[Closed] Armstrong's in trouble

No he's not - sensationist journalism if you read the whole story (assuming that Armstrong's response is true)

"In addition, the form asked the tester to state if there were any irregularities or further observations from the testing process and to that he wrote 'no'.

yeah i know, must be very frustrating for him. tested 24 times!!

Once again people over react: All Armstrong did was get suspiscious when a guy, with dubious credentials turned up on his doorstep when he had just got back from a training ride. Johan Bruyneel stayed with the guy and phoned the doping agency while Lance went in to shower . Once they confirmed his identity, he cooperated fully.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/armstrong-explains-behaviour-during-24th-dope-test-21150

The simple fact is, a LOT of people want him to be guilty - not least the "French", so any irregularities however trivial are seen as some kind of evidence that he's doping. Sensationalist journalism at it's very best (worst?). I hope he rides & wins 🙂

He's still my hero 😈

Off to womanise some more now...

Surely the 24 times relates to testing outwith competitive events??

was a bit daft to disappear into the shower while waiting - fuel to the fire (did he catheterise & shove in some clean urine etc etc ?)

then again, the tester could/should have insisted he wait in their presence if that's what was required (and WADA/FLAPS/UCI/whoever should have more explicit policies)

I say tie him up and chuck him in the pond. If he drowns he is innocent. If he survives he is a cheat.

chucking him in a pond and seeing if he floats would probably not satisfy the French, they'd probably want something a little more extreme.

It all depends on whether you believe he is a drug cheat who has been eluding the authorities for years or a clean rider.

Myself I am convinced he is a cheat and I want to see him caught

Why are you convinced of that TJ

Some people need to read the correct story, I rarely ever read any articles about cycling on the BBC pages.

I also hear enough about Armstrong everywhere else. The public seem to think he is the only pro road cyclist ever born.

If he's been tested (unannounced) 24 times since the autumn, and been negative each time, then surely we have to believe he's clean rather than just assuming he's (and only him) found some new and amazing way of evading the tests, otherwise what's the point? Just because he's not liked doesn't mean he's a cheat, just means that he's a tw*t 🙂

coffeeking - Member

Why are you convinced of that TJ

ONly my opinion remember 🙂

His previous team mates have been unmasked as cheats. Many folk in the balco scandal were frequently tested and not found out but later proven to be cheats, the retrospective testing of his urine ( 2 yr old sample) that was tested with tests that were not available when he gave the sample and found positive. His ability to beat the known cheats, his strange "medical" use of drugs after his cancer - drugs that are used to give a performance improvement but are very unusual to be used to treat cancer, his amazingly quick recovery from the cancer and many other suspicious things.

I don't believe there has been a drug free winner of the tour of France ever

Just face it. He and Chris Hoy are the only cyclists the average UK based non enthusiast will have heard of. How many top US basketball players can the STW regulars name? Same thing really. If Michael Johnson came back he'd be in the news.

I love riding my road bike but it's this kind of nonsense that makes me steer clear of the scene entirely. Personally I hope he's innocent since I don't want the same level of finger-pointing hitting the MTB scene that Lance is now part of. Perhaps he did that to escape the finger-pointers

stilltortoise... are you thinking dopers don't exist in MTB racing?

In the downhill scene that I follow it either doesn't exist or is [u]considerably [/u]better hidden than in road riding

although this is quite revealing http://www.downhill.co.nz/politics/articles/anstiss/index.html

although this is quite revealing http://www.downhill.co.nz/politics/articles/anstiss/index.html
br />

👿 BURN THE DOWNHILLERS!!! 👿

I love that NZ website. This bit reminded me of The Fast Show's Australian natural history programme sketch:

Recent research has isolated a gene (the dopamine d4 gene) that may be responsible for this risk taking tendency. So far this is only in rats, but hey, what’s the difference?

I suspect not many of the drugs being taken are performance-enhancing... 🙂

[img] [/img]

he he

Them crazy downhillists!
Im pretty sure Lance is clean NOW
Im pretty sure Lance was doped up the eye-balls before he retired
I dont think his comeback is good for the sport either

Lance was and probably still is responsible for more high end bikes being sold in America than all other cyclists put together.
That's a lot of money going into cycling. Money in cycling and awareness of cyclists, to me, is a good thing. Hence Lance is, in my onpinion, a good thing.
More money for more investment for better, more efficient products.
Cycling doesn't need Lance, but it's a lot more comfortable of with him.
I don't believe he took drugs because I believe in innocent until proven guilty. And also I don't think he needed them because he was so far ahead in training techniques & methods plus all other aspects. I don't think many pros are even where he was ten years ago.
He has many people beaten psychologically before the start of a race.
But if he did take take drugs, then indirectly those drugs are responsible for bringing millions of dollars into my sport and I for one wouldn't run off and join a monastry if that were true.
"Winners do do drugs!"
There's do do in the middle of that phrase. 😆
But perhaps some of you think to err is human, to forgive is not Company Policy.

Perhaps Lance has a Bontrager Whizzinator.
[url= http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/ ]High Times advice for an interview[/url]

How many top US basketball players can the STW regulars name?

Shaquil O'Neil; Larry Bird, Dennis Rodman, Nike Air Jordan, Harlem Globetrotters, Woody Harelson, erm...

