Lance Armstrong and the Tour de France

I think that is your opinion.  I don't believe that someone who was literally on his death bed, comes back and uses stuff that could kill them.  That would be stupid.  Maybe he is stupid, but I'm not convinced. 

In terms of aging and comparing him to Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, look at them.  They put on muscle.  Lance was lean.  His cancer stripped 20+ pounds of muscle from his upper body.  I lost 20 lbs this year and at 39 yrs old have PR'd 3 5ks.  That is as I got older. 

Finally, Lance trained harder and had a better team than everyone else, almost every year.  The Postal/Discovery Team and Bruhneel were top notch and had an unprecedented run as one of the if not the strongest team every year.

So believe what you want, but until you have proof, it is just your opinion.  Maybe I'm nieve, but convicting someone who claims he was clean and never tested positive and never had any formal charges brought against him is wrong.

One other thing...  I do believe that he may have dopped prior to Cancer.  And perhaps that even caused or exaserbated his condition.  (It's possible)

I can not say if he was doped or not, but he did win over a lot of riders who where doped and that to me is very suspicious.

Yes he was tested a lot, but what if he used drugs (I said if) that the tests could not pick up !

I believe that almost every rider is doped, so in my eyes it is still an “even” race.

1) Lance never tested positive

2) He was never found with any dope

3) His DS (Johan Bruyneel) never tested positive as a rider nor has any rider ever tested positive when riding for his team (this is his 10th year as a DS)

4)Physiologically he was a freak (I won't go into detail here)

5)He had the best team (most years)

6) He had the best DS

7) His team had more money than any others

8) He had the best equipment

9) I don't think that someone who came very close to death would risk their life taking drugs

In my opinion he didn't dope.  Everybody is entitled to their opinion but it is only valid if you can support is with facts.

Yes you do.  Lance was 27 when he won his first Tour in 1999 and that is considered to be about the age most people begin to become good enough to win such a difficult event.

Also, I don't really think he did get better in each subsequent year.  If you watch the 7 Tous that he won it is quite clear that towards the end of his career he very rarley made more than 1 big attack (in 2005 I don't think he even made 1).  Compare this to his first few tour and he was always attacking (remember Sestriere, Vontoux,  Alpe d'Huez - sorry can't spell)

YES, as I also said, I believe most (all) of them are dopped ! Some are just better at hiding it.

Drug testing then can hardly be compared to drug testing today.  Also Zabel only admitted to doping for about a week before he stopped, which would explain why he never tested positive.

I've never been convicted of murder.  Sure, that doesn't mean that I have never killed anybody but it makes it as close to certain as it can be.  Why should a different principle be applied to drugs in sport?

Zabel stopped ?? He got 4th yesterday !

He was one of the first people to go out and scout/ride the course.

Lighter because of the loss of a testicle.

Mentally Focused on the TDF.

All good points BellinghamSpence, well except the second

Regarding the last point I think the only other rider of his era who was 100% focused on the Tour was Ullrich and I think that it is fair to say he had the potential to be better than he was.

My personal opinion is that one of Lance's biggest advantages was his mean & nasty personality that drove him to destroy his competition.

Mark

Jan always got tubby in the off season and would work himself into shape the first week.  Lance was away in camp    training to PEAK during the Tour.  

Also Lance had a take no prisoner atittude.  His/Johan way or the highway.  He was the Patrone.  (well at least after the first three tours-that's when He became the boss).

There was no Who are we going to support for the yellow.  Not George, not Eki, not Roberto, Not Tyler, not tricky beltran.....Lance was it.

Look at CSC.  Top team, but who are they riding for?  Carlos S, Franck Schleck?

Lots of teams are a hodgepodge of egos all wanting to be #1.       Not sure where I'm going with this thought.......Must go get pizza and replenish fat stores.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIl5RxhLZ5U    What am I on?

Ummm...Ullrich doped.

FWIW, yes, I think Lance 'doped'.  It's my OPINION.  But the circumstantial evidence is strong enough in my mind to suggest it's likely that he did.

So I'm assuming you will make the same accusations towards Indurain, Hinault, Merckx, and Anquetil.  Of course, Anquetil DID take drugs.

But yeah, nobody has EVER dominated stage races before.  It's only Lance that has ever been able to do this.

once again,

1. NO, having one testicle does not make you more aerodynamic

2. Its called chemotherapy, not doping

3. Are you sure you're not French?