The big difference between Indurain, Armstrong and LeMond can be seen in the record.
Armstrong withdrew from 2 out of his first 4 Tours, finished 97 & 47 in the others.
Indurain withdrew from 3 out of his first 4.
Le Mond finished 3 in his 1st, 2nd in his 2nd and 1st in his third. He was naturally talented.
Well Indurain finished 11th I think in the year before he won the Tour and he won a stage in the mountains. He also flogged himself as a domestique working for Delgado in 1989, And he won Paris-Nice a couple of times. Lance had a natural talent as a one day racer , he was world champion aged 21 remember. And a Tour stage winner, but he was never related to a GC rider.
McQuaid has to do the mother of all climbdowns today doesn’t he? Surely his position is untenable.
:rolleyes:
What time is this UCI press conference or press release due today does anybody know?
UCI have accepted USADA’s findings and Armstrong has been stripped of all his titles and banned from cycling. More to follow…
Was the quote from Armstrongs speech at the Livestrong conference in Austin something like:
“I’ve had a hard week, (looks at the camera)
But I’ve had worse”
Prick!
McQuaid was “sickened” by what he read in the report. FFS.
[font=Arial][size=3]“When I took over [as president] in 2005 I made the fight against doping my priority. I acknowledged cycling had culture of doping. Cycling has come a long way. I have no intention as resigning as president of the UC,” McQuaid said.[/size][/font]
Will UCI drop their case with Paul Kimmage now?
David Walsh on bbc 5 live there, absolutely seething that McQuaid didnt step down. Some bbc cunt kept referring to Wiggins as ‘wiggo’ :guns:
Brian Smith, ex-British champion, current Eurosport commentator and former Motorola team-mate of Lance (until he refused to dope), spoke well on Sky Sports News there.
No. They mentioned that that’s a separate issue of “defamation” so they’re going ahead with it, from what I read.
Smith is a good guy, like his commentary on Eurosport.
There’s a fascinating podcast with former BALCO head Victor Conte here - http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/26222864 (discussion starts around the 20min mark) - for anyone interested in the levels of doping in elite sport nowadays.
Some sensational stuff in it. The types of drugs, their effects, the culture that surrounds them, the cover up of positive tests in the Olympics, the people doing them, it’s all in there. He’s convinced Usain Bolt and most of the Jamaican track team are doping.
The level of sophistication involved is incredible. He talked about how his first contact with PEDs was tetrahydrogestrinone, or ‘the clear’, which you could take with just a few drops under your tongue. He says that as soon as the authorities even began to ask questions they had moved onto a new undetectable formula.
Crazy shit really. His area of expertise is nutrition and there’s really interesting stuff about that in there as well.
Thanks for the link, must give that a listen.
It’s certainly apparent that the issue of doping extends far beyond cycling. That was the forefront of doping for a long time and the hapless governing body have allowed the sport to regress into an object of ridicule. But with the money in other sports it beggars belief that the likes of American Football, tennis, soccer and rugby have the clean health they like to portray.
McQuaid’s hypocrisy was still in evidence at today’s press conference. They have (rightly) condemned Lance and stripped him of all his titles but he (also rightly) suggested that there are other ex-dopers still involved in the sport who should not be removed from the sport because they might be leading the way in cleaning it up. But there’s a big difference between the likes of Vaughters and Millar versus those who have shown no repentance and are still managing riders who are doping - i.e. Riis.
David Walsh was on RTÉ at lunchtime and was fairly furious with McQuaid’s ridiculous defence that it didn’t happen on his watch. He’s carrying on like this was the first he ever heard of the allegations.
Anything you can make big money out of by being stronger,faster, fitter is going to be rife with drugs.
The problem comes when like Armstrong they use you to promote the sport, you need the guys in charge to be willing to damage their own sport to call them up on it. I’ve no idea if he is or isn’t doping but the likes of Bolt is practically untouchable now.
McQuaid must be up their for cunt of this century.