Don't let baseball see what cycling did or titles and awards are going to be stripped. Roger Clemens? There goes his rings and his Cy Youngs. Barry Bonds? Bye bye trophies!
He was caught using doping but "politics" permitted to keep his record clean.
I'm sorry to say this because he showed he was a great man and had to deal with cancer, but he is a fraud and it was crystal clear when he and his teammates (some of them caught in doping cases too, how strange...) used to dominate the Tours back then. When someone pointed at him as a doping user, he systematically destroyed their careers/lifes.
I'm definitely glad he will be stripped of those Tours.
Anyone defending this guy is quite simply unfamiliar with the evidence.
He is 100%, undisputedly, one of the biggest cheats and biggest frauds in the history of sports. And got exactly what was coming to him, even if it was a decade late.
Repeating what I posted today on Facebook (which is being flooded with comments by people who have no clue whatsoever about cycling):
For anyone shocked and appalled by the Lance Armstrong news today, a wake-up call: if you have followed the sport of pro cycling for any length of time at any depth, this will come as no surprise at all. If hearing about how riders used performance-enhancing drugs to compete ruins your enjoyment of the sport, you are best to just stop watching or following it completely. If you can accept that almost everyone dopes at some point, but still enjoy it, then welcome to the world of cynical but realistic cycling fans. We are happy to have you.
Wow, I cannot believe the amount of delusional Americans in here. It is very odd. Perhaps they aren't cycling fans, and that's the problem.
OF COURSE HE DID IT. The fact that he was a successful cyclist on the UCI Tour during this era... and happened to win titles AFTER fighting cancer.... already pretty much guarantees he was doping. Add all the other stuff, and it's a slam dunk.
Repeating what I posted today on Facebook (which is being flooded with comments by people who have no clue whatsoever about cycling):
For anyone shocked and appalled by the Lance Armstrong news today, a wake-up call: if you have followed the sport of pro cycling for any length of time at any depth, this will come as no surprise at all. If hearing about how riders used performance-enhancing drugs to compete ruins your enjoyment of the sport, you are best to just stop watching or following it completely. If you can accept that almost everyone dopes at some point, but still enjoy it, then welcome to the world of cynical but realistic cycling fans. We are happy to have you.
Not shocked and appalled, but rather disappointed. Is it really too much to ask for the sport to be cleaned up?
Also love the "anyone who disagrees with me knows nothing about cycling" comment btw. Nice touch of elitism.
Anyone defending this guy is quite simply unfamiliar with the evidence.
He is 100%, undisputedly, one of the biggest cheats and biggest frauds in the history of sports. And got exactly what was coming to him, even if it was a decade late.
Lets see the evidence that proves this claim.
If you areo going to make a statement like this than please back it up. I haven’t followed this outside of reading the articles that have popped up in mainstream media (TSN.ca, etc) and other than the claims made by USADA that they have proof of Armstrong’s guilt there is no concrete evidence that he has doped/cheated.
If I have missed a key piece of physical evidence to prove Armstrong’s guilt please let me know.
If it is unsubstantiated, why did he stop challenging? If you are truly innocent, why do you stop "because you are tired of all the accusations". You fight until you can fight no more, if you're innocent. If someone accused me of cheating, I'd fight till the end. He still had support. This is implicitly saying, I give up, I did it, I'm a fraud.
Probably a bad example, but lets say there was a conspiracy going on that you only got to be an HF moderator by bribing your way into it with a lot of money (bare with me).
This conspiracy "leaks" from another HF Mod who you thought you were friends with. Now there's constant threads on HF Boards Every. Single. Day. questioning your legitimacy and demanding answers! BUT, you have multiple documents proving your innocence (emails, texts, voicemails). You start explaining yourself and telling people "Look! I have proof that i did NOT bribe anyone. I earned my Moderator position here because i love hockey and i've proven to be a mature poster based on my last 7 years of activity!"
Despite all of this, people still question your legitimacy. They still dont believe you. Not only do you have frequent threads popping up but whenever you post in another thread people bring up your bribery. Every. Single. Post.
Can you imagine how annoying that would be? Day in and day out constantly trying to justify your actions, despite having proof! How long would you keep saying "I'm innocent! I have proof!"? How many days would you put up with it? Can you honestly say you would continue to post in all of those threads and respond to everyone's replies? You'd do this every day for as long as your on HFBoards? This is only an internet forum. Unless your dream is to be a Forum Mod i'd imagine you're not too dedicated to this place in the grand scheme of things.
Now realize that Lance Armstrong has been dealing with everything i mentioned in my hypothetical. Only instead of a stupid website, people are attacking his legitimacy in something that he not only loves more than anything, but something that he's worked incredibly hard on for most of his life. The ridiculous amount of training these guys have to do can only be possible through the utmost amount of passion and dedication.
He has passed literally 100's of drug tests. I dont know what other proof people need.
He's a sham for cheating his way through Tour titles and pretending he didn't. He was as slick as they came. "I didn't do anything wrong! I'm clean! I've been tested so many times!"
If you're going to vehemently deny these allegations, then at least don't lie about it. Because it just makes you look silly. Others came clean. Lance never did. His ego was too big for him to confess to any wrongdoing.
Seems you aren't too familiar with the heads of the USADA and the WADA.
Slandering the man without knowing the "evidence?" Shut your mouth.
Not shocked and appalled, but rather disappointed. Is it really too much to ask for the sport to be cleaned up?
Also love the "anyone who disagrees with me knows nothing about cycling" comment btw. Nice touch of elitism.
If people are ignorant of the doping culture of cycling (which goes far beyond just the elite pro level), then yeah they probably don't know much about cycling as a whole. And this applies especially to the large numbers of Lance Armstrong fans who didn't even really follow it for the cycling, but rather because they wanted to chant "USA USA USA" while tough Texan Lance Armstrong beat on those wussy Frenchies.
For anyone who requires positive testing results from a controlled laboratory environment as proof of doping: that's a perfectly fine personal standard to hold, but I hope you apply it universally across all sports (such as baseball and track&field), and not just to exonerate or defend specific athletes.
So, do they retroactively award the championship to the 2nd place finisher? If so, looks like Jan Ullrich is looking good.
It's not clear that the USADA actually has the power to strip Armstrong of his victories, or if only the UCI can do that. Regardless, it's a hollow punishment (like stripping victories from an NCAA football team), and awarding the "victory" to another rider even more so, because:
1. Everyone who watched knows who won.
2. Most (all) of the high finishers were also presumably doping, and some have even been implicated after the fact. Tons of podium finishers during the Armstrong era were named in Operation Puerto.
Wow, I cannot believe the amount of delusional Americans in here. It is very odd. Perhaps they aren't cycling fans, and that's the problem.
OF COURSE HE DID IT. The fact that he was a successful cyclist on the UCI Tour during this era... and happened to win titles AFTER fighting cancer.... already pretty much guarantees he was doping. Add all the other stuff, and it's a slam dunk.
Its hard to give in this case the Tour to the 2nd rider, as much as I like Ullrich, there was evidence he doped, same for Ivan Basso, who would win 2005 Tour. (both in Operacion Puerto)
Then you're already giving in some cases the tour to the 3rd rider or even 4th or 5th... woah
