Can you race Ironman (TM) as a pro if you don't have a license from a national body?

Lots of interesting stuff swirling around including AP reporting British Cycling head being touted in IOC circles as a McQuaid replacement if a smoking gun is found and Le Monde has published (re-published) the documents around the back-dated TUE prescription from1999 pointing out that UCI had to have been covering for him to not to take action based on that positive test.

Bruyneel and Leinders also now have dates for hearings with Belgian cycling in the next week or so.

Can you race Ironman (TM) as a pro if you don't have a license from a national body?

Don't know the exact rules around it (AG or pro), but certain that Anne Gripper wouldn't have any influence on the WTC's decision-making process.

I think she is extremely credible, the biological passport remains ground breaking in preventing doping and she was almost singlehandedly responsible for establishing it, facing a lot of pressure from both within the UCI and other parts of cycling to water it down or abandon it. What aspects are you referring to, Oliver?

Her support for McQuaid. I mean, I only know about him what I've read, too, so I'm not exactly very well-informed, but he comes in for such heavy criticism from others.

Would like to take this back.. turns out he was just a dick

And he passed all of these?
Either
1.) he wasn't taking anything making him the greatest cyclist of all time.
2.) he was taking somthing making him one of the greatest cyclists of all time and one of the greatest criminal master minds of our generation.

Im not sure which one of these options would make me worship him all the more.

Bill Gifford's piece?

yup. worth a read.

i can remember when mary decker slaney crashing out of the olympic 5000m final in 1984 whilst ruining zoe budd's chances.. and all she could do was cry in TV interview, appalling behaviour, and from the partizan crowd in LA.. it wasn't about winning that race, more about the $3m paycheck promise.. since then i have been very sceptical about athletes perception of success. she then failed a urine drug test later in her career (90s)

if Lance ever says 'it ain't about the money, i just want to race'..
then i hope the prosecutors fleece him for every penny.

Triathlon cheaters race, that would be an interesting starting line up. Armstrong seeded number 1
Top prize a bowl of shit with a flake stuck in it, because its not about the money.

i reckon there should be a race for all busted dopers / cheats..
parade them in freak towns, pelt 'em with rotten eggs as they spin past.
i'd pay good money for a front row seat

"I reckon there should be a race for all busted dopers / cheats..
parade them in freak towns, pelt 'em with rotten eggs as they spin past.
i'd pay good money for a front row seat."

They used to have a race like that... Tour de France.

How about a dopers all sports event. A bit of cycling, tennis, baseball, wrestling, weightlifting, shooting, horse racing, running etc. Best doper wins. Different doping regimes would be really tested as differeent sports need different types of cheating.

You may not find this funny.

I did.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/i-regret-not-taking-out-lance-armstrong/Content?oid=15589536

What the fuck is funny about that? Have you ever had cancer? Have you ever seen the effects it has on individuals? Have you ever had a friend, colleague or loved one die because of cancer?

Did you even think before posting in this thread?

Excuse my language but you are a fucking dickhead.

Dude - you take your comedy close to the mark on occasion yourself do you not. Dependswhatoffends.

I dunno.

You're a cunt, and I wish you died of bollock cancer......

Nope, not feeling the lolz.

I'm not going to lie, I like close to the knuckle comedy HOWEVER you're joking about his life here.

Armstrong is a bad man for what he did, you make choices in life, but nobody chooses cancer.

To sit there and snigger about wishing he'd been killed by it in some flippant remark is ridiculous. Don't forget, he's someone's son, ex-husband, boyfirend and friend all rolled into one, the same as countless others before him who have succomed to cancer.

It's like the Grandma who's just been handed the death penalty for drug smuggling. Is she a stupid woman who knew the consequences of said action? Yes. Would I crack a joke about how she'll be shot and her family will be devastated? Absolutely not.

It has been suggested that Armstrong's cancer wouldn't have spread so far before diagnosis had he not been using masking agent to hide doping.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.

