Landis 'fesses up?!

[eldudino]

If it were I with a fridge full of blood I wouldn't have it on my property, that's more my point. I think it's a pretty risky thing to have hanging around, too big a risk IMO. The truth will out anyway, it'll be a good story, whatever the outcome!

 

[Crackle]

On the second page...

"The United States Anti-Doping Authority has taken a different line and appointed the federal investigator Jeff Novitzky to the case. Landis and Armstrong’s former wife are understood to be co-operating".

It means nothing in itself though. Just that they've chosen to answer some questions, it justs sounds better spun with the 'co-operation' tag.

 

[Smokin Joe]

If you google Jeff Novitzky you'll find he is not a blazer from the UCI who might not want to uncover too much in case it damaged the sport, but a Federal Investigator with plenty of form.

To quote from the Times article again,

"If Novitzky concludes that US Postal did run a doping programme, Armstrong and others could face charges. Through Tailwind Sports, the US Postal team was funded by taxpayers’ money. The penalties for misusing such funds are draconian".

 

[Noodley]

A separate fridge, I would expect LA to have a pretty slick kitchen and not a separate wee fridge hanging around somewhere.

I can see LA using that as a defence:

LA: "My kitchen is too slick for me to have a fridge full of blood"
Prosecution: "..but what about this slick SMEG we found...."
LA: "shoot"
Prosecution: "Nope, blood"

 

[Crankarm]

Who ever gets the first authorative account of the last 10-15 years of doping in cycling published could make a mint. Perhaps this is what FL is now considering? Lucrative film rights? More the Godfather than the Bob Champion story I would have thought. FL could definitely be portrayed as a Fredo - the hapless brother who becomes a liability to the family.......

 

[rustychisel]

I am an unashamed Lance fan and I will be gutted if it turns out he has been doping all along. What has struck me with all the dopers that have been caught, is that they have all been pretty much completely self-serving. I find it hard to believe that someone who has put together such a great cancer foundation to help other people would do that. So, until there's definitive proof, I shall continue to admire, support and believe in Lance who is still one of my sporting heroes along with Ayrton Senna.

really sorry to be the one who has to break the news, but Ayrton Senna died quite some years ago...

 

[MacB]

It's easy to shoot at Landis, once a liar...., if this was all happening why hasn't it come to light, too many test for people to get away with it, etc.

Then look at Tiger Woods

 

[GrumpyGregry]

If LA can't win multiple tours without being a doper then what about other multiple tour winners? Or is it only because he is a Yank that people suspect him and assume the past and current european 'greats' are all as clean as a whistle.

It's a dirty sport but someone's got to do it. To paraphrase the song.

The cynic might say surely it is far easier, and the weight of evidence, circumstantial or othwerwise, seems to bear this out, to beleive, odds on, that they are ALL dopers at some point in their careers.

But, as in all matters relating to the Tour, you're innocent until proven guilty unless you are an American. Why, in some people's minds, is a lower standard of proof (if proof is innuenedo, suspicion, circumstantial evidence, tests done years after samples were taken, test done outside the official testing frameworks, etc., etc..) required for non-European competitors?

 

[trustysteed]

and why do people keep saying eddie merckx is the greatest rider ever yet he doped with the rest of them in his career?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

But, as in all matters relating to the Tour, you're innocent until proven guilty unless you are an American.

Greg, this is a load of balls. And you appear not to have read anything in this thread or anywhere else about this as you are pretty much repeating what you wrote earlier.

 

[raindog]

and why do people keep saying eddie merckx is the greatest rider ever yet he doped with the rest of them in his career?

The doping that went on before epo was invented was on a small scale and seems almost innocent these days. They were taking amphetamines and the like, which is only what rock-stars take to stay awake whilst on tour. I've not long finished reading Fignon's autobiography which was a bit of an eye opener. He first took amphetamines while riding a six day track event, where the conditions for the riders were pretty primitive, with a mattress on the floor for sleeping and a communal "bucket on the floor to p ss in", after a couple of days he was so tired through lack of sleep that someone gave him some pills to pop so he could finish the event. Personally I can forgive anyone in that era doing that, although technically forbiden, it's hardly a crime against humanity, but systematic blood doping has taken peds to a completely different level imo. Epo was just being introduced into the peloton when Fignon was about to retire, and he was offered some, while riding riding for the Italian Gatorade team, but refused.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Armstrong only scrapes into the Top Ten on what is probably the fairest and most careful list of the greatest cyclists ever... Merckx is by some distance the greatest. (You can check their methodology here)

Armstrong is still a top cyclist of course - certainly the greatest still riding today - doped or not, but it's his attitude to those who have talked about doping in the peloton that I think annoys people more than anything else, and makes them think he has something to hide. He is, by a lot of accounts, a pretty merciless and unpleasant character.

 

[lukesdad]

Most of the best were in their riding days, I think you ll find.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Greg, this is a load of balls. And you appear not to have read anything in this thread or anywhere else about this as you are pretty much repeating what you wrote earlier.

wrong wrong and wronger.

The 'arguments' put forward in this thread, and elsewhere, have failed, yet again, to convince many people. I had the benefit of reading the French sporting press over the last weekend, and indeed over the last several years, in the company of some French cycling mates. I also well recall the bias in some sections of the press towards Greg LeMond when he was competing

Marion Jones = Lance Armstrong? I think not. Jones was alledged, in the Summer of 06 by the press, (The Washington Post no less, a paper with impecable investigative credentials) to have failed a properly conducted drug test and promptly withdrew from competition, and promptly copped a plea. Why was that then do you think? Turned out the B sample was clean, so was the press report a bluff!

LA has been accussed of all sorts yet responds with "catch me, I'm clean, here is a hyperbolic statement to support that, challenge me if you've got proof that satisfies the system". He must have huge stones (or maybe not)

That is the way the law works. Proof is required. Until then I can't see how any one can argue that LA is a cheat or not....

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Armstrong is, by a lot of accounts, a pretty merciless and unpleasant character.

Really? I'm gonna have a heart attack and die of not surprised. That must be why the Tour greats, and other top athletes, have nicknames like "nice guy eddy", rather than "the cannibal", "the animal" or "the badger".

Winning things in sport, and elsewhere, generally requires a degree of remorselessness, a lack of pity, of mercy and a huge amount of focus on coming first.