Pro Cycling

[brod]

The third 'Grand Tour', La Vuelta starts tomorrow and sees the return of Alberto Contador

[pels]

Should be an interesting tour of Spain, with Contador back, Froome being sole leader of team sky.
A very hilly & mountainous tour with some cracking stages.
SBS are showing 8 live stages beginining this Saturday night

Valverde won the stage last night, could be a battle between Contador & Froome for the victory.

[RustyCage]

Lance Armstrong has accepted a life ban, likely to be stripped of his 7 TdF titles.

[beef]

Lance Armstrong has accepted a life ban, likely to be stripped of his 7 TdF titles.

GUILTY

[dedja]

I don't think so ... he's dropped challenges against USADA's allegations, not admitted guilt.

[Booney]

Fed up, not guilty.

He knows he won them clean and figures they can all get ****** if they want to keep going on the witch hunt. The biggest case of tall poppy syndrome the world has seen. I like him even more now.

I'd love him to come out and just say that "You can all get ******!"

[valleys07]

Fed up, not guilty.

He knows he won them clean and figures they can all get ****** if they want to keep going on the witch hunt. The biggest case of tall poppy syndrome the world has seen. I like him even more now.

I'd love him to come out and just say that "You can all get ******!"

This.

[scoob]

or is it a case of the technology of the testing has finally caught up with him?

[dedja]

I wait with baited breath for USADA to declare Carl Lewis a drug cheat and strip him of all his Olympic medals ...

[beef]

I wait with baited breath for USADA to declare Carl Lewis a drug cheat and strip him of all his Olympic medals ...

That will NEVER happen, surely if you are innocent you would fight forever to keep your name clean. Now everyone will just say he was a drug cheat. Will second place now be a winner? or just like a melbourne storm saga and no winner.

[Booney]

I wait with baited breath for USADA to declare Carl Lewis a drug cheat and strip him of all his Olympic medals ...

That will NEVER happen, surely if you are innocent you would fight forever to keep your name clean. Now everyone will just say he was a drug cheat. Will second place now be a winner? or just like a melbourne storm saga and no winner.

2nd place is never the winner, even if they strip Armstrong of the titles all that will happen is there will be 9* Le Tour's where nobody gives a shit.

( 7 with Armstrong, 1 with Landis and Contador )

[Q.]

A lot of stuff I've read this year made me realise all these high performance athletes have probably used PEDs (not so much Test or HGH, but more EPOs and other recovery agents) at some point (cycling, olympics etc).

The PEDs didn't win Lance the TDFs because everyone around him had also been using PEDs. Lance won them because he was that ******* good at cycling.

[Grahaml]

As far as I'm aware, the USADA haven't proven anything. Armstong has just stopped fighting whether they have the authority they claim. I presume now there will be a trial of sorts where the USADA attempt to prove their case. I can't find too much out there that explains things very clearly there's a lot of biased commentary out there, makes it hard to know exactly what happens from here. If he's proven guilty then he deserves everything he gets, but hopefully they are required to prove their case, not just wear a guy out.

[Squids]

Innocent before PROVEN guilty?

[Aerie]

I don't understand why Armstrong needs to come out and defend himself? If the USADA are so certain he is guilty, why don't they bring out the evidence for all to see and then if Armstrong has been proven guilty it is up to him if he wants to defend it. Armstrong's name has already been rolled through the mud so IMO the USADA are obligated to provide evidence that proves beyond doubt Armstrong to be a drug cheat.

It seems Nike are sticking by Armstrong. Usually the sponsors are the first to jump ship if something smelly is going on.

I have a few trains of thought. One - he is guilty, hang him out to dry. Two - he is guilty, but he got away with it at the time so let it be. Three - he is guilty, but so was every rider during that period. Four - he is not guilty and if this is the case, what is happening is a disgrace of the highest order.

It's a bit of a lose/lose situation really.

[Jim05]

As far as I'm aware, the USADA haven't proven anything. Armstong has just stopped fighting whether they have the authority they claim. I presume now there will be a trial of sorts where the USADA attempt to prove their case. I can't find too much out there that explains things very clearly there's a lot of biased commentary out there, makes it hard to know exactly what happens from here. If he's proven guilty then he deserves everything he gets, but hopefully they are required to prove their case, not just wear a guy out.

Its becoming a bit of a farce, on ESPN they mention that no trial will take place and he will be banned for life and lose his titles.
Apparantly the 10 ex team mates who were going to give evidence dont even have to take the stands anymore.
They were saying that if Armstrong was to go to trial he would end up with jail time if he lost so he is willing to walk away and now no further action can be taken

[Strawb]

The 'sweet BJ' / pineapple juice theory... Why not ask Sheryl Crow about any interesting Lance Armstrong flavors?

The easy way!

[pels]

The joke of it all now is that Ullrich, Basso, Beloki and others who doped will be deemed the winners
Seriously they should just leave it as is and put an asterisk next to all the winners from mid 90s to 2007 because they were all doped to the max.
but I'm glad now he has been found out to be a fraud

[pels]

Have a listen to this interview with 2 journalists and it explains a lot.
Goes for 20mins but sums up the situation very well and it could of all been stopped in 1999 if the UCI had the balls.

http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rte ... %3A0%3A%3A

[Jim05]

The USADA has disqualified Armstrong from all competetive results beginning August 1st 1998 until the present.