Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven titles
When a tree falls in the forest, does anybody worry where it lands?????
If superman can’t be hurt by bullets, why does he duck when they throw the gun at him?????
From a friend’s Facebook status:
To all the self righteous prats out there : please understand this, the difference between a donkey & a race horse IS NOT a pharmaceutical leap.
This is from someone who’s raced all over the world, and knows road cycling better than you and I could ever hope to.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/10/11/3608613.htm
Four corners story tonight
I’m no fan of road cycling but I would love just to hear the truth. Strange that they never had any physical evidence from any tests yet there are so many witnesses. I guess we will have to wait and see.
It’s bloody ridiculous. The whole dog and pony show is a joke. The REAL question shouldn’t be whether or not Lance was on the juice - but whether or not he was doing anything nobody else was doing. The truth of the matter is that elite professional road cycling is contested on just as much of a ‘level playing field’ as most other sports.
Vehicle-wise, professional cycling is policed a lot like Formula One racing - there’s a HUGE list of rules, they’re enforced within a bee’s dick tolerance, and officials are constantly moving the goalposts. To be genuinely competitive, the challenge is for teams to stay ahead of the game and push the limits as far as they can without either going beyond them, or getting caught doing so.
Officials meticulously scrutinise every aspect of the race vehicles, including the engines, ensuring all are within acceptable tolerances. If everything meets approval, they’re cleared to race. If years down the track it’s discovered that there was an extra bit of carbon fibre (or whatever) on the winner’s vehicle where there shouldn’t have been during a particluar race, the result still stands. Essentially, just like with a missed forward pass in a Rugby match (for example) - if it’s not enforced at the time, the result still stands. It just so happens that when the cyclist is the ‘engine’ of the racing vehicle, the rules are currently skewed.
Mainstream perception of elite professional road cycling and the realities of the sport simply aren’t the same. This whole furore surrounding Lance is simply designed to pander to a woefully deluded public, desperate to cling to the ideologically ‘perfect’ picture they’ve been painted of a ‘clean’ sport.
So Melbourne Storm should’ve kept their premierships?????
It’s not a realistic comparison - as it relates more directly to the business, not competitive, aspect of the sport.
However, if players’ salaries had been throughly scrutinised (and officially passed) by officials at the time, the salary cap breach findings in later years had been based solely on hearsay, not hard evidence, and Storm officials hadn’t confessed - then YES, Melbourne Storm should’ve kept their premierships. But that wasn’t the case.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/10/11/3608613.htm
Four corners story tonight
Thanks for the heads up. I’m going to wait it.
Wait it??
LOL
Doh! Watch it. 
Watched the program. That was some convincing evidence against Lance. I think my opinion has changed for sure. It’s now hard not to believe he doped.
I agree!
It’s now hard not to believe he doped.
As I said, that’s not the question people should really be asking.
Yeah, but it’s still interesting to learn. Considering his profile in sport and the legend surrounding him. I think everyone is shocked to hear what’s coming out in the news lately, and I’m assuming you were too. People/news will always be on the quest for truth and last night’s program not only implicated Lance but the whole sport of cycling. I knew doping was involved in cycling, but the extent I heard about last night was just shocking. If anything, it made me feel sorry for Lance and the other athletes who felt it was the only way they could complete at the highest level. I agree other questions need to be asked, but this might be a big step in the right direction.
The USADA has an axe to grind, because they’re desperate to appear to actually look competent and effective - and they’re using Lance’s international celebrity status to do it. Relentlessly pursuing Lance manipulates the media’s eagerness to quench the public’s appetite for sensationalism. It’s a bit like The way Apple is solely vilified for their dealings with certain Asian manufacturing companies - even though all the big players in the consumer IT market use exactly the same factories for their manufacturing.
I haven’t watched the Four Corners exposé yet, but if it implied that drug use in cycling was as common as fuel additives in Formula One racing, then they’re on the right track. The thing is, when it’s that common, it’s expected of you, and just part of your daily routine. Just like in Formula One, where they’re constantly pushing the limits of technology to the max, all the while making sure they stay one step ahead of the officials.
I’ve heard some crazy stories - and drug use in cycling has been going on for decades. Sometime in the late nineties, I was at a barbie at an Aussie Olympic cyclist’s house, and one of my friends was recounting an incident where a racer rode up alongside a team support vehicle, and the team doctor leaned out of the window and juiced him up - all while still racing. This isn’t just some punter telling the story - in terms of his pedigree, (for those of you who know cycling) when racing as a sprinter years ago in Belgium, Erik Zabel was this person’s lead-out man.