30 for 30- Lance Armstrong interview.

[Ron]

Sorry if this has been posted, (I did search) but I watched this 2 part documentary and was impressed with the interviews and information. If you haven't seen it, its on demand. This interview/documentary really goes deep into Lance's childhood which may explain a lot of who is is today. Lance appears to lay it all on the line and openly discusses the "whole story". It goes into the overall issues of doping in the Late 80-s and 90's. Interviews with Hincapie, Landis ,other teams members as well as Emma O"Reilly. It wont leave you saying "poor Lance" but it might change your perspective of the sport in general (from a 90's perspective). Also, Live Strong was a legit organization that raised a ton of money and awareness for cancer and Lance didn't make anything from it.

Lance Armstrong '30 for 30' finale shows the facets of a deceiver who can articulate his truth | Sporting News

www.sportingnews.com

 

[Tom K.]

Probably great, but I've kinda moved on from the whole Lance thing.

 

[Ron]

I get that, but it goes far beyond just Lance. it spends a good amount of time with the doping scene, Ferrari and the UCI. Again, not taking Lance's side at all, but He really did a lot of good in his raising awareness and money for Cancer. The whole Live Strong foundation (according to the documentary) was legit and Lance didnt make anything from it. I was actually quite impressed.

 

[James]

I saw a bunch of it.
While the doping part may be everyone did it, it’s like he’s using that as justification for everything he did.
Has he ever done anything to the people’s lives he ruined who spoke out against him at the time? He went way out of his way to hurt people. You can’t just dismiss it.

 

[pchewn]

Lance who ????

 

[BC.]

I liked it....we watched it as a family/learned a lot about him. We all didn’t know he was a swimmer/triathlon athlete that started the whole thing. He was/is arrogant but that’s what made him the athlete he was.

I have been enjoying all the ESPN 30/30 specials this summer. Most I have watched ESPN in a long time. Much prefer these then the yelling/debating format they have gone to in the past several years. That crap has got to go.

 

[Wasatchman]

Lance Armstrong sure gives me 90s nostalgia. So many people wearing those yellow Livestrong bracelets. As @Ron said, a good cause. I used to tell anybody who would listen that Lance was doping. Had to be I said. Not humanly possible to beat all the dopers and do it cleanly. Everyone used to argue he's been tested so many times and clean. I was glad when the story came out. I just knew it as it just wouldn't be humanly possible.

Then again, I used to tell everyone when Tiger Woods was starting in pro golf he was overhyped and never would come close to the hype he was getting.

1 out of 2 ain't bad I guess.

 

[Tom K.]

Has he ever done anything to the people’s lives he ruined who spoke out against him at the time?

He went way out of his way to hurt people. You can’t just dismiss it.

I'm in this camp. Lance gave the phrase "throwing somebody under the bus" a whole new level of magnitude!

 

[scott43]

Then again, I used to tell everyone when Tiger Woods was starting in pro golf he was overhyped and never would come close to the hype he was getting.

1 out of 2 ain't bad I guess.

I remember they interviewed Jack Nicklaus a year or two after Tiger was on tour, asking him if Tiger could break his records. And he prophetically said, "Could be..but it's not always the golf that beats you.." Was a very prescient statement..

 

[Ron]

I saw a bunch of it.
While the doping part may be everyone did it, it’s like he’s using that as justification for everything he did.
Has he ever done anything to the people’s lives he ruined who spoke out against him at the time? He went way out of his way to hurt people. You can’t just dismiss it.

thats exactly my beef with Lance. its the WAY that he did all that he did. after watching the segment about his mother and how she was complicit in cheating/breaking the rules at 15 & 16, he was already on the path of of being a spoiled dick.

 

[Ken_R]

A LOT of people in the cycling industry made a LOT of money in great part thanks to Lance. So yeah, he might have done a lot of wrong and might be a grade a a-hole but a lot of people are just being hypocritical.

 

[Eleeski]

I got into cycling because of the Lance years. I'm just a simple fan who now still enjoys watching cycling. Even if it's an imperfect sport with some shady spots in its history.

Eric

 

[Ron]

I watch last years tours on NBCSN Gold all the time. Working on Stage 9 of the LA Vueleta

 

[tch]

I've said this before: Lance as a person? A-hole for sure. Absolutely. As a bicyclist? Incredible. Sure he was doping...but so was the entire competitive peloton. Why haven't they awarded a winner for the Tours they took from Lance? Because they couldn't find anyone in the top 10 -- or 50 -- who could stand up to doping scrutiny.

The only thing the documentary did for me was confirm why and how he became such an A-hole. Put anyone with his hyper-competitive drive and talent in the same circumstances and they would become the same kind of A-hole. To do anything other than what he did would have involved being a completely different person. And that person wouldn't have won 7 Tours.

 

[fatbob]

Surely Lance's team were doping more effectively than anyone else? So I'm not sure you can say everyone was doping so it's all level. I feel mainly for the people whose lives and careers he ruined and the kids with potential who never had a chance to make it if they weren't prepared to dope.

As for Livestrong - well maybe he didn't make a $ directly but he sure gained reputationally and I bet others gained. The good of Livestrong doesn't compensate the bad elsewhere it's something different.

 

[gwasson]

Surely Lance's team were doping more effectively than anyone else? So I'm not sure you can say everyone was doping so it's all level. I feel mainly for the people whose lives and careers he ruined and the kids with potential who never had a chance to make it if they weren't prepared to dope.

As for Livestrong - well maybe he didn't make a $ directly but he sure gained reputationally and I bet others gained. The good of Livestrong doesn't compensate the bad elsewhere it's something different.

Well if anything, they were more protected than other teams. Not sure about doping more effectively. And everyone responds to the drugs differently, meaning they get more of a performance boost than others.

Lance certainly wasn't the first cyclist to dope, cyclists have been cheating to win the TdF pretty much since it started. But he did ruin peoples lives and livelihoods in a malicious way.

Was he a bad ass on the bike, absolutely. Even Floyd and Tyler acknowledge that all the time.

 

[James]

Plenty of charities benefitted from Bernie Madoff. Doesn’t change much.

 

[Tony S]

I watch last years tours on NBCSN Gold all the time. Working on Stage 9 of the LA Vueleta

The NBC Sports app suddenly stopped working on my Apple TV. No error message; just fails to launch. Works fine on my phone, so not an account problem. Reinstalled twice. Contacted support twice. Crickets. No more money from me.

 

[Ron]

thats odd for sure. I watch it from Apple TV, its the 4K version. if You have Xfinity, you can also watch it from there (look in "apps") or via any apple device and share it to Apple TV on your tv.

 

[Ron]

Plenty of charities benefitted from Bernie Madoff. Doesn’t change much.

its doesn't change anything. However, he did bring a ton of testicular cancer awareness to the public which was never discussed and provided funding for 10K women with cancer to harvest their eggs and have children. Again, just facts, it doesn't have anything to do with the other stuff. I was a big Lance fan (had the USPS jersey and was so disappointed when the truth came out. Its a big game really, Athletes, sponsors, teams and governing bodies and fans; its the same "game" for every pro sport. Everyone wants and expects more from pro athletes but everyone seems so surprised when someone gets caught "cheating". One thing that really surprised me was the conversation that even EPO "only" gives a pro athlete about a 10% gain in performance but the gap between the top performers and bottom performers is 6%. However, that 4% is so significant. It just goes to show you that performance levels are so high already, that there's little to no room for natural improvement. significant gains now are measured in fractions of seconds over a hundred miles