Thought for the Day

[Colin H]

So Tyler Hamilton apparently saw Lance Armstrong take EPO???????? Did anybody see the interview? Looked to me as if Hamilton could not look the interviewer straight in the eye at any time when he was accusing.

 

Must be about that time of the year where the pond scum of cyclings murky past are looking for some publicity.......oh yeah there's that wee ride around France coming up!

 

IMHO I really couldn't care less anymore if Armstrong is guilty. After all, whilst he obviously gained personally from his tour successes he went on to achieve so much more outwith cycling and has, without doubt, made a more than positive contribution to human society. What have the others, whether successful in cycling or not, gone on to do? (BTW I would personally exclude Millar from this as being the only one to actually admit to it when caught, he has at least been pivotal in cleaning up the sport for the good).

 

If Armstrong did indeed dope (and I suspect he did) then he was only doing what the others were doing except he was better. If he wasn't doping then how p***ed would they be if he still won????

 

These people have only suceeded in ruining cyclings image and insist on continuing to reappear at oppertune moments. The likes of Hamilton, Landis, Ullrich, Ricco, Di Luca etc should just crawl back under their rock and stay there.

 

More concerning surely would be the possible need for them to move over and make space for one more and his butcher meat.........

 

Sorry, just needed a wee rant

 

Colin

[Richie Cross]

Is there an end in sight for the whole Armstrong affair or are the Feds still putting a case together?

I've not really read much into it all to decide whether Armstrong did dope or not. When it's cropped up before I did wonder how him and his team could get away with it for so long saying as they were tested a lot.

 

It was the whole Armstrong era that rekindled my love for cycling after a few years in the wilderness so I can't knock him for that.

I guess deep down I don't want him to have doped...or don't want him to be found guilty...even if he did!

 

We all know that previous generations had wholescale doping going on but it doesn't make me dislike the riders like Sean Kelly etc when listening to his commentary. Maybe it's because everyone was on a level playing field?

 

Now that Armstrong has retired, I haven't really thought much about him/missed him in the peloton so if the case just went away, I wouldn't really notice.

 

I always take the statements of Landis/Hamilton etc with a pinch of salt though.

 

CBS/Fox or whoever have apparently spoken to Hincapie who confirmed Hamilton's claims although George has tweeted that it's news to him.

I hope so because he had also implicated himself!

[Guest EPCC]

My one thought is all athletes are trying to gain an edge in all sports and we would be rather foolish to believe that they stay within the ethos of pure competition all the time money is the great corupter of all sport and where the somes are large the temptation becomes vast. What we should be proud off is at least we have a sport that has its eyes open and tries to catch cheats unlike football American football baseball athletics snooker and others.

To me though not my favorite rider he will remain in my eyes one of the greatest ever

[DavieB]

A horrendous can of worms and that's just this thread.

 

I think the problem for Armstrong is that there is a huge difference between pro's past and present offering stock BS to a cycling journalist and testifying in relation to a US federal investigation where there are serious consequences for being somewhat economical with the truth.

 

As an aside there are those who did come clean - and more importantly name names (spit in the soup) - Kimmage, Simeoni amongst them and look how the great man treated them.

 

As for Millar really respect him as a class rider and intelligent bloke, a great advert for cycling in general..... however there is a (perhaps cycnical) school of thought which suggest he has made a great career out of being cyclings self appointed "Mr Clean" much as the the self annonited Saints, otherwise known as Messers Bozo and Geldof made out of "ending" world poverty. Remember Millar never hacked up anything into the broth and always toed the Armstrong party line.

 

As for Contador anybody else think he is trying to trounce the opposition at the Giro at every available opportunity to:

 

(a) Prove a point;

( Influence a pending decision;

© Set up his defence/protestations of innocence - "I've just shown what I can do clean"

 

Sad to say but this is not going to go away.........

[Colin H]

Davie,

 

I actually believe that Contador is that much better than the rest.

 

That however would make it all the more dissapointing if he is proved to have succumbed to the "temptation" during or before last years TDF. Given the winning margin was more or less the time gained as a result of Schleck's slipped chain maybe he went into the tour genuinely worried about the threat.

 

Lets hope not.

 

Colin

[DavieB]

Colin,

 

Would agree regards Contador - he is poetry in motion on a bike and I also think he is a class apart. He has also been good for cycling as his season does not solely revolve around 3 weeks in France. He rides throughout the season and most often races to win - this alone is a breath of fresh air from the Lance era.

 

I recall reading that Clenbutorol is not neccesarily performance enhancing in the sense of EPO but can be used to lose weight / "cut" muscle during training periods, so if he has been a silly boy then it may be for slightly different reasons than the "standard" concept of doping.

 

My disclaimer if the above is indeed tosh, is that most, if not all, that reaches us via the media and particularly the internet is a mix of supposition, PR and propaganda.

 

The facts of the case are not known to me but alas I fear the worst in a couple of weeks time.

 

D