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

My father (not rich or powerful) survived cancer in the US, in fact I am coninvced that it was because he was in the US that he survived, had he been in the UK, they may not have even caught it in time.

If his health insurance had just run out though would he have had a friendly CEO to put pressure on the company to pay up anyway? That's the point. If Armstrong was lucky then that was a big part of it. You'd have thought Armstrong's experience of facing an early death because he had no insurance might have made him a great campaigger on the subject. Sadly not.

More details emerging of the USPS sponsorship contract;

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=6019436&campaign=rss&source=OLYHeadlines

You can see the case being built here, can't you? Take the 2001 Tour, Armstrong earnt close to $1.5 million dollars in bonuses from the USPS for his performance. If that performance were proven to be based upon the use of banned substances or methods then he's fraudulently gained that money, money which was, lest we forget, provided by the US Federal Government, who are likely to take a dim view of someone defrauding them.

http://s.nos.nl/swf/embed/nos_video_embed.swf?tcmid=tcm-5-877726

Kimmage comes out with all guns blazing. LA seems to have gone very quiet of late on the threatening/suing critics but with their history surely he won;t let that go?

Armstrong has only ever successfully sued one critic, the Sunday Times. He threatens to sue a lot but rarely are those threats followed up with action.

If I were an Australian taxpayer I'd be asking serious questions as to why government money was being given to an ageing has been, who's likely to be discredited entirely in the not too distant future, to ride a bike around a bit.

Turtur hopes the event will match the $41 million it generated for the SA economy last year. That also saw a total attendance of 770,500, including 39,700 from interstate and overseas. (see breakout)

http://city-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/lets-go-touring/

Turtur, the race director employed by state government? What else do you expect him to say?

Fair play to Kimmage. His analogy with cancer is crass though, but I think he is right in his assumptions. They must have some substance for him to be so confident.
Nearly all of Armstrong's peers from his halcyon days have come a cropper with the go juice, however I cant see a fall from grace for Armstrong. Too many big backers with too much too lose, more than likely it will be a monetary indiscretion rather than a pharmaceutical positive/confession which we see in the not too distant future.

Turtur hopes the event will match the $41 million it generated for the SA economy last year. That also saw a total attendance of 770,500, including 39,700 from interstate and overseas. (see breakout)

http://city-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/lets-go-touring/

Turtur, the race director employed by state government? What else do you expect him to say?

Diana who?

Turtur, the race director employed by state government? What else do you expect him to say?

Knock yourself out. SA police estimates are very close to the organiser's crowd estimates
http://www.cycling.org.au/?page=31993&format=
Feel free to conduct your own attendance surveys and compare to next year's event.

Also, apparently the 2 million was over 2 years and half of it was for Livestrong, not LA himself. But that could be more internet bullshit.

It's not that the crowd numbers or even the estimated benefit to the economy is wrong, it's that it's very unlikely that the presence of Armstrong had anywhere near the effect on these things that is being claimed.

Of course, Armstrong loves that people fall for the hype over and over, as it makes him rich, but the biggest problem the sport has is the continuing erroneous belief that some riders are bigger than the sport, and therefore too big to fail.

10,000 people went on the Lance ride or whatever it was last year. If it's not Lance then you reckon the crowd figures will be similar next year?

Lance is bigger than the sport though. His cancer story is known by huge numbers of people outside of cycling. Of course this doesn't protect him from a fall but I bet the people who read the book with no interest in cycling won't really care if he's brought down for doping. Cyclists will but the 'normals' won't. They assume we're all on drugs anyway

But you are, Hippy.

Serious economists (much more serious than me, certainly) have analysed the economy of the Tour de France through the Armstrong years, his retirement, and subsequent return and have found a negligible 'Armstrong Effect'. Possibly the Australian public is more gullible, or less cynical, than the French, so there may be strong negative and positive effects balancing out in France but an absence of negativity in Aus.

But you are, Hippy.

Some of them are, at least, what the doctors tell me to take..

Ah yes, 'recovery products'.....

The Frenchies already love cycling. They will go anyway.

Most Aussies hate or are at least indifferent to cycling.
Why ride a bike when a V8 is parked in the drive?
Someone like Lance who they know about through the cancer recovery story is certainly a reason for crowds to be larger. It has nothing to do with gullibility or cynicism - it's down to a cyclist being known outside our little world.

I'm not saying I agree with the fee by the way, but I disagree his appearance has little or no effect on the TDU.

It's like a bigger version of how you have saved West beers really.

Yes, my absence from Wests probably has increased attendance rates..

I've performed a similar service for SEs and Easts.

We should organise splitter drinks.

What sort of a fee should we ask for to stay away?

Knock yourself out. SA police estimates are very close to the organiser's crowd estimates
http://www.cycling.org.au/?page=31993&format=
Feel free to conduct your own attendance surveys and compare to next year's event.

Also, apparently the 2 million was over 2 years and half of it was for Livestrong, not LA himself. But that could be more internet bullshit.

I can't be arsed to dig out the story, but he admitted at his first press conference in Australia for the TDU two years ago that the appearance fee he was being paid was destined for his own pocket, not the charity.

Quite why the Australian taxpayer would be donating to a charity whose work is restricted to the US remains unclear.

Boom

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/more/01/18/lance.armstrong/index.html?eref=twitter_feed

i wanna see the tearful admission of guilt live on tv