What are your thoughts on Lance Armstrong?

You just wish some people would go the hell away.

Drugs or not, he was the best cyclist of his time. if they had given him some kind of placebo, he'd still have won 6 tours de France... and he's an inspiration for cancer survivors

I dont understand the hate.

Sure he was doped to the gills but so was every other rider of that era.

He just went about it a bit more professionally and was a really good responder to the drugs.

And yes he was a complete prick to a lot of people and probably still is but I have zero interest in his personality.

lancedisgrace wrote:

To me he is a complete disgrace

still it raised millions of dollars for cancer research, what about you?

Good old Guy Fawkes day. If I was Brad Wiggins or Chris Froome I'd be worried right about now.

I love Lance Armstrong, my favorite cyclist of all time.

Has anyone seen this recent interview with Lance about doping at the TdF? They screwed up and were suppose to keep his identity secret, but Lance went ahead and did the interview anyway. Amazing revelations about doping at the TdF...I had no idea.

https://youtu.be/MCbN6-nrZYc

A.B.C.D. wrote:

lancedisgrace wrote:

To me he is a complete disgrace

still it raised millions of dollars for cancer research, what about you?

after 2005, almost none of the Livestrong money went to cancer research, it all went toward funding a PR machine for Lance.

Even worse, most people thought they were donating to cancer research, so money that people would have otherwise donated to fight cancer went into Lances PR campaign.

in the end he might have caused there to be less money going into cancer research

A.B.C.D. wrote:

lancedisgrace wrote:

To me he is a complete disgrace

still it raised millions of dollars for cancer research, what about you?

Cancer "awareness", champ.

"Lance awareness"

derp wrote:

after 2005, almost none of the Livestrong money went to cancer research, it all went toward funding a PR machine for Lance.

Even worse, most people thought they were donating to cancer research, so money that people would have otherwise donated to fight cancer went into Lances PR campaign.

in the end he might have caused there to be less money going into cancer research

Okay, give us some proof then

If he just "doped to the gills", then he would be nothing special. His being a prick goes way beyond the question of liking his personality. It was the extent to which he hurt the lives and livelihood of others, in and out of the sport of cycling, that makes him despicable: - He used his position to force his teammates to dope, with the real threat of being kicked off the team, and possibly the sport - He used his influence in the peloton to force his competitor Christophe "Mr. Clean" Bassons, famous for being clean on team Festina, out of cycling for good, simply for having the courage to exercise his freedom of speech, and saying the truth - He used his power over Trek to destroy the reputation, and an estimated $30 million line of Trek bicycles, of former American cycling legend Greg Lemond - He destroyed the life and livelihood of former mechanic, Mike Anderson, who had to move to New Zealand with his family, just to escape the reach of Lance - His public treatment of former friend Betsy Andrieu and former masseuse Emma O'Reilly - He used his influence with President Sarkozy, a fan of Lance, to reduce the funding of the French anti-doping lab - He tried to use his power with Congress to reduce the funding of USADA. At that time Tygart had received some death threats for investigating Lance. You don't hear these kinds of stories about Marco Pantani, or Jan Ulrich. If his only crime was "doped to the gills", he could have competed, retired, and blended into the background, and maintained his place in the history books as one of the TdF all time greats.

Lance Lover wrote:

I dont understand the hate.

Sure he was doped to the gills but so was every other rider of that era.

He just went about it a bit more professionally and was a really good responder to the drugs.

And yes he was a complete prick to a lot of people and probably still is but I have zero interest in his personality.

dsadasdsada wrote:

derp wrote:

after 2005, almost none of the Livestrong money went to cancer research, it all went toward funding a PR machine for Lance.

Even worse, most people thought they were donating to cancer research, so money that people would have otherwise donated to fight cancer went into Lances PR campaign.

in the end he might have caused there to be less money going into cancer research

Okay, give us some proof then

to save you some time.....line 1 in the article:

"If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the ­famous nonprofit donates almost ­nothing to scientific research."

Oh, I forgot the whole Cancer "raising money for research" deception.

I wonder if setting himself up as a non-profit also committed some kind of massive fraud.

" A note on the foundation’s website informs visitors that, as of 2010, it no longer even accepts research proposals."

i bet he was involved in the Holocaust too

“We started to realize that there’s literally billions of dollars in cancer research, and we asked, Is that the best use of the money we’re raising?”

....so they switched it over to 'awareness'

more specifically 'Lance awareness'

I have mixed feelings.

I don't like him for doping and lying but he did eventually confess unlike Radcliffe or Farah (who however may eventually confess under the right sort of pressure).

On the other hand, even though he and his team mates all admitted to doping, they had no sort of punishment that would deter an athlete from doping. They all are still living as rich people which they never would have been able to do if they had not doped in the first place. This just emphasizes the message that doping and cheating pays well even if you are caught doing it. Enforcing something like a 10 year jail sentence or 20 years in a Russian labor camp may actually give some sort of deterrent - the coaches, doctors and managers involved should also serve a similar sort of sentence.

What are you on? I'm on my bike. wrote:

Oh, I forgot the whole Cancer "raising money for research" deception.

I wonder if setting himself up as a non-profit also committed some kind of massive fraud.

Oh, like the Clinton Foundation.