Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour titles

[Orangeyes]

Lance Armstrong stripped of Tour titles

 

[CuseFaninVT]

As expected, but still kind of a sad day. Of course everyone always wondered how he did it, but I personally hoped it was all just hardwork. Cycling may not recover in America from this one.

 

[qdawgg]

This will have no impact on cycling in the U.S. - cycling is not that big in the U.S. to begin with. The cycling appeal is mostly based from people who are actually cycling in some competitive manner or are higher level recreation riders. Whereas in Europe people bike leisurely + for transportation and they follow cycling as a result.

If anything cycling is growing in the U.S. There are more Nationally broadcasted races based in the US than there was 5 years ago. Also in 2010 a High School mtb organization was started to promote mtb as a H.S. sport. In just 2 years the sport has leagues in 9 states and many races are drawing hundreds of people and many teams have enough racers for male/female + JV/V teams.

Probably nobody cared about all of that info.

 

[Orangeyes]

Even I recently dusted off my 42 year old 10 speed. Just call me unsafe at any speed.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

No man has done more with fewer testicles. No one can take that away from him.

 

[CuseTroop]

I thought this happened a while ago? Or was it just talked about?

 

[Moontan]

The cycling appeal is mostly based from people who are actually cycling in some competitive manner or are higher level recreation riders. Whereas in Europe people bike leisurely + for transportation and they follow cycling as a result.

If your contention is that there is no competitive cycling in Europe then you'd be wrong.

Where do you think most of the guys on the international circuit come from?

 

[qdawgg]

If your contention is that there is no competitive cycling in Europe then you'd be wrong.

Where do you think most of the guys on the international circuit come from?

That wasn't my contention. I was saying that in addition to competitive cycling, in Europe there is also large support that comes from people who only ride their bikes leisurely or use their bikes as a 2nd vehicle; as well as support from people who rarely ride a bike. In the U.S. a majority of cycling support comes from people who fairly involved in cycling and will continue to be involved regardless of anything having to do with Lance.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

That wasn't my contention. I was saying that in addition to competitive cycling, in Europe there is also large support that comes from people who only ride their bikes leisurely or use their bikes as a 2nd vehicle; as well as support from people who rarely ride a bike. In the U.S. a majority of cycling support comes from people who fairly involved in cycling and will continue to be involved regardless of anything having to do with Lance.

I know many cyclists up here who supported Lance for years, including one who used to travel to ride the Tour (the day after each stage was complete). Many defended him for years. I'm sure they will support cycling in the same way they have in terms of riding, but no one is going out and getting the USPS bike now or getting outfitted with any cyclists gear anymore like they did for Lance. That economic benefit will be lost - specifically to Nike who supported him for so long.

I just read an article about Lance being asked to return the monies he has won including the bonuses paid for winning more than 5 consecutive Tours. I think that's a load of crap. I think Lance meant more for those sports in terms of advertising dollars returned than the money given to him as prizes or bonuses.

Interestingly enough, if he does give those monies back, he will likely reap pretty decent tax advantages next year. So he's got that going for him...

 

[qdawgg]

I understand what your saying about the potential loss from people who aren't going to buy stuff specifically because of Lance but they will still continue to buy that new bike, jersey, etc. My point is that the types of people who support cycling in the U.S. aren't going anywhere just because of Lance.

That would be awesome just to go and ride some of the mountain stages during the tour, I know they have amateur events the day before many of the stages too.

 

[2Slick]

This is something I posted on another board that applies to PED users in a variety of sports:

It was the FBI that did the heavy lifting in the Armstrong investigation and then just handed over its files, which included all the sworn testimony, to USADA. Without various law enforcement agencies on both sides of the pond (eg. Operacion Puerto, Festina scandal, Balco, Angel Heredia, etc.), there's a long list of athletes in cycling, track & field and baseball who would have never been exposed as dopers. Neither the UCI, the IAAF, MLB nor any of the other sports governing bodies will ever be able to stop athletes from doping until they get the power to issue subpoenas and conduct search warrants, because most people are afraid to lie under oath.

One big difference between doping in cycling and doping in other sports is that in cycling it's a team effort, versus individual efforts in other sports, which means that cyclists always have at least a dozen potential witnesses who can rat them out. This means that Armstrong had a lot more people to worry about than Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Bonds only had Greg Anderson (he went to prison instead of testify) to worry about and Clemens only had Brian McNamee (he got discredited due to his criminal record) and Andy Pettitte (he pulled a Frankie Pentangelli) to worry about.

 

[Cowtown]

Even I recently dusted off my 42 year old 10 speed. Just call me unsafe at any speed.

Do you have a helmet yet?

 

[Cowtown]

Regardless of the details, it's all just very disappointing. We all wanted to see him as a modern day Horatio Alger. I mean, SEVEN TdF wins, beating the Euros at their own game, then even beating cancer and creating the foundation, all that and Sheryl Crow, too? It's a sad day indeed, especially as Armstrong always seemed like a reasonable guy, where Bonds and Clemens were just plain outright pr!cks.

 

[Orangeyes]

Do you have a helmet yet?

Yup

 

[Cowtown]

Yup

"RAMMING SPEED!!"

 

[Ghost]

Good. I know people love the guy, and he's done some great things with his fundraising, but his holier than thou crap in a sport where everyone cheats always left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, if you read enough about him it seems like he's kind of douche.