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    #51
    Lance Armstrong Charged

    Phil Liggett has lost his marbles

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      #52
      Lance Armstrong Charged

      I've ordered Tyler Hamilton's tell all book, which is coming out soon.

      So are the USADA findings.

      Things looking grim for Armstrong. But more importantly, things are looking grim for the UCI too.

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        #53
        Lance Armstrong Charged

        UCI considering introducing doping amnesty for all cyclists from the past.

        Armstrong must be doing some serious blackmailing.

        What a corrupt crock of shit.

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          #54
          Lance Armstrong Charged

          An amnesty in return for what?

          Oh, nothing, just a carte blanche for cheating for years.

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            #55
            Lance Armstrong Charged

            When did Tyler Hamilton become Sideshow Bob?

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              #56
              Lance Armstrong Charged

              William Fotheringham on Tyler Hamilton and doping.

              A great read I think. I liked these:

              Armstrong's surrender – with its implicit acceptance of the charges the Usada had raised against him – made a contorted kind of sense on 25 August, as it does now, given the material in the book.
              Looking back to 1999, I was naive to assume that year that the threat of police raids would make the cyclists leave their drugs at home
              His story, and that of the seven-times Tour winner with whom it runs in parallel, is a defining example of what we all tell our children: one lie leads to another, they grow and take on a life of their own.

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                #57
                Lance Armstrong Charged

                I'm reading Hamilton's book at the moment. Good read indeed.

                USADA has just today made a press release regarding the evidence they have on US Postal and Armstrong. Just started reading it.

                Edit: Ok, they are releasing all the evidence on their website later today.

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                  #58
                  Lance Armstrong Charged

                  Statement from George Hincapie admitting doping. He talks about testifying, implying that he testified against Lance.

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                    #59
                    Lance Armstrong Charged

                    Incandenza wrote: Statement from George Hincapie admitting doping. He talks about testifying, implying that he testified against Lance.
                    Pretty much an open secret I thought.

                    From the linked article I quote:

                    Quietly, and in the way I know best, I have been trying to rectify that decision. I have competed clean and have not used any performance enhancing drugs or processes for the past six years. Since 2006, I have been working hard within the sport of cycling to rid it of banned substances. During this time, I continued to successfully compete at the highest level of cycling while mentoring young professional riders on the right choices to make to ensure that the culture of cycling had changed.

                    Two years ago, I was approached by US Federal investigators, and more recently by USADA, and asked to tell of my personal experience in these matters. I would have been much more comfortable talking only about myself, but understood that I was obligated to tell the truth about everything I knew. So that is what I did.

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                      #60
                      Lance Armstrong Charged

                      Reasoned Decision (approx 200 pages) here.

                      Supporting Materials (+1000 pages more) here.

                      I'm quite interested to see what the reactions of Armstrong's major sponsors (particularly Nike) is going to be to this.

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                        #61
                        Lance Armstrong Charged

                        Surely, if there was a reaction from the sponsors, it would have come when he decided not to contest the charges and so was banned. It doesn't sound like there is anything particularly suprising or unexecpted about Armstrong in this. n.b. I haven't read the report, haven't had the time as yet, obviously. I'm going on what the Radio 5Live reporter said about it at around 9:45. By which time he had only read, by his own admission, to a page in the mid-60s.

                        One thing that the radio did pick up on was that Bruyneel was apparently aware of UCI testers heading to US Postal ahead of their arrival. That could be the big news here; corruption, whether a small set of officials or possibly endemic, within the governing body.

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                          #62
                          Lance Armstrong Charged

                          Nike have said they are standing by Armstrong, which tells you a lot you need to know about Nike.

                          I've not read the report in full but read several summaries and had a skim through the juicy bits of the document. There is new stuff in there, the testimonies from Hincapie, Leipheimer and Barry most obviously, and the evidence of payments to Dr Ferrari long after Armstrong said he'd stopped working with him. The fascinating stuff is in the detail though, Vinokourov linked with Dr Ferrari for one. There's a bit where in 2011 Bruyneel threatens to sack Leipheimer from the RadioShack team if he testifies against Lance. Hincapie sweeping Lance's apartment for "doping materials" after the 2005 Tour. The use of "spotters" by teams to look out for drug testers in car parks.

                          There's a weak bit in the report though, where they try to pin doping on Lance in his 2009-10 comeback and struggle to provide much evidence. I hope the UCI don't pick up on this and use it as an excuse to defend Lance / claim the rest of the evidence is too old. Over to you Mr McQuaid.

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                            #63
                            Lance Armstrong Charged

                            Armstrong's attorney on the report:
                            a one-sided hatchet job a taxpayer funded tabloid piece rehashing old, disproved, unreliable allegations based largely on axe-grinders, serial perjurers, coerced testimony, sweetheart deals and threat-induced stories.
                            What is it about Americans and tax?

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                              #64
                              Lance Armstrong Charged

                              Been reading some of the stuff today, and it's seriously shocking. I had no doubt that Armstrong was using and that he was a hypocrite, but the whole redefining the role of the domestique thing by forcing his teammates to use too, and bullying everyone around him, paints him a seriously deeply unpleasant scumbag.