I'm not going to lie, I like close to the knuckle comedy HOWEVER you're joking about his life here.

Armstrong is a bad man for what he did, you make choices in life, but nobody chooses cancer.

To sit there and snigger about wishing he'd been killed by it in some flippant remark is ridiculous. Don't forget, he's someone's son, ex-husband, boyfirend and friend all rolled into one, the same as countless others before him who have succomed to cancer.

It's like the Grandma who's just been handed the death penalty for drug smuggling. Is she a stupid woman who knew the consequences of said action? Yes. Would I crack a joke about how she'll be shot and her family will be devastated? Absolutely not.

though having an avatar that is a joke about paedophilia is acceptable...

so is anything fine as a subject for humour, except death?

to be honest, we can joke about n̶e̶a̶r̶l̶y̶ anything. the problem is that each of us has our own particularly areas of sensitivity.

i was present when my mother died of cancer, i held another friend's hand as he died of it, but i find it acceptable to laugh and joke about it. laughter can be a human mechanism to cope with abhorrent things

What the fuck is funny about that? Have you ever had cancer? Have you ever seen the effects it has on individuals? Have you ever had a friend, colleague or loved one die because of cancer?

Did you even think before posting in this thread?

Excuse my language but you are a fucking dickhead.

Speaking as someone who has, I was not offended. I didn't find it that funny, but that's not because they DARE to make a joke about CANCER. It just wasn't that amusing.

Cancer is one of those things that I think you must joke about. A lot.

^^this. Almost exactly this. I actually didn't find what Nhatt posted funny but you can't draw the line at fatal illness while having a giggle about sexual child abuse. It just doesn't ring true.

FTR. I wasnt offended by anything other than the crapness of the joke. If you're going to be cruel to get a laugh. For fuck sakes be funny.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8852974/lance-armstrong-history-lying

"I guess I should let it go, but I keep thinking how hard he used me. Made me look like a sap. Made me carry his dirty water and I didn't even know it."
"... now the chase pack has reeled in Lance Armstrong, and he is busted...."

Regarding that post, I feel RKP got it right

No, Mr. Reilly, you looked like a chump long before we got to “the end.”
Reilly and a parade of others, including Sally Jenkins at the Washington Post, former pro John Eustice, the TV guys, Phil, Paul, Bob and, sadly, even an old friend and colleague with whom I’ve traveled and covered races, had to know. They chose to ignore the truth, denied the doping and, more importantly, stood by with hands in pockets while the bullying was going on.
They were the enablers who allowed a sociopath to run rampant through this beautiful sport for more than a decade, all the while inflicting incalculable damage on a group of fundamentally honest and decent people.

http://redkiteprayer.com/2013/01/the-explainer-first-the-road-to-recovery-and-now-the-road-to-redemption/

Triathlon cheaters race, that would be an interesting starting line up. Armstrong seeded number 1
Top prize a bowl of shit with a flake stuck in it, because its not about the money.

Yeah, but Armstrong isn't exactly ironyman.

Two from the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/21/lance-armstrong-oprah-pr-disaster

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/22/uk-libel-laws-sunday-times-lance-armstrong

But to joke about armstrong and cancer if rather different. He is target for jokes at his expense because of his behaviour. He is a target for sick, cancer-related jokes because he has traded on his cancer and even used it to help cover up deeply disgusting behaviour which would probably have lead to many of us wishing death on him if he'd done those things to our loved ones.

I'm trying to think of a decent comparison. Joking that people who have been on the dole for 10 years are all lazy scroungers is IMHO completely unacceptable. But to make the same joke about an individual who boasts about the the size of their TV whilst saying that the government are a soft touch and showing off that he hasn't worked for 10 years (because working is for mugs) is entirely different.

I agree. His stance all along has been to hide behind his cancer, even using it to explain his sudden transformation from explosive one day rider into stage race rider, and even hinting that any EPO positives might have been due to chemo on occasion.