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Is it time to stop the Lance witchunt?

fatbob

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Nope. He became a very rich man by being the central player in a regime of lying, bullying and intimidation (& yes athletic endeavour in a field where they were all at it). If there are legal consequences then it seems right they should play out. The fact that hundreds have gone unpunished or Landis stands to collect a significant bounty is no different from the Mafia supergrass earning a very nice witness protection gig for taking down a godfather (though in that case I suspect there is always a degree of jeopardy at play).

It's not like he won't score media gigs etc once his plate is seen to be clean so it's hardly going to ruin him for life.
 

Eleeski

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Yes. Restore his wins (with a PED asterisk).

Drug testing became important in cycling when athletes were dying from the drugs they were using.

Publicize the PEDs that have medical consequences for the athlete. Educate (and test) against those. Allow anything that doesn't ruin the athlete.

Why is my $60,000 titanium hip OK while the prednesone that might have delayed the operation not OK? The pendulum has swung too far toward some mythical "level playing field". Just keep the athletes alive and healthy.

Eric

Lance's testicular cancer might have had nothing to do with his PED usage but it was a plausible enough story to convince my pro waterskier son to stay clean. And I have the same hip that Floyd Landis got. Value from these cheaters?
 

graham418

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The USPS should drop its case against the guy. They made their money from the sponsorship deal ( $100m , by their own account) , they had the chance to drop the whole deal when the scandal was breaking , and they chose not to, Instead , they carried on with the sponsorship, with the same team riders and coaches and drug suppliers. By doing that I think they implicitly condone the teams behaviour ( because they are winning). They knew what was going on ,and did nothing to stop it.
 

Ken_R

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Lot's and lot's of people made money thanks to Lance. From a sportsmanship standpoint he should be penalized and he has been. Everything else is just Hypocrisy since most of the people making demands actually benefited from Lance and his team. Road Cycling grew a LOT thanks to them. It pushed the limits of not only cycling tech but the coverage of the sport as well. I know some people want him to get everything but the death penalty (some might want that too) but at some point a lot of people just turned Lance into the scapegoat for all the doping in cycling.
 

LKLA

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I have no doubt Lance cheated and I have little doubt that he may not have always been the nicest guy in the peloton.

But I also think that he did some amazing things on the bike as well as off the bike. What he did in terms of winning races was spectacular. What he did for the sport of cycling has never been done by anyone - perhaps in any other sport aside from what Tiger did for golf. And what he did off the bike and outside of cycling regarding cancer and philanthropy was truly inspiring for millions of people.

I know two - or a hundred - wrongs do not a right make. But we must have perspective and that means realizing that everyone in cycling doped, cheated, lied. Many still do. Miguel Induarian, Alberto Contador, Jan Ulrich, Bjarne Riis, Marco Pantani, Floyd Landis,...even Fausto Copi used amphetamines back in 1950. Lance doped, cheated and lied just like everyone else he raced against - basically making for a leveled playing field in which he demolished his competition.

USPS should also get some perspective and focus on not milking the US taxpayer by being one of the least well run operations known to man (USPS lost $5.5 billion in 2014, $5.1 billion in 2015 and $5.6 billion in 2016 on revenues of $67.8 billion, $68.9 billion and $70.4 billion, respectively.)
 

cantunamunch

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USPS should also get some perspective and focus on not milking the US taxpayer by being one of the least well run operations known to man (USPS lost $5.5 billion in 2014, $5.1 billion in 2015 and $5.6 billion in 2016 on revenues of $67.8 billion, $68.9 billion and $70.4 billion, respectively.)

Tell it to Congress - they control both the USPS pricing system and USPS' largest expenses.
 

tch

What do I know; I'm just some guy on the internet.
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As a long-time bicyclist and fan, I completely agree with most of the comments here. As an economic-justice freak, it burns the hell out of me that USPS would sue. They knew what was going on. The team owners knew. The Director Sportif's knew.... the ALL knew the riders were using PEDS. They just wanted the athletes to keep winning and keep the money and fame rolling in -- period.

I have a hard time casting Lance as a victim (he more than participated; he orchestrated and enforced the doping on his team), but he was simply a cog in a corrupt machine. The bosses were happy to ignore the truth ("la,la,la,la..I can't hear anything") until the whole thing came crashing down on them. Now they want to scapegoat someone and evade the responsibility.

It's just another perspective on the Golden Rule -- those with the gold, rule.
upload_2017-10-5_18-6-43.png
 

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Bill Talbot

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I have no doubt Lance cheated and I have little doubt that he may not have always been the nicest guy in the peloton.

But I also think that he did some amazing things on the bike as well as off the bike. What he did in terms of winning races was spectacular. What he did for the sport of cycling has never been done by anyone - perhaps in any other sport aside from what Tiger did for golf. And what he did off the bike and outside of cycling regarding cancer and philanthropy was truly inspiring for millions of people.

QUOTE]


Now there's a statement. And I agree, both Lance and Tiger were not much in the way of humans... :doh: :nono:

As for the sport of cycling, among cyclists, Eddy Merckx was the greatest.... by far.
 

Tom K.

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Tough topic. I've grown bored of it, and the distraction it causes in cycling, but......

Lance still seems to have an amazing lifestyle paid for by cheating (house in Aspen, etc., etc.), so......

I dunno.
 

UGASkiDawg

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Eddie was a doper and yet still the greatest cyclist ever but not the greatest TDF cyclist ever. That title belongs to Lance.
 

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