Armstrong drops fight against doping charges

[jamesblakefan#1]

In what was billed as a no-holds-barred question-and-answer session, Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs, which led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from the sport. The International Olympic Committee also sent a letter to Armstrong on Wednesday night asking him to return his bronze medal from the 2000 Games.

Some highlights of the interview from Thursday night:

Oprah: Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance?

Armstrong: Yes.

Oprah: Was one of those banned substances EPO?

Armstrong: Yes.

Oprah: Did you ever blood dope or use blood transfusions to enhance your cycling performance?

Armstrong: Yes.

Oprah: Did you ever use any other banned substance like testosterone, cortisone or human growth hormone?

Armstrong: Yes.

Oprah: In all seven of your Tour de France victories, did you ever take banned substances or blood dope?

Armstrong: Yes.

Oprah: In your opinion, was it humanly possible to win the Tour de France without doping? Seven times in a row?

Armstrong: Not in my opinion.

Oprah: For 13 years you didn't just deny it, you brazenly and defiantly denied everything you just admitted just now. So why now admit it?

Armstrong: That is the best question. It's the most logical question. ... I don't know that I have a great answer. I will start my answer by saying that this is too late. It's too late for probably most people, and that's my fault. I viewed this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times, and as you said, it wasn't as if I just said no and I moved off it.

Oprah: Right, you were defiant. ... You called other people liars.

Armstrong: I understand that. And while I lived through this process, especially the last two years, one year, six months, two, three months, I know the truth. The truth isn't what was out there. The truth isn't what I said, and now it's gone -- this story was so perfect for so long. And I mean that, as I try to take myself out of the situation and I look at it. You overcome the disease, you win the Tour de France seven times. You have a happy marriage, you have children. I mean, it's just this mythic perfect story, and it wasn't true.

http://espn.go.com/sports/endurance/...as-one-big-lie

[Avles]

I went to Michele Ferrari's homepage to see if the good doctor had any reaction to the interview... but it appears to have disappeared.

[fundrazer]

Oh! I'll answer with my own favorites! Jens Voigt, Tom Boonen, Jakob Fuglsang, Andy Schleck, Vincenzo Nibali, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome. Philippe Gilbert, Tyler Hamilton, Fabian Cancellara, Roman Kreuziger... Think that's most of them anyway.

[adventure]

Originally Posted by r2473

For the record, who is/are your favorite cyclist(s)?

I haven't followed cycling in many years. What's the point? I'm not a fanboy.

[r2473]

Originally Posted by adventure

I haven't followed cycling in many years. What's the point? I'm not a fanboy.

I was just wondering if you simply ignore everyone from the past 10-20 years or if you simply have a vendetta against the "PED poster boy of cycling"

The guy may be a jerk, but he's one amazing story. You can strip away his titles and strip away his fan support, but he still has gone out and lived one very amazing life. Compared to the rest of the population (that includes you and me), the man is pretty damn amazing and worked really f'in hard to accomplish all he has. Wish I could accomplish 1/1,000,000,000th of what he has.

[adventure]

Yeah, it was a blatantly obvious bait post. As in "name your hero so I can attack him." Try harder next time, failboy.

Originally Posted by r2473

I was just wondering if you simply ignore everyone from the past 10-20 years or if you simply have a vendetta against the "PED poster boy of cycling"

The guy may be a jerk, but he's one amazing story. You can strip away his titles and strip away his fan support, but he still has gone out and lived one very amazing life. Compared to the rest of the population (that includes you and me), the man is pretty damn amazing and worked really f'in hard to accomplish all he has. Wish I could accomplish 1/1,000,000,000th of what he has.

[maleyoyo]

Originally Posted by r2473

I was just wondering if you simply ignore everyone from the past 10-20 years or if you simply have a vendetta against the "PED poster boy of cycling"

The guy may be a jerk, but he's one amazing story. You can strip away his titles and strip away his fan support, but he still has gone out and lived one very amazing life. Compared to the rest of the population (that includes you and me), the man is pretty damn amazing and worked really f'in hard to accomplish all he has. Wish I could accomplish 1/1,000,000,000th of what he has.

You wish you’d be like Lance?
From reading your posts, somehow I seriously doubt you like what you will become.

[Bartelby]

There is something admirable about great criminals.

Originally Posted by r2473

I was just wondering if you simply ignore everyone from the past 10-20 years or if you simply have a vendetta against the "PED poster boy of cycling"

The guy may be a jerk, but he's one amazing story. You can strip away his titles and strip away his fan support, but he still has gone out and lived one very amazing life. Compared to the rest of the population (that includes you and me), the man is pretty damn amazing and worked really f'in hard to accomplish all he has. Wish I could accomplish 1/1,000,000,000th of what he has.

[Avles]

Originally Posted by r2473

. Compared to the rest of the population (that includes you and me), the man is pretty damn amazing and worked really f'in hard to accomplish all he has. Wish I could accomplish 1/1,000,000,000th of what he has.

You have an interesting definition of accomplishment.

As far as I'm concerned, everyone who is a reliable friend, a faithful spouse, a loving parent, or a generally honest person, has accomplished more in life than Lance Armstrong has.

[JohnnyCracker]

Originally Posted by r2473

The guy may be a jerk, but he's one amazing story. You can strip away his titles and strip away his fan support, but he still has gone out and lived one very amazing life. Compared to the rest of the population (that includes you and me), the man is pretty damn amazing and worked really f'in hard to accomplish all he has. Wish I could accomplish 1/1,000,000,000th of what he has.

why such low self-esteem?
is your life really that worthless?

