[Closed] Is Armstrong contrite or playing the game?

🙄

Yes, he's a bit of a contrite

Game playing , and for some reason thinking he can get away with it

He still thinks he is smarter than everyone else ....

Its like a soap opera.

I read that as soap Oprah for a second...

Yes, he's a bit of a contrite

Definitely playing the game in order to gain public 'forgiveness' and to kick start some tv/media career.
Or am I just cynical?

he is genuine and sincere and he really means it

Sure some of you guys are some of the guys he mentioned who will never forgive him but hey he looked up cheat and do you know what he was not one as it was all level playing field.

If you had fought cancer like he had maybe you would understand.

I've had cancer the same as him (twice)

Pretty sure not everyone was on drugs, wasn't very level for them.

Game playing me thinks.

new book maybe

He's a self serving contrite?

There's people in high places nervous. Ask yourself; why no public reaction from those that matter so far? He's got stuff on them for sure.

I'm amazed he's still alive; testosterone, steroids, cancer & blood transfusions/doping?

He's got to be a FLIPPIN super man or something. But yes; he's an unbelievable selfish arse. The upcoming court follow ups could be interesting.

Playing the game

don't hate the playa, hate the game, innit bruv

[url= http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-18/voice-of-cycling-reflects-on-armstrongs-admissions/4471918 ]Phil Liggett on Armstron (ABC News)[/url]
Phil was interviewed last night over here (video & transcript) the bit he really wants is to know who was behind it, where the money came from (not convinced that EPO etc was in the armstrong budget without help)
If he wants rehabilitation and any hope of competing in anything he needs to name the other names.

Liggett has sure changed his tune. The golden tit run dry?

Hope the vid worked up there. I guess he was wanting to believe and the confession killed any last chance of that. Not to open that debate up but plenty wanted to believe.

Very fair points I though.

I don't believe a word he's saying. I think he was clean.

But there's still no actual EVIDENCE he took drugs is there. I mean it's just the testimony of a load of bitter old junkies and a confession made under duress.

I still think he was clean.

🙂

I'm amazed the question is even being asked. Are there really people still ignorant about what LA is?

He's playing the game. He doesn't really feel he did anything wrong.

I don't particularly warm to LA but he really did not create the culture of drugs in cycling. Road cycling and drugs have always gone together. I think its quite naive if you thought many tour riders were squeaky clean then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_cycling

The use of drugs, and the advantages to be gained, reached new levels in the Lance Armstrong era. It was common knowledge within the teams that you had little chance without EPO, especially as EPO wasn't tested for. If I'd been in that world I would also have taken the drugs, the majority it seems, did exactly that. I think a lot of people are being judgemental without realising they'd have done it too.

Some Highlights of the Wikipedia list

Sean Kelly of Ireland was described in Willy Voet's book 'Massacre à la Chaine': He won the Tour of Lombardy three times (1983, 1985, 1991 (also won amateur version in 1976)) and on at least one occasion he did it with the help of a corticoide injection. Kelly was controlled positive after Paris–Brussels in 1984 and that came as a surprise because he used the urine of a mechanic. But the mechanic was using a banned substance himself because he had to work long hours at night and needed the lift to stay awake."[107]

Freddy Maertens of Belgium, admitted to the French newspaper L'Équipe, after his retirement, that "like everyone else", he had used amphetamines in round-the-houses races but he insisted that he had ridden without drugs in important races - not least because he knew he would be tested for them

During the 1979 Tour de France, the leader of the mountains classification Giovanni Battaglin tested positive for doping in stage 13. He was penalized by 10 minutes in the general classification, lost the points that he earned in stage 13 and received 10 penalty points in the mountains classification.[68] Battaglin was still able to win the mountains classification.
Frans Van Looy and Gilbert Chaumaz also tested positive for doping during the Tour.[69] After the Tour de France had finished, Joop Zoetemelk was found to have used doping, which he confessed later. Zoetemelk was penalized by 10 minutes in the general classification, but kept his second place.[70]

10 minute penalties hardly look like a big deterrent.

Lying, self serving w@nker, simple as that. IMO of course........

Jacques Anquetil the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times

Anquetil took a forthright and controversial stand on the use of performance-enhancing drugs. He never hid that he took drugs and in a debate with a government minister on French television said only a fool would imagine it was possible to ride Bordeaux–Paris on just water.

He and other cyclists had to ride through "the cold, through heatwaves, in the rain and in the mountains", and they had the right to treat themselves as they wished, he said in a television interview, before adding:

"Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope."

I feel after watching the interview that he is still very deluded, as such this can only end 1 of two ways. Either A he becomes a martyr whereby he actively uses himself, his wealth and all his worldly possessions to eradicate doping or B he ends up so guilt ridden that buckshot and wadding removes him from existence.

Either way he is a cheat and a liar, something he can never change.

Lets hope part two shows us that he intends to put something back into cycling.

Personally- I think it almost goes without saying that whatever he does here, it'll be for reasons of self-interest. It might well help the sport, but it'll take a lot before it looks like serious redemption.

But I'm not that fussed, because as long as he's talking, other guilty people in the sport will be getting the shits on an unprecedented level 🙂 So yes, he's game playing, but if he's proved one thing it's that he's pretty good at it.

Jesus faced a mob that was eager to execute a woman caught in adultery. He put a stop to it with a simple challenge: anyone who has no sin in their life should step forward and throw the first stone. That sentence is often cited as a reminder to avoid judging others when there are faults in your own life that need to be addressed.

