Lance Armstrong

[speedbird591]

In The Times today is the strongest, angriest article I've read by a sports correspondent. It's by The Times's chief sports correspondent, Matt Dickinson and the title is: A tidal wave of truth will soon wash away the rants of a cheat.

The title says it all. Apparently there is so much evidence amassed against him that he will be revealed as an arrogant, lying cheat, along with many of his team mates.

Very, very strong words from a very senior journalist who would not dare to write like that without evidence.

Try and get hold of the sports section today if you are interested in the subject.

Ian

[emfrat]

Ian, it is over thirty years since The Times ceased to be a 'reliable organ of record'. For most of that time it was a tabloid in every respect but size, until around 2004, when the size was reduced to match the quality of the content.. My Dad used to say that The Times was 'still head and shoulders above the rest of them'...my point was always that since the gutter Press were now in the sewer, where did that leave The Times?
To me, the USADA has very little credibility - their behaviour has convinced me of that.
Cheers
MikeW

[robcarrich]

On seven occasions Lance Armstrong was awarded the yellow jersey in the TDF and out of all the second placed riders during that time all but Ivan Basso have been either banned for drug taking or implicated in some way.
Makes you wonder to whom they will give the vacant titles!

[speedbird591]

Hi Mike. I don't have any particular position on Lance Armstrong or cycle road racing. I only mentioned the article as it struck me as unusually damning and accusatory from somebody who is in a position to have a lot of inside information. Unfortunately, I can't link to it as The Times online is subscriber only.

There's an article in a similar vein here: NY Daily News suggesting that his fall from grace is just beginning as more evidence is revealed. Allegedly the evidence will also incriminate his team mates and team managers as well as the UCI itself which has been trying to contain the evidence. It appears that blood transfusions are the way to cover doping and this is what they were doing.

Anyway, the first bombshell will apparently be next month when a book by Tyler Hamilton (his team mate in 3 tours) is released and subtly entitled: The Secret Race: Inside The Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-Ups and Winning At All Costs

I will certainly wait a bit longer before taking a position on Armstrong, either way!

Ian

[AllanL]

A blog post discussing the implications of opening the can of worms of "who to give the Tour wins to", if you strip them from Lance Armstrong:

http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2 ... 9-to-2005/

Some years you get down to 8th or 9th place.......

[cstorey]

I only mentioned the article as it struck me as unusually damning and accusatory from somebody who is in a position to have a lot of inside information.

Ian

How is he in such a position ? have the Times been phone hacking ?

[speedbird591]

How is he in such a position ? have the Times been phone hacking ?

All I meant was his position as chief sports correspondent of The Times would have given him access to a lot of insider and background information over the years he's been in the business. Same as any of us know a great deal about our own spheres of interest that the general public don't.

I wish I could post the article but the only way would be to type the whole lot out but the evidence that he's seen has left him in no doubt. As I said before, I really couldn't care less one way or the other but I posted in the thread as the article is unequivocal and I wanted to give interested parties the opportunity to read it.

Allan - that blog is fascinating and would be hilarious if it wasn't so outrageous! This story is going to run for months, if not years. Pull up an armchair

Ian

[emfrat]

Cheers Ian -
Here downunder, my next-door neighbour and I were watching the Tour, as part of our normal quality control checks on his home-brew. (Tony doesn't have 'Net access)
We were both wondering why these accusations had been dragged up yet again - the timing was no surprise - and all we could think was that the aim was to so discredit the T de F that American interests could start running their own ever so pure version, controlled by TV moguls of course....remember how hard the US LTA (or whatever they were called) fought, back in the 70s and 80s, to have grass courts banned from the world tennis circuit? While they were doing that, the players were developing the skills to deal with playing on grass, instead of 'paint-by-numbers' artificial surfaces.?
Getting too far here, but I think you understand what I'm getting at.
ATB
Mike
PS: Meant to point out also, that we won the America's Cup fair and square on the course, not in the courtroom, but that would be gloating, wouldn't it?

[DaveB]

No such bickering back in the day..





ATB
DaveB

[speedbird591]

Well done, Dave!

I've managed to grab that article by Matt Dickinson so anybody that's interested can see what I'm prattling on about. I've put it in a pdf document available here:

http://www.speedbird747.com/downloads/armstrong.pdf

Ian