                              My favourite bit though is about his team's doctor flushing all the drugs down the toilet when Festina got busted. In a camper van. Genius.

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                                #65
                                Lance Armstrong Charged

                                Interesting that Lance Armstrong has always used his charity work in the same way Jimmy Saville did. As some kind of character reference to try and disprove, or distract from, allegations against him and then as a form of blackmail: "If you bring me down, who is going to raise all this money?"

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                                  #66
                                  Lance Armstrong Charged

                                  Sean Yates was on the radio earlier and expects us to believe that he "never saw anything dodgy going on" while he was working with Armstrong for years.

                                  And now this nonsense

                                  So much for the clean, fresh transparency of Team Sky.

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                                    #67
                                    Lance Armstrong Charged

                                    Well, most of the other legends of the sport are heavily implicated with doping. I can understand not seeing Armstrong as particularly different from Mercx or Anquetil.

                                    I doubt Sky will take too kindly to those comments, though.

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                                      #68
                                      Lance Armstrong Charged

                                      Nike have said they are standing by Armstrong, which tells you a lot you need to know about Nike.
                                      Not really. They'll drop him like a bad habit if they sense that public opinion in the US is against him which, so far, it isn't. The yellow stuff is still a good brand for them.

                                      Possible defenses.
                                      a) they were all doing it and therefore were coerced into testifying to somehow save themselves.

                                      But
                                      1. What are the odds that they were all doing it and he wasn't? near nil
                                      2. I'm not sure what kind of "plea deal" they could make. They're all out of the sport anyway, aren't they?

                                      b) they all testified against him because they're bitter

                                      But
                                      1. At the very least, he must be a huge asshole to inspire that kind of backstabbing.
                                      2. The obvious conclusion drawn from the existence of this many witnesses.

                                      This is all very sad because it's huge blow to the sport in the US. I'm not a great cycling fan, but I would likely be a lot more interested if I could believe that the winner of a given event will still be regarded as the winner in five or ten years time and clearly that's not the case these days.

                                      And, largely thanks to this, not only do we not have an American champion, we still don't seem to have much in the way of any major American races.

                                      Not that America needs to be good at every sport, but it would be great for us to embrace cycling as a way of transportation. Instead huge parts of our population are hostile to anything whatsoever that isn't conducive to driving and parking their car.

                                      Look what it has done for this man:
                                      http://www.npr.org/2012/10/09/162586325/instead-of-surgery-man-pedals-off-the-pounds

                                      I'm thinking I need to follow his lead. Running just is too painful for me. Everything below my knees starts to hurt withing a quarter mile.

                                      I'm thinking of buying a fixie. I know it's a hipster douche affectation, but after seeing that new movie with Joseph Levitt, I'm intrigued.

                                      It's thoroughly fucked up.

                                      Comment


                                        #69
                                        Lance Armstrong Charged

                                        Reed, what's the terrain like around where you live? If you do buy a fixed gear, get one with a "flip flop" hub--fixed gear on one side, but with a single speed hub (allowing for coasting and easier braking) on the other.

                                        I read this from the NY Times article on the report:

                                        Zabriskie, a five-time national time-trial champion, recalled serenading Johan Bruyneel, the longtime team manager, with a song about EPO, to the tune of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”

                                        “EPO all in my veins; Lately things just don’t seem the same; Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why; ’Scuse me while I pass this guy.”
                                        Christ.

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                                          #70
                                          Lance Armstrong Charged

                                          We still have Greg LeMond and a host of Olympians who won gold on the track.

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                                            #71
                                            Lance Armstrong Charged

                                            You still have the 1993 World Road Race Champion as well. What if anything is anyone going to do about that? Miguel Indurain was second behind Armstrong in that race, and never won the world championship.

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                                              #72
                                              Lance Armstrong Charged

                                              Incandenza wrote: Reed, what's the terrain like around where you live? If you do buy a fixed gear, get one with a "flip flop" hub--fixed gear on one side, but with a single speed hub (allowing for coasting and easier braking) on the other.
                                              It's sort of hilly, but there are lots of mostly flat areas.

                                              I'm intrigued by the idea of no breaks and no coasting. Obviously that's more dangerous, but it would be fun to try that out in some empty parking lots for a while and see if I could learn to do it. Are you saying that a flip flop hub can do that or act like a normal bike when safety and/or endurance is needed?

                                              It seems like no gears and no breaks would make it all a lot simpler to maintain. I really struggle to keep my gears all lined up properly on my mountain bike. I understand the concepts but it never seems to go the way I want it to.

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                                                #73
                                                Lance Armstrong Charged

                                                The flip flop hub is just fixed on one side, and the other side is just a normal single speed freewheel hub that lets you coast. This may overload you with information, but gives you a good rundown:

                                                http://sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html

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                                                  #74
                                                  Lance Armstrong Charged

                                                  So you have to take the wheel off to change it, I guess.

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                                                    #75
                                                    Lance Armstrong Charged

                                                    David Zabriskie and the dark reality of doping

                                                    Not quite sure what to make of this.

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