The Greenhouse

I honestly doubt that there were more than a handful of clean cyclists in that era and I'm sure there are plenty I cyclists still bending the rules. It seems to be necessary to compete at the elite levels in cycling. Armstrong and his team were just better at beating the system than the other teams.

I'm not condoning the use of performance enhancing drugs but anyone who believes this was confined to a small section of the sport is seriously deluded.

LP Raider wrote:

86 invader wrote:

LP Raider wrote:Armstrong made a nothing sport in the US into a sport.

Once the dust settles, cycling will struggle to fill any pages in the sports sections.

I must admit I used to watch The Tour De France every year, its glory heights reach in 2005 when Lance last won, ever since my interest has dropped even with Cadel winning.

Cycling needed Armstrong as much as Armstrong needed cycling.

cycling's life exists in europe... they see themselves as the purists and everyone else as blow ins...

i think now that he has been officially exposed, they can use it as a sort of re-birth of the sport (assuming they can stop the ongoing use of illegal tactics)... it might give them a couple of years of renewed interest... whether or not they can maintain it is another matter...

I'm talking about how the sport is viewed in the US, I doubt any other cyclist will have the same impact on the sport that Lance had...assuming clean.

As Federer said last night, Its a sad time for all sports atm.

Thats because all of them will be questioned whether they are clean, let alone cyclists.

Just because Armstrong has come out, doesn't give the supportive public any faith in this years race.

sorry LP, didn't mean to imply that you were wrong... i was more leaning to the point that cycling's long term survival in fringe cycling nations is now reliant on the immediate choices it makes here and now... there are 'silver lining' opportunities if they are smart enough...

pickles wrote:I honestly doubt that there were more than a handful of clean cyclists in that era and I'm sure there are plenty I cyclists still bending the rules. It seems to be necessary to compete at the elite levels in cycling. Armstrong and his team were just better at beating the system than the other teams.

I'm not condoning the use of performance enhancing drugs but anyone who believes this was confined to a small section of the sport is seriously deluded.

i agree which is why this whole saga left a hollow feeling... it's great to catch a cheat but i don't believe in trying to catch certain cheats and turning a blind eye to others...

like i said before the continental europeans just wanted armstrong caught... the US have their own reasons for pursuing him which is why they took over... but this all stemmed from a french magazine that wanted armstrong investigated because he eclipsed indurain, etc ... everything before his era seems to have been written off as bygones...

like pickles said this isn't sticking up for him... in my opinion armstrong absolutely deserves all the shame, lawsuits, etc that comes with this... but so do his main rivals and competitors who engaged in the same practices...

His rivals and competitors didn't reap 100 million dollars from it though. His rivals and competitors, or at least a lot of them, have been busted and punished while he has denied any wrongdoing even to this day. Did you watch the interview - he only showed a tiny bit of remorse if any and he said 'oh I only took a little bit of EPO, oh using testosterone didn't seem like such a bad thing because I used it when I lost one of my nuts - oh please let me compete again - oh I lost 75 million dollars in one day' (he wouldn't have that to lose if he had not won all those Tours by cheating.

the French were after him for so long because they knew he was cheating - there has been speculation for years about him. Nobody gives a toss about the bloke that doped and came last. Robbie O'Davis took a banned substance and then Andrew Jones also fessed up to taking pingers while playing - which one is going to be remembered in 20 years - the better player obviously.

http://putlocker.bz/watch-the-armstrong ... ocker.html

Great documentary on the whole Armstrong saga.