The French & Lance armstrong

[yenrod]

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/09042009/58/armstrong-violated-doping-rules.html

I'm getting irritated by this now.

The french really do have it in for him in some way - shower goddamit: I like to get one as soon as I get in'.

Very bizzare.

 

[3-IN-One]

Yenners m8.................If your face dont fit,It dont fit.

Everybody hates a winner

 

[yenrod]

Yenners m8.................If your face dont fit,It dont fit.

Everybody hates a winner

 

[Noodley]

C'mon yenners get with it! Even I know m8 is short for mate...

And there is another thread about this anyway.

 

[John the Monkey]

Oh ffs.

You're supposed to stay in sight of the tester until the samples are taken. You're seriously telling me Bruyneel and Armstrong weren't aware of that?

 

[Bollo]

Just heard an interview with Pat McQuaid on 5Live of all places. The lady interviewer (sorry didn't catch her name) gave him a reasonably hard time for a non-specialist and Pat didn't sound all that convincing in his responses.

The crux of MacQuaid's argument over 'that shower' seems to go as follows....

The WADA regulations require that the testee stays in sight of the tester. But, the AFLD regulations say that the tester must have prior instruction to keep the testee in sight after notification. In this case, the tester didn't have any such instruction, so the Alpha Dog was not breaking any rules by disappearing off and giving those troublesome nuts a good scrub-up.

Whatever your views, there's an awful lot of high cycling politics being played at the moment.

 

[yello]

Whatever your views, there's an awful lot of high cycling politics being played at the moment.

In one.

For the record, "the French" don't hate LA. Just some French... as do some Americans, English, Aussies... even the odd Scot no doubt

Methinks that LA likes to do the 'the French hate me' spin but rest assured there are many many Lance fans in France. And rest equally assured that there are doubtless people within ASO that want him on the tour (don't forget ASO is a business, and there's money in that there Texan).

It's never as simple as 'us and them'.

 

[ufkacbln]

Strikes me that if some urchin came up to me with suspect papers I would also be reluctant to let them take samples without verification.

Accordingto other sources, the "inspector" authorised the shower and then wrote on the form that no anomalies had occurred, so really it is the authorities who gave wrong advice if this is true, and conducted the tests improperly.

 

[yello]

Accordingto other sources, the "inspector" authorised the shower and then wrote on the form that no anomalies had occurred

Yet another twist then! What was the source? I've not read that before.

 

[Will1985]

The French are pathetic, although I suspect the media are stirring the pot more than it needs.

On a happier note, I see that Stage 10 of the Giro has been radically changed so that conveniently it doesn't go into France...I wonder who would benefit from that if the AFLD have their way....two fingers up to ASO

 

[stumpy]

I like the way that the AFLD are not going to announce if they’ll take action against LA until the start of the Giro….Nothing like getting maximum press coverage is there????

 

[ufkacbln]

Yet another twist then! What was the source? I've not read that before.

The Telegraph

Armstrong, who described reports in France on Monday that he had "misbehaved" as outrageous, said he just wanted to have the tester's ID checked before complying with the request.

"I had never heard of labs or governments (the AFLD reports to the French government) doing drug testing and I had no idea who this guy was or whether he was telling the truth," the Astana rider said in a statement.

"We asked the tester for evidence of his authority. We looked at his papers but they were far from clear or impressive and we still had significant questions about who he was or for whom he worked.

"I was there with (team manager) Johan Bruyneel and two other people. We told the tester we wanted to check with the UCI to confirm who he was and to make sure he wasn't just some French guy with a backpack and some equipment to take my blood and urine."

Armstrong added everything happened within 20 minutes and that there were no further problems.

"Johan had confirmed with the UCI that the tester had authority from the French government to take samples. I immediately provided blood, urine and hair samples - all the samples that he requested, as he requested," the Texan said.

"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'."

Yahoo sports

Armstrong says he asked the tester if he could go inside the house to shower while they waited to hear from UCI and the tester agreed. According to Armstrong, the tester wrote "no" on the section of the testing that asks if there was anything irregular about the test.

 

[nilling]

Gawd this is all getting very wierd especially changing the route of the Giro so it doesn't cross into France

 

[Crankarm]

And a few French fishing boats are currently blockading the northern French ports bringing nearly all cross channel traffic to a halt. Having gone home for a good kip tonight they are rumoured to be back at 6am today and will also block the channel tunnel. Typical French, they have their own inimitable way that flies in the face of everyone else. It's amazing that a few fishing rod enthusiasts in a few dinghies can bring so much chaos. The police stand by refusing to intervene to clear the boats, only in France. And you can see now why they hate and persecute LA. They just have to as he is not French and makes no attempt to understand them just to conquer them.

 

[Steve B]

I disagree - LA learnt French so he could communicate with the French media. I guess you could argue that it was so he was not mis-quoted though.... The French hate LA because he is not French. Worse, he is American, which compounds the insult. They had no problem with Indurain winning 'their' tour so many times that I recall, but after the doping scandals that plaged the LA era, and in particular Richard Virenque, their golden boy, being caught up in it, they have tried to accuse everyone of being dirty to have won during that era. I have no idea whether he was dirty or not, and speculation will always be rife whatever anyone now says. LA will point to the negative tests, doubtors will point to everyone else's positive tests and assume guilt by association. Its a circular argument that will rumble on. Sadly it seems to dominate still, which is a shame because it takes away from the phenomonal achievement of all of the riders that compete in and complete the grand tours.