Lance Armstrong is a God

Even better, then!

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No, no, no apology needed for sure. I was just sayin.

Speedy, while you're in Boise, I was marshalling the Mt. Evans Hill Climb. It was 45 degrees and drizzly at my checkpoint at 8000 ft, I'm really glad I didn't have to go to the top at 14,100 ft. I'm guessing it had to be in the 20's up there. Oh, and Vaughters was riding in his old CA gear--in the Citizens category. I cheered him, he laughed.

And the only way to be sure that someone is doping is if they a) test positive, or b) admit it. Period. Speculation is a useless excercise . Once you start speculating, then everyone starts looking guilty which again gets you nowhere.

This highly focused training means, among other things 1) Lance has to be in peak form for only three weeks of the year, 2) since he's not competing in many other races, then he's got more time to train on the actual TdF route. It's no secret that Lance knows the routes (and the climbs in particular), far better than any of his competitors. But there's no way you can race a full season and still find time to do this -- as part of his training, Lance and his team ride the entire route at least once or twice, and the main climbs even more than that.

my husband joked that the main reason lance wants to win: his new girlfriend. hah!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/tour04/stage19/live/jans.jpg

*yawns*

The letter is more a defense of Lemond, but the attack on Ferrari, as I noted above, reflects strongly on Armstrong.

I'm not sure I understand yr question, but...

Big Mig? Or alleged EPO poster child "up 'til now I've had debilitating wheat allergies that affected my equilibrium, but watch me go now!" Gianni Bugno?

Armstrong is known as a hardcore my way/highway person. I don't know if he's brought his personal beefs into his business side, but I'm not clear on how much differentiation there is there. The first personal beef I think of besides Armstrong is Livingston.

mig but take your pick. i saw bugno that day on alpe d'huez too. in a world championship jersey i believe.

"I'm not clear on how much differentiation there is there"

between a racecourse and running/dealing with a company? really?

lemond is way more emotional, less steely a person. not to mention more wily a racer than he ever was dominating. he could not have handled what lance had to last year in the tour IMHO. would have thrown his bike or something i bet.
and what of hinault's take as i said in an earlier post? he's got no real allegiance to anybody and def. knows lemond up close and he has made a call, from what liggett and sherwen said the other day, that greg's jealous.
and greg on ESPN said "if he's clean, greatest comeback, if he's not, greatest fraud" well duh, then why even say anything?
...or bother to qualify at all if you basically say in the next breath he ADMITTED using substances during the phone call to him? something's fishy about it.

I may be misunderstanding, or not making my (perhaps needlessly-nuanced) position clear, but I don't think we're really arguing too much here. I deplored Lemond's comments about LA. I totally dug LA running down Kloeden like a dog, and LA's professionalism and desire are fucking great. Even if he were to be found doping, I'd actually still think he's among the greatest ever. I just don't assume he's clean, and I am concerned about the Simeoni thing yesterday. Simeoni's comments were under oath I believe. Was he supposed to perjure himself to protect the peloton? LA is saying he lied under oath to impugn it? Or just Ferrari? Complicated.

If pro cycling were revealed to be a drugging clown show, it really wouldn't ruin my day, I'd rather ride my own bike and think about trying to get enough training time in to race 'cross this year.

Speaking of prizes, Floyd Landis (USPS) has been awarded a special prize by comedian Robin Williams, who is a good fried of Lance Armstrong and the team. After his efforts in the mountains, and particularly stage 17, Williams nominated Landis the "baddest mofo of the mountains" and gave him a studly gold ring.

Shouldn't he be off making Patch Adams II: Electric Boogaloo or something?

PARIS (AP) _ Lance Armstrong rode into history Sunday by winning
the Tour de France for a record sixth time, an achievement that
confirmed the victory-hungry cancer survivor as one of the greatest
sportsmen of all time.

i hereby declare you to be awesome

love,

g dubbs

Bush spent the morning clearing brush at his ranch here, but
came into his house about the time his fellow Texan crossed the
finish line and watched TV coverage after the race's finish, she
said.

He was under oath, and accusing someone of purjury would be a serious charge. I think Armstrong's upset about the way Simeoni framed himself. His testimony was essentially "yeah, I did drugs, but I was just following orders". Thus, he's transfering some of the blame from himself to his doctors, trainers, and team management. Thus, the doping issue acquires a lot more breadth than just a few guys doping on their own without instruction from anybody, and that's what Lance feels is so damaging to cycling.

Eurosport somehow missed out on the Simeoni attacks at the start. That explains why the commentators weren't flipping out like I was when he did it again halfway through the stage.

According to a Domina Vacanze team source, Simeoni learned on Sunday that magistrates presiding over the trial of Armstrong’s performance consultant, Michele Ferrari, may wish to question the American about his mid-race altercation with Simeoni on Friday’s 18th stage. Legal officials in Florence apparently suspect that Armstrong may have been guilty of attempting to influence a witness.

Full-on respect to Hunter. I mostly mountain bike, but I've done a handful of cyclocross races over the past couple of years. Bike riding at its most primeval, all that up-bank down-ditch madness, real heart-rate through the roof, sliding around in shite, chunder through your nose, 'what the hell am I doing this for', cold, wet Sunday morning in Hell stuff. Fucking batshit stupid, but it's great. Woohoo!

It's weird how ubiquitous cross bikes are now.

How soon do we see where the route will be next year, seeing as we have free accomodation over there it'd be silly not to go see if it's not near where we stay

um.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/sports/cycling/lance-armstrong-ends-fight-against-doping-charges-losing-his-7-tour-de-france-titles.html?hp

LOL

Haw.

jan aint gonna win squat. he'll be surpassed by ivan basso and the new french generation once lance quits..

― Jay G (jaybob79), Friday, 23 July 2004 00:13 (8 years ago)

lol, 'new french generation'

does anyone think there's any merit to the rumor that the drugs caused his cancer?

you couldn't really say 'caused it' but if he was mucking around with HGH and testosterone and the like, that stuff isn't exactly going to calm down and aggressive tumor.

Possible. High testosterone levels increase the risk of testicular cancer. Anabolics increase IGF-1, and IGF-1 increases cancer risk. Even Epo is implicated in cancer proliferation.