Lance on Oprah (Page 2)

Maybe he dopped, maybe not, but if you use the how did he win when everyone else was doing it, that would mean next up for punishment is Greg Lemond.  It's a slippery slope when evidence is not from positive tests, but form testimony that could be looked at as a sweetheart 6 month (in offseason) suspension deal.

We are all really luck we live in a country that has laws of due process, where hard evidence is required and you are allowed to confrom your acusors.  Think Duke Lacross. 

And the pressure. It's not easy being Lance!

I'm sure the USADA/WADA would really like to know how he avoided testing positive and tons of other details on the doping network he supported that would help clean up the sport. In the long run, it would be good for cycling if Lance cooperated. The biggest problem I have is that it's plainly obvious that it remains all about Lance, and not about the sport. As much as I enjoy watching him compete, and respect his athletic ability, there's no denying he's a world-class DB.

You don't spend much time in courtrooms.  Eyewitness testimmony IS hard evidence, and deals for those who cooperate, sometimes against co-defendants,  are as much a part of the system as the lawyers who make them.

The only way they get that kind of cooperation is if he is reinstated, that would be his terms.  He's so toxic, he can't make any money by just coming clean.  Wonder how much O's paying him to go on the show.

Lance....you ARE the father!

Oh man, he's trying his hand at singing opera now too??

I say come clean get ban lifted. Compete if he wants, everyone knows he will be tested before after and heck probably during. He's a fraud but I would still like to see him compete among the best in Tris.....

If he does return to triathlon, man I feel bad for those who Tri athletes who are currently using PEDS, bc if he returns they will either have to stop or there screwed bc you know testing is goning to be crazy for whatever race he would enter.....

Why would he get his ban lifted if he comes clean (what an ironic term!)

From the USADA website:  

Although they are not a US governement agency, they are funded by Congress so its our tax dollars that go to fund their activities.  So why is it that a tax payer funded entity is enforcing the rules enacted by a for-profit sport/entity? The Olympic sports OK I guess I can see that? But the TdF and a rider/team that are purely for-profit entities?

I am new to the sport so my perspective may be a bit different. Excluding the times he was on the news I know exactly how many times I watched him race or followed a race he was in...zero.  PHDs were/are a part of much of sports for a decade or more.  That includes cycling, track & field, football, baseball etc, etc etc.

Does anyone doubt that Barry Bonds was juiced?  He is on baseball's HOF ballot this year. 

Here is the 'so what' to me.  LA with the aid of PEDs was the best of a generation where many of his peers also used.  If you want to strip him of his victories I am OK with that.  However, before you want to say (insert your next best guy here) is the real champion then you owe it to the sport to investigate that person with the same vigor as you did LA.  Otherwise, you end up with Barry Bonds.  Many people still defend him because it was never 'proven' he juiced.  Living in the bay area I followed Bonds case much more.  If you read the statements form his attorneys it was never about the truth, it was all about 'out manuevering' the investigators (there words, not mine).

I can still applaud LA for the good the Livestrong Foundation has done.  I don't have any issue with allowing him to compete again but understand those who support his being banned.  But we forgive a lot in this country.  If he is truly repentant I am willing to give him a opportunity to redeem himself.  I understand on this site I am likley in the minority.

So is your real concern not that they investigated LA (vigorously or otherwise), but that they were charged to investigate U.S. professional cyclists in the first place?

There is so much bad blood between Travis Tygart, USADA, and Lance.  I don't see how they would reduce/lift his ban.  They gave him plenty of opportunitites to cooperate.  Lance fought them tooth and nail, to the point where Tygart and USADA felt Lance was abusive.  But in the end, they got him. 

He would have to sing such a pretty song and 'rat out' so many former collegues/friends to get his ban lifted/reduced.  I can't see Lance doing that.  Maybe he admits to it, but he won't go far enough to satisfy Tygart.  Too much history, too many bridges burned.

He may be on the ballot, but he'll never get in. 

Here's an interesting question - what if he used PED's that were not on the list of banned substances at the time he used them? He certainly had the money to invest in research. I know the 2012 WADA list addresses this possibility by stating the following, but did it when Lance was in cycling?

S0. Non-approved substances.

Any pharmacological substance which is not addressed by any of the subsequent sections of the List and with no current approval by any governmental regulatory health authority for human therapeutic use (e.g drugs under pre-clinical or clinical development or discontinued, designer drugs, veterinary medicines) is prohibited at all times.

This would help explain some of the manlove going on.

I am not sure I agree. I have heard the topic discussed a lot and many voters say they will either vote for him this year or wait one year 'to send a message' and then vote him in next year. 

That is one of the problems I am having with the whole era of PEDs.  No consistency across the sports.  In some, admit it and all is forgiven, in others it's a death sentence. 

As long as you're talking about the baseball HOF, what about Gaylord Perry and Don Drysdale who were notorious spitballers? 

Or George Brett with his corked bats?  What type of cheating is acceptable?

I don't want to sound like I'm defending LA (I'm not), but if cycling had been better at catching dopers, or really wanted to catch them, then then doping wouldn't be such an issue.

Then again, they probably would have looked for other ways to gain an unfair advantage.

They push the rules in every professional sport.  And if you happen to cross the line and there are no consequences, it just emboldens folks to keep doing it. 

Mark

I thought Oprah was done but there are 3 people who really need to come clean. 1. OJ Simpson 2. Casey Anthony and 3. LA.

Maybe Lance will be first.

It wouldn't surprise me if he came clean, works out a deal to race again after  declaring bankruptcy and then starts over. It still bothers me that the offenses were at a time when virtually all of the riders were riding dirty and the governing agency was somewhat turning a blind eye to the situation.

In the grand scheme of things, I'd have some other folks on the list before them.  Like maybe Bashar al-Assad, Kim Jong-un, Jon Corzine, Ken Lewis,  Stan O'Neal, etc.

In my book, cheating at bike racing really doesn't rank up there with stuff like genocide or stealing losing billions of dollars of investor's money.

Mark 

It will work like this:  He will admit to doping but make a case that he had to.  He'll say he didn't confess before because it didn't make sense for him to take the fall for a corrupt environment encouraged by the lax policies of the UCI, WADA, and USADA.  Hey, if the enforcing agencies are not going to enforce then he HAD to dope!  He didn't come forward because he did what he had to in order to be competitive and it is not fair to take the fall and for the anti-doping agencies to come out smelling like roses.  He is admitting to it now because so much of it is out already that it is silly for him to continue denying it.

This strategy lets him come out and shifts the blame to UCI, et.al.  However, I think he still gets slapped with at least a 3-year ban.  By then he will be too old to be competitive in a clean environment.  So he may compete in Kona in the future but he has no chance of winning.  In the end I think this may work for Lance and he may get some of his sponsors back.

At the end of the day he's still a complete deuchebag.