Spunik, I've never seen truer words spoken, on this forum or anywhere else. Thanks for having the balls to say so.

Lance and God in 1 thread I call house and time for a beer

I could do with some "doping". My last ride out I was bloody knackered. I certainly couldn't throw stones at lance then could I?

Especially of course if I had also told lies and cheated to gain millions of pounds under false pretences.

Flat one or bag of gravel?

As long as he's got a stake in the PR company that wrote the script, he's made for life. Every dodgy corporation is going to want to pay hansomly for their assistance.

Seriously, I don't like the man in any way, but he's nothing if not professional 😀

Look at how it's playing in the mainstream media. He'll be pleased as piss with the reaction so far.

Jesus faced a mob that was eager to execute a woman caught in adultery. He put a stop to it with a simple challenge: anyone who has no sin in their life should step forward and throw the first stone. That sentence is often cited as a reminder to avoid judging others when there are faults in your own life that need to be addressed.

So you're saying Oprah is the second coming?

Sputnik, didn't Jesus also violently attack the cheating moneychangers in the temple?

I'm sure there are lots of fables you can also quote to fit whatever point you're making. How about the three billygoats gruff, or the hare and the tortoise maybe?

I could [i]almost[/i] forgive the drugs on the grounds that everybody did it and as he said, it was like air in your tyres.

But I could never forgive the bullying and the nasty vindictive attacks.... "Mr Kimmage I wouldn't even wipe my shoe on you......"

globalti - Member
I could almost forgive the drugs on the grounds that everybody did it and as he said, it was like air in your tyres.

But I could never forgive the bullying and the nasty vindictive attacks.... "Mr Kimmage I wouldn't even wipe my shoe on you......"

POSTED 12 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

This. The difference between Armstong and other cheats is the way he treated Bassons, Simeoni, Betsy Andreu, Emma O'Reilly, Greg Lemond, Paul Kimmage, David Walsh, Mike Anderson and many others. He sued them, threw insults like whore, crazy bitch, poisonous and duplicit all the time knowing they were right and he was wrong. He destroyed Greg Lemond's business, he forced Mike Anderson to emigrate and he effectively ended the career of Bassons and Simeoni. Jacques Anquetil shagging his way around friends and family is nothing in comparison to what Armstrong has done.

I just hope it doesn't stop at Lance, the Doping agencies, IOC and UCI have a lot more to answer to in my eyes than him.

so phil can't figure out where the drugs come from...

we could always speculate. take one thom weisel for example. thom weisel the cycling fan who was behind subaru-montgomery, the team that would eventually become us postal. same thom weisel that assisted usa cycling in its time of difficulty.

surely you ask this couldn't be the same thom weisel of montgomery securities, the same montgomery securites that funded a certain biotech company (to great profit) back in the eighties. what were they called? oh, that's right - amgen. and they made what? that would be epo.

but would then be the same amgen who would be facing massive fines for its unethical pratices with regard to cancer patients and epo. the sort of stuff you can read about in (fairly long winded and a bit dull) fashion in kathleen sharp's book blood medicine. but we wouldn't want to cloud the issue of routine and institutional exploitation of thousands of ill people with the fact that some people's viewing enjoyment of a bike race was spoiled because some blokes enjoyed the benefits of corporate sponsorship.

not that i'd ever suggest that just because someone has links with the company who makes the drug they were taking would ever do such a thing. because the likes of thr uci wouldn't be up for that. no, because, say, if you were hein verbruggen and you had a team sponsor or backer doing something like handling your investments, someone who knew their way around such things, someone like thom weisel for example. you wouldn#t want to be doing that cos it would look like a conflict of interest or something.

but that would be a red herring because the issue at hand is that once the armstrong cancer (sic) is excised from cycling, sport and hopefully exiled into space then all cycling fans can rest easy and get down to the business of pretending they understand all that physiology and biochemistry stuff and watching the wonderful new era of clean cycling unfurl into 2013.

and it is a clean world of cycling and things really have changed, when a break has been made between what's happening now and the bad old days of epo. me, i can't wait for the start of the racing, the classics, the tour of california, oops, that should read the amgen tour of california. wait a minute tho...

The part that made me smile was when he talked of his son being bullied. He tried the dramatic pause with the expectation of a single tear, but none came. He's emotionally devoid and will never change!

Dasha - "He's emotionally devoid" and YOU are suggesting "Lets hope part two (he ends up so guilt ridden that buckshot and wadding removes him from existence)???

Sputnik - Perfect point

Any hands here for ANYONE who has never lied or cheated in their lives... ever?

Again, +1 Sputnik for the sentiment rather than a literal connection eh?!

swiss01 - very interesting... I see Amgen are also supporters of livestrong with their 'corporate philanthropy'. Does make me wonder if LA is to be the fall guy here? Thom weisel is clearly very well connected. Mebbe LA isn't as clever as he likes to make out?

The fellow is on a obvious damage limitation drive. If anybody needs to be trod on on that journey you can bet they will be without a thought by him. There's a lot more to come.

I think it almost goes without saying that whatever he does here, it'll be for reasons of self-interest. It might well help the sport, but it'll take a lot before it looks like serious redemption.

This really. And I've a bit of sympathy with globalti's view too.

Game playing , and for some reason thinking he can get away with it

[b]He still thinks he is smarter than everyone else ....[/b]

Don't forget, he is an American, so although he doesn't fool [i]us[/i], he could well be the sharpest knife in his particular drawer.