[realplayer]

Well at least he didn't betray anyone(It is good he didn't want to talk about Ferrari) unlike his former teammates who earned a lot of money thanks to him and then betrayed him

In the end everybody who wanted to win used dope and we can safely assume that 90 percent of the riders used doping so in my opinion he was still the strongest.

Let's not forget he did a lot of good work for cancer and if he is being punished then punish the other riders like Ullrich or Riiss(who admitted dope and still can keep his TDF victory) in the same way.

[maggmaster]

I am fully with everyone who is appalled by the he treated others who accused him. I just think we have to be aware that sport is always going to take advantage of any edge they can find. We should be monitoring them and making sure that they do it safely. EPO can safely be used to raise the hematocrit up to a certain point, beyond that point you raise the risk of stroke and heart issues. We should check for unsafe levels not for the drug itself. That increase in HCT level can also be gained through altitude training or the use of an atmosphere chamber, both of which are totally legal.

[volleygirl]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCracker

why such low self-esteem?
is your life really that worthless?

Ouch!!!!!!

[r2473]

Originally Posted by adventure

Yeah, it was a blatantly obvious bait post. As in "name your hero so I can attack him." Try harder next time, failboy.

Sure, it was sort of a bait post.

I'd pull the "hypocrite card" with respect to the public reaction to Armstrong (Bonds, Clemens, etc). Meaning, two things. First, the crowds were cheering and the sport was making tons of money off these guys when they were doing their thing. Now, the very same public and guys in the sport are acting as if they are "shocked" that such a thing was happening.

Second, I bet that everyone that is now demonizing Armstrong (Bonds, Clemens, etc) still has "closet roid hero's". Olympics, boxing, tennis, NFL, etc. It's just so simplistic to demonize the "poster boys" and give everyone else a free pass.

As for what Lance accomplished, I certainly wouldn't want to pit my resume against his. Is he perfect.......No. Is he an A-hole........absolutely. But that doesn't negate his accomplishments. You may not like him as a man. I don't either (and never have). But his accomplishments still stand.

Politics is a dirty business.......(What's that saying about knowing how politics and sausages are made?).

[rainingaces]

I thought this was a Gerry Armstrong caught smoking dope in the chair again thingy before Ilooked.

[Underhand]

I couldn't wait to see Phelps' story in a couple of years.

[jonnythan]

Whether Phelps juiced hardly matters. If he juiced, you know everyone else in the pool juiced. PEDs or not, dominating every aspect of a sport so thoroughly is unbelievable. Would be another matter if Phelps spent years suing and shaming and threatening people. Doesn't look like he's done that.

[NadalAgassi]

Even if Phelps is doped to the eyeballs (and he probably is) he is still 10 times the athlete and human being Armstrong ever was.

[rk_sports]

Adam Carolla sums it up for me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiwAFqSAiJU

p.s. language nsfw

[adventure]

I didn't want to be too hard on you as you're obviously a psychological and emotional wreck. People like yourself genuinely need help in the same way that people need to be rescued and de-programmed from cults.

Having said that, I still want to kick both you and lance in the nut/s for your blatant, idiotic stupidity.

First of all, the reason lance became ill was because he was abusing PED's. FACT. Do you understand this point? That's why Serena W almost died as well. PED abuse. That's why people's heads grow. That's why clemens can post an era below 2, after the age of 40. Impossible without PED's.

Second, there are MILLIONS of courageous heroic individuals out there who battle disease and illness everyday. Lance is NOT heroic for trying to live. LA is NOT heroic for coming back to the tour and supposedly winning. Those "victories" are purely the result of the superior chemical cocktails.

Third, lance has NO RESUME WHATSOEVER. He has been stripped of all tdf titles. There are no winners in those years he competed and supposedly won. Do you understand this point? I repeat, he has ZERO tour titles. And no one else does either in those years.

Fourth, his "resume" also includes endless blackmailing, threats, intimidation and endless lies. So, yes, I am EXTREMELY proud of the fact that my "resume" does not include these feats.

As I said before, what's left of your shriveled up, putrified ego is now completely attached to lance and to this pseudo-intellectual, fraudulent rationalization that lance is somehow a "hero."

As I said before, I feel sorry for you and I realize that your low self esteem is what's responsible for your lance worship. So pointing out your stupidity is likely going to reduce your self esteem even further, but it's the only hope you've got.

I really do hope you can pull your head out of your a-- someday, even if today is not that day.

Originally Posted by r2473

Sure, it was sort of a bait post.

I'd pull the "hypocrite card" with respect to the public reaction to Armstrong (Bonds, Clemens, etc). Meaning, two things. First, the crowds were cheering and the sport was making tons of money off these guys when they were doing their thing. Now, the very same public and guys in the sport are acting as if they are "shocked" that such a thing was happening.

Second, I bet that everyone that is now demonizing Armstrong (Bonds, Clemens, etc) still has "closet roid hero's". Olympics, boxing, tennis, NFL, etc. It's just so simplistic to demonize the "poster boys" and give everyone else a free pass.

As for what Lance accomplished, I certainly wouldn't want to pit my resume against his. Is he perfect.......No. Is he an A-hole........absolutely. But that doesn't negate his accomplishments. You may not like him as a man. I don't either (and never have). But his accomplishments still stand.

Politics is a dirty business.......(What's that saying about knowing how politics and sausages are made?).