4 ex-Armstrong Teammates to Testify (Page 4)

OK on all points......and as I said in an earlier post.....those are the guys you make the biggest example of.  And those are the "big fish" you catch by throwing back the "little fish". 

Barry and LA would/could have saved themselves a bunch of trouble by just saying, "yes, I did"....and as long as that's the case it's on THEM.  Hell, Barry's lies regarding the cream were laughable...he looked like a buffoon.  Lance is heading down the same road.

But here is the deal though CD... so LA had cancer and he juiced up to get back OK. Yet, what you are saying is that there is no way possible to come back from cancer without doping... well everyone was doping... so he had to go above and beyond what everyone else was doing to get back to their level and get back form chemo. Where is the evidence of such an overboard transformation? He also had an incredible work ethic, that accounts for nothing?

He lost a lot of weight, he gained back only what was needed. That probably would have happened over his career, but chemo did it for him. He continued to be tested. He was a pro before and after. Once the chemo is gone, he is still the same genetically gifted athlete he was, and we all know fitness comes back quick for fit people.

I think the fatty asked USADA to bust him just so he didn't get demolished in a race with real competitors.

Yikes, did I say that?  I hope I didn't...and if I did, sorry, didn't mean to!  Did I think what he did was amazing bordering on magical?  Yup.  ...and when you say he continued to be tested, everyone realizes the tests were easily defeated, right?  The only people that were caught screwed up.  How many drug tests did Marion Jones fail?  The woman passed hundreds of tests.  

so, yeah, LA is a genetically gifted man.  So is Barry Bonds.  The "overboard transformation" isn't as obvious for cyclists.  PEDs for aerobic monsters like LA are different than PEDs for anaerobic monsters like Bonds.  

Both were amongst the greatest to ever participate in their respective sports...but both doped.  Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg...the cheating tech. will always outpace the policing tech.  

Aw, come on man!  Bob's passionate.  Bob can articulate a story beautifully.  He may not always be right, but he speaks his mind and backs it up with facts.  I've always enjoyed listening (and reading) Bob Costas' work.  I will bet money he does a segment during the Olympics that will make my eyes well up....and I hope it's on that cute Aussie Stephanie Rice.  

Don't sweat it... I really didn't mean that the way it sounded. Realistically, he probably doped HGH to recover from chemo. I do not believe that allowed him to do anything he could not already, but it certainly , more than likely, sped up his return. him returning to the tour and winning next year was probably more realistic than winning his first back.

But since they could not test for it, I have no doubt every cyclists trained with HGH. EPO is what it is. I have no doubt every cyclist used it as much as they could get away with. It is what it is.

LA has some the the highest performance measurements ever... but equal to a handful of others, so certainly not super human. Does he have a high enough performance level naturally to beat all the other pros of that era using PEDS... uh, NO. PEDS are such a huge advantage no mere mortal can compete. So ya, he doped. He did it better than anyone, he was not greedy, he never made a mistake. Going back now is simply ridiculous, it stops nothing, it fixes nothing, it does not right any wrongs.

Like you said... everyone knows the dopers will always be ahead of the controls, and professional athletes with use any advantage they can to win. Period.

^It all makes me long for the days of Babe Ruth...the only things he seemed to need to out-homer every other human being were beer, hot dogs, and women.  

*I take back that "every other human" comment, as unfortunately, black Americans were not allowed to play in the MLB in Ruth's time.   

Barry Bonds doped, Mark McGuire doped, Roger Clemens doped.....and  Lance Armstrong doped. This would all be water under the bridge if they would have just said, "yeah, I did, I felt I had to in order to compete...I wanted to be able to compete on a level playing field". Who among us wouldn't have just said, "eh....whatever".  Instead, they will eventually all be held up as liars, because they are.

The positive from it is the lessons I get to teach my children on honesty.

I hate to lump Lance in with the other three buffoons I named......but here he goes.

OK then... when should the press conference been held? After his first win, second, when Landis accused him, Tyler? When exactly does a guy just stand up and say... here, take my titles, I'll give back my sponsor money, I'll take my year/two year suspension... when exactly was that supposed to happen? You already know he had to dope to be able to compete at the top level, so then when was he supposed to give up competing at the top level so we could all feel better about him?

What you want is completely unrealistic.

Really?  I already feel fine about Lance.  I'm good with whatever the climate at the time dictated.  The titles don't mean much to me.  How the man handles this MEANS SOMETHING.  It's a matter of character at this point.  Just man up, tell the truth.  Lying in the face of all reason makes him/them/anyone look stupid.  I can't support stupid.

Actually he probably was given EPO, as it is prescribed for chemotherapy and radiation induced anemia.

That's true, but if he was getting it during chemo... he wasn't doing much racing.

If you read "It's not about the bike" he talks about trying to bike when he was really sick and how depressing it was being passed by weekend riders, not being able to make it up the hills near his house. LA may have doped, he may have been an arrogant young rider who p*ssed off a lot of people, and he may wind up being a disgraced liar. However, in my mind he is still a once-in-a-lifetime athlete who has used his fame to create a foundation that has helped thousands.The guy is STILL amazing to watch compete.

I see that as his legacy. I can live with the doping if it's true. Who knows how much it really helped anyway, he's a genetic anomaly to begin with.

LB, I think I know what you're saying...the perfect example is Andy Pettite.  Yeah, it took heat for Andy to come clean, but once he came clean, it just seemed like a mountain was off his shoulders, AND baseball fans support the guy.  Through all the years of denial on LA's part though, it won't be easy for him to admit it.  He's dug himself into this position...and I think he's hoping it works out like it did for Roger Clemens.

I do get you don't hate the guy, you are just calling it the way you see it. I don't know... there is that point you cross the line of absurd. Problem with lies is that you paint your self into a corner. Personally, I don't live like that. I had to rat myself out at work, got in a little trouble, because covering it up was not an option... and nobody but me knew. So I don't like defending liars and cheats. Don't start none, won't be none.

But I also do know, there are times where doing the right thing, causes more harm than not. He has millions of dollars at stake. The Feds closed their case, they can reopen it if he admits it. His Foundation has taken hold and it in itself continues to grow and do good things. There is a lot on the line. So you toss all that away, to admit that yes indeed you were doing the same thing every other professional athlete was doing, and on a level playing field you dominated them all. At this point, it isn't so cut and dried.

Of course it would be interesting to see "the high road". If he came out in a press conference and laid out all the dirty laundry... but I'm sure his high priced legal team does not see it that way. I'm sure they have explained to him the liabilities that opens him up for.