Good, there's no room for drug-abusing cheats in sport and the International Cycling Union quite rightly says there's no place for Lance Armstrong in cycling. http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/7848904/Armstrong-stripped-of-titles-banned-for-life
Yeah now just to get the records of Bonds and McGwire declared invalid. Armstrong was an example of "better living through chemistry" lol.
Probably the toughest physical sport you could do. Try the Tour de France; you wouldn't last a day.http://www.podiumcafe.com/2010/6/29/1543466/tour-de-france-lets-rank-the-climbs
Cycling, what a joke, nobody cares in America, not even Armstrong! Hell he is rich and banging women like Sheryl Crow. I never even met a US citizen that could give a rat’s ass about the Tour de Surrender.
I like the way that the comedian Lewis Black looks at it. Lance had cancer but could still perform amazing feats while doping. "Why aren't we ALL doping?"
Yes, the ICU which accepted 125,000 USD from Armstrong, after he once tested positivve and it was subsequently "taken care of" by the ICU. The ICU's leadership is complicit in doping, especially of the cycling stars who bring in the money.
I feel a bit sorry for Armstrong (although I've said for a long time that he's a doper). The reality is that before he was a pro, there was doping. He starting pro racing at the time when EPO came on the scene and his team was getting whooped. They had the choice, don't dope, lose your place in the team, youre livelihood and everything they worked for over 10+ years, or do what everyone else is doing. They made the same choice everyone else did. I'm not supporting dopers, I'm reflecting on reality, a reality of the time when testing was uneffective against EPO. Sure he has to be stripped of titles, but only because the ICU needs to clean this up for the sake of the sport, but the ICU should start from within. Questions need answering about the payments Armstrong made to the ICU after he tested positive, they are complicit in this affair, IMO they are worse. The gate keeper knew what was going on and turned a blind eye as it was good for their coffers. The spotlight is on Armstrong as he was so successful, but the spotlight beam should be far wider. It's easy condemning these guys, but we all knew this all along, as we cheered them on. Anyone who has spent years cycling and competing, getting up on horrible winter mornings and cycling 100km base rides, when your feet and hands are in agony from the cold. 15 hours a week riding hard, never really recovering, but always riding because the big race is coming up. Dieting, training, dieting, training will know the disapointment when after all your efforts, you were too slow, too heavy etc... and this is at the amateur level. He should come clean and admit his failings as a human being, but that is made all the more difficult by the spotlight being on him and not the peloton as a whole.
Yes, there is little doubt that doping was endemic. There certainly is an element of scapegoating and Armstrong 'taking one for the team', but I have a feeling that the net will be cast wider, and as a result the sport will be cleaned up.
I hope so for the future of the sport, but I do hark back a little to the days of the sport when it was less commercial, most sports are ruined by money IMO.
I think cycling would be more interesting, if taking drugs was mandatory. This is old, but still worth a punt...[video=youtube;sHzdsFiBbFc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc[/video]
