lance to quit retirement?

[stevefunkster]

lance has proposed to cheryl(with his nippers agreement of course)also is thinking of P*****g off the french by racing next years tour(anything to wind them up) check this link
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... 6newsflash

[stevefunkster]

i do agree even as a lance fan next years tour will be a very open race, however when were old and dribblin' well be saying to the grankids ooh i remember seeing the great lance armstrong, time does that to you

[stevefunkster]

mmmm, it strikes me as funny they have some ropey old p*** of lances from 1999 shortly after treatment from cancer, chemotherapy destroys red blood cells, im sure some preperation sorry medication must have been taken to repair this and any other damage after treatment so maybe this could somehow affect readings, knowing the type of person lance is he wants to win and be great, surely if he was on preperation why did he not win the giro and vuelta along with the tour in 1 year, this would shut up a lot of critics that say blah blah eddy was better etc, personally anyone who lives after the level of illness he went through(his doctor referred to him as the worst 3% he had seen)let alone ride even professionally deserves to be called a winner, L'equipe want to save the money their paying these dope(ey) journo's and invest it in some grass roots coaching so they have something positive(sic) to talk about....rant over for today

[stevefunkster]

its true, when i was younger i used to bodybuild, that sport is so rife with gear that pro comps only test for diuretics(major killer) as if they did for gear there would be nobody on stage. in the book World Anabolic Review(THE book on steriods in the 90's)they talk about a poll in america where they asked top amateur and professional athletes if they could take a tablet which would garuntee a gold at the next olympics but you would be dead within 4 years would you take it? 94% said they would, that is how important winning is to some people, they also say they beleive virtually all professional and a very high percentage of high level amateurs take gear,
many people get angry at the thought of sportspeople taking gear yet many of those spend thousands on vitamins/ creatine and many other(Legal?) supplements, riders in the first tour would knock back a bottle of vino, dont forget prior to tom simpsons death speedballs were the norm, now thats seriously scary, just as you said marco about some new prep. chemists will always be one step ahead of the testers, which ever way its looked at drugs will always be part of high level sport, however if the talent is not there to begin with no amount of drugs will do the job, im sure when lance was 15 and beating seniors at the triathalon he was not on gear....but i guess we'll never know

[stevefunkster]

marco, who was the cyclist who went to the press last year telling all and got death threats? was it the one you mention above?

[the muur]

I think that it's quite safe to assume that whatever the Anti-Drug Doping gang come uo with, they're only playing catch up and the chemists are probably (according to Dick Pound) 2 years ahead of them. What we have to realise and it's quite important, is that EPO (and it's many derivatives) are not 'Performance Enhancing' as such. They're not used to 'boost' someones race performance, but used in training to to get to a higher level of fitness, hence better performance. In theory, when a rider gets caught for EPO use in a race, he's been caught for buggering up his timings when 'coming off' the gear! The old 'pot bele' and the outragous amphetamines of the 60's, 70's and 80's are well gone and it's a big business now. But EPO use is'nt only a Cycling problem; Several Italian footballers have been nabbed in the past couple of years and didn't everybody marvel at the sheer physical apperence of Jaap Staam? So he gets transfered to Lazio Roma and within a couple of months is tested positive for EPO in a random dope test during training, and low and behold, who is the official 'Doctori' at Lazio? A certain Dr Ferrari, a man used by Armstrong and villified by the Cycling press. Countless riders miss events for a couple of months on end, locking themselves away in training camps up in the Andees, or in South Africa, training hard for their 'goal' later in the season. Are they training hard and getting to bed early without any distraction? Probably, but could there be a more sinister reason? Possibly. Drug use will always be there in any sport, the prizes are high enough to take the cahnce. So do I think that Lance has taken things? Well I don't beleive that anybody can be that good day after day, after day. Just look at 'Tricky Dickie' Virencque during his return after he got busted, brilliant in the mountains for a couple of days, then barely able to hang on the back of the bunch for the rest of the week. Just like any old one of us after a couple of days of hard riding. And, in Lance's position, like many American athletes before him, when you're getting 3, 4 million dollars a year, 200 grand to the best laboratory around, is peanuts. Ask Carl Lewis. As for all that France against America rubish and anti US feelings, I saw the French booing and throwing crap at Merckx 30 years ago! The French love the French, period! Personally, I can't wait for next years Tour to see just how Ulrich and Basso square up; They should be neck and neck.....in theory.

[Rob]

on the other hand...what would cycling be with no drugs!!! it wouldnt be half as fun!!! people wouldnt go half as fast or last as long!!!!

[the muur]

Merckx got caught in the 74 Giro (I think) and said that it must have been in a bottle of water handed up to him, which brought about the ban of riders taking drinks from spectators for drinking.

It was the other darling of the French (there's going to be a recurring theme here concerning the French.......) Laurent Jalabaert who said in an interview after the Festina afair to journalists that " Do you really think we climb 4 mountains in 5 hours for 5 days on museli, bread and coffee"? It's quite funny how the French view drug taking, be they French or otherwise. They don't actually mind them taking drugs, but please be French when you get caught......Throw your hands up, cry a little, beg to be forgiven (Virencque, Ja Ja, Anquatill an outragous drug taker if evere, Millar a French domicil etc) but don't, never, say you're clean as a whistle and take the French Public for mugs. If Lance had got caught for doping and banned for 6 months say, 4 years ago, and came back to win 5 or 6 more Tours, I think the French would have built an Armstrong Worship Center in Rue De Rivoli. As it is, they are convinced he doped, but can't get any closure on it and will probably still be trying to dig up more on him when Rob wins his 8th Tour on the trot riding for Acid House-Pete Doherty Nutrition-Holiday Ibiza.

[Grahame]

As Anquetile (sp?) said "You can't win the tour on mineral water"

[the muur]

I was talking to my wifes nephew over the weekend and the subject of his cancer a couple of years ago came up. He mentioned that he had read about the drug 'erythropoetin', EPO being used in sport, particularly cycling. Also said that he received said drug during his Qimo and after as a 'booster'................................................

[simonfrench]

EPO was designed as a drug to help ill people rather than professional endurance atheletes .. to help with which condition I don't remember, coudl have been cancer?