"How many top US basketball players can the STW regulars name? Same thing really. If Michael Johnson came back he'd be in the news"

Yes he would, but not as a basetball player. Michael Johnson was a 200/400m runner. Michael JORDAN however.....

Armstrong can't win with some of you as he can't prove a negative- all he can do is continue to be tested and continue to be found clean.

Until there is proof otherwise I prefer to think of him as a talented athlete who simply trained better and harder than his rivals. He also concentrated on the one race. Maybe if Ullrich had been out training on alpine climbs in the early spring like Armstrong instead of getting pied up he might have given Lance more competition.

I'd prefer to think of him as a talented athlete as well but unfortunately i think he's a f_cking cheat.

Yes he would, but not as a basetball player. Michael Johnson was a 200/400m runner. Michael JORDAN however.....

There you go. I didn't even know the name of the most famous one 😉

I don't believe there has been a drug free winner of the tour of France ever

Except Floyd.

I follow Lance on Twitter, he usually posts links to these stories himself - he knows the French are out for him and goads them a fair bit.

I can't see he was clean given the way the sport was during his wins. The prospect of him nipping to the shower and using a catheter to introduce a supply of "clean" urine to his bladder is not a pretty thought but I am sure there are plenty of riders who have done just that and think nothing of it.

Shame if he does use drugs but really, given the whole field are the probably the same, it means his achievement is still the same really.

his amazingly quick recovery from the cancer and many other suspicious things.

TJ, are you hinting that his cancer was a big ruse to let him take drugs?

catheter - introduce - bladder.

for f_ck sake tell me no one wants to win that much.

Feenster - no - his cancer was real. What I am suggesting is he used the cancer treatment as a means of using performance enhancing drugs. I cannot remember all the details but IIRC there was stuff he was taking supposedly as cancer treatment so he got an exemption certificate for that is unusual to use in cancer treatment but is performance enhancing.

As for the self catheterising to introduce clean urine - a very common way to elude urine tests.

TJ - you dont half talk a right load of crap.

[i]Shame if he does use drugs but really, given the whole field are the probably the same, it means his achievement is still the same really. [/i]
aye, that's about it. Yes, a cheat, but a highly talented cheat. And for 3 weeks in July for consecutive 7 years, faster than any other cheat. No mean feat. I think it's the evangelistic attitude that many have towards him being the single remaining bastion of truth and justice in sport is the problem, rather than the man himself...

Smee - Member

321 you're back in the room

I don't think I'd ever like to meet Armstrong, I would have loved to before I read his first book (bought the week it was published here), but not afterwards.

TJ - maybe lancewill fall off his bike without a helmet on and take some more drugs in his recuperation...

Maybe the frenchies will have him for contributory negligence!

Innocent til proven guilty.

p.s. to infer that anyone uses cancer as a way to get fitter/more competitive, really is an incredibly stupid thing to say. in addition, he was pretty handy before the cancer as I seem to remember.

Lance Armstrong knows how to handle a bike at speed and is also a very fit individual with hill climbing power and stamina. You may as well say that Sam Hill is a cheat cos he could ride on mud faster than others could in the dry. Or that cos Gazza was the most talented player of his generation he was obviously a cheat too.

However......

I was once told by someone from Trek that at one point Lance's bike frame was filled with ice before weighing and afterwards he would pull off a puncture patch over a hole drilled in the BB shell to allow the melted ice to leak out over the course of a Tour stage, meaning after a few miles his bike was lighter than the legal limit

jimbobrighton, He was indeed a world champion at the age of 21 when he rode for an American team (Motorola) which would have been naively unaware of exactly what drugs to actually take and Armstrong too arrogant to take any.
Long before he was diagnosed with cancer.

It's a long way home for a young cyclists from Europe to America and nowhere to go if you do return.
Armstrong stayed and began learning how to win, his way. And in this he is a strong character. He doesn't just want to win, he wants to beat everybody.
He was lucky in the the fact that many influential people in US cycling had belief in him and he got their support because they knew he was good enough.

I guess some of you want to believe he was guilty but outside of their acerbic section of the media many French cyclists think Armstrong was a genuine brilliant cyclist.
Look at how the media here treats celebrities that are 'out of favour' or something and that's how Armstrong is treated by the gutter press there. Don't forget he's bigger than Beckham or suchlike.
Any negative story will get a journalist money. Dirt sells.
It is possible that Armstrong was clean. Feasibly he brushed boundaries, only insiders will know but everything else was measured to the nth degree.
And I for one believe the ice story, because that is how Lance will have bent the rules. Ingeniusly.

I don't think I'd ever like to meet Armstrong, I would have loved to before I read his first book (bought the week it was published here), but not afterwards

Got to agree with you there. I admire his sporting achievements but he's definitely not the kind of guy I'd want to go down the pub with. Winners are often single minded driven individuals. Armstrong seems to need to carry a series of grudges around with him to give him the feeling that the world is against him which he uses as motivation so he can say "how to you like them apples?" when he's won the TdF again.

Another example Tim Henman- appears to be OK guy but never had that edge needed to take him to the very top vs Andy Murray- total ar$e but has now won as much as Henman did in his entire career and will probably take a major soon.