Lance Armstrong to ride in the Tour of Ireland

lino_de_legend wrote:

SamiPremier08 wrote:Lance Armstrong never used performance enhancing drugs.

ah sami why dont ya marry lance armstrong.........

i would, hes a ride!


sami lance

Well thank you very much for that, Lino. Your sporting knowledge knows no bounds, insightful and intelligent as ever.

I would agree with Jayo. It would have taken something bothering on "superhuman effort" for Lance to win all he did against opposition who were drugged up to the last themselves on "dedication" alone given his medical history.

But even with drugs, I'd still rate it as an incredible sporting achievement.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:

lino_de_legend wrote:

SamiPremier08 wrote:Lance Armstrong never used performance enhancing drugs.

ah sami why dont ya marry lance armstrong.........

i would, hes a ride!


sami lance

Well thank you very much for that, Lino. Your sporting knowledge knows no bounds, insightful and intelligent as ever.

I would agree with Jayo. It would have taken something bothering on "superhuman effort" for Lance to win all he did against opposition who were drugged up to the last themselves on "dedication" alone given his medical history.

But even with drugs, I'd still rate it as an incredible sporting achievement.

why thank you loyal, but however, i never claimed it to be that much. ya know what tho, you really should go see a doctor bout getting that pole removed

What pole, Lino?

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:What pole, Lino?

the one stuck in your backside!! listen just leave it, i was only havin a feckin laugh. i'm sorry i upset your serious conversation. i keep my silly insightful intelligent comments out of it

No you are welcome to post here Lino, I find your analysis of all things cycling very interesting to read.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:No you are welcome to post here Lino, I find your analysis of all things cycling very interesting to read.

did you know a bicycle has 2 wheels. and some have a round piece of metal on things called " handlebars" that when flicked back makes a bing noise, like a bell. amazing......

on yer bike Lino!

and on a serious note I do not fancy Lance Armstrong, but I have great respect for him and his achievments. He was tested for drugs so many times and was one of the most dedicated and passionate sports stars ever. Loyal has a fair point, as does Jayo, but maybe we should accept that Armstrong achieved what he did within the rules of his sport and that is what we should applaud him for.

when somebody proves that Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs (and no Jayo, not viagra) then I'll change my mind.

SamiPremier08 wrote:Lance Armstrong never used performance enhancing drugs.

neither did Michelle Smith

SamiPremier08 wrote:Loyal has a fair point, as does Jayo, but maybe we should accept that Armstrong achieved what he did within the rules of his sport and that is what we should applaud him for.

Tell ya what Sami I would never boo the guy but I certainly wouldn't applaud him either.

Wonder if he'll give Paul Kimmage any interviews this time.

Liamwalkinstown wrote:

SamiPremier08 wrote:Lance Armstrong never used performance enhancing drugs.

neither did Michelle Smith

When did Lance Armsrong fail a drugs test? And i'm sure if you checked her out she'd be better hung than a lot of the lads on here, by God she was a big woman!!

I see the frech drug testing agency are trying to get Lance Armstrong baned

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/7991866.stm

Its a joke

ohh no who pulled this old Lance Armstrong debate back onto page1 i remember getting quite worked up last time around!

A new investigation is being opened against Armstrong, with possible charges to be levied.

Shocking. I stick by my views of three years ago.

SamiPremier08 wrote: Shocking. I stick by my views of three years ago.

And so you should, Sami. Christmas was never the same after I stopped believing in Santa Claus.

He is the most drug tested athlete in sport, and for him to never have a positive test it says one of 2 things -

1 - He was never a drug cheat

2 - He was a very intelligent man with a brilliant team of doctors etc. who could keep 500+ tests (most of them random) clean and managed to keep them all quiet for a very long time.

I personally HOPE he was never a drug cheat, but in the murky world of cycling who knows, there are people out there who want to take him down. They had tried many, many times and have yet to succeed.

The real pity is that this story has pushed the REAL cycling story down the pecking order, and that is that Andy Schleck will not be able to compete in this years tour due to injury.

bald eagle wrote:
The real pity is that this story has pushed the REAL cycling story down the pecking order, and that is that Andy Schleck will not be able to compete in this years tour due to injury.

No that is not the real 'pity' here at all

Is it not the case that they found evidence that he was transfusing blood in and out of his system, not quite drug taking but still a form of cheating is it not.

It's a remarkable story either way given the number of tests he has had.........

mossbags wrote:

bald eagle wrote:
The real pity is that this story has pushed the REAL cycling story down the pecking order, and that is that Andy Schleck will not be able to compete in this years tour due to injury.

No that is not the real 'pity' here at all

Yes it is

I would say the greater pity is that so many good people like yourself BE have allowed the wool to be pulled over your eyes for so many years this shameless drug cheat and this shameless drug fueled sport

bocerty wrote: It's a remarkable story either way given the number of tests he has had.........

I guess it depends what way you look at it Boc. Several drugs cheats went many years without failing tests. Ben Johnson evaded the testers for 7 years, before panicking and getting stupid after losing to Carl Lewis in Zurich before the '88 Olympics. Marion Jones was never banned due to a positive sample, nor was Michelle Smith. When fellow cyclist Richard Virenque was banned, it was not due to a positive test, but rather the drugs meant for him being seized in transit. I'm not certain, but I don't think Barry Bonds or Mark McGuire were caught either during their record breaking years in baseball.

You say that it is amazing he was tested so many times and not caught, but remember that tests are looking for something specific, not something they don't know about. All you need to keep s step ahead of the testers are a tight group around you (Armstrong had the same sporting director for almost his entire career), and drugs that are not yet being tested for.

Armstrong, dominated a sport that was rampant with cheats. Ullrich, Pantani, Hamilton, Contador, Landis, Riis and literally countless others, yet all were destroyed year after year by the supposedly clean Lance. Even many of the guys on his own team, the riders supporting him, were convicted of cheating in later years, yet none of them were able to get the better of Lance?

I also cant rationalise Armstrong's use of the notorious Dr. Michele Ferrari as his personal physician. Ferrari had previously been banned for supplying cyclists with drugs. Now, if you were at the top of your game, a game being savaged by cheats, would you really want anything to do with a man like Ferrari? I just can't see how a clean sportsman would associate with a man who was destroying his sport. People use to say the same about Michelle Smith (Eric de Bruin) and Marion Jones (CJ Hunter and Tim Montgomery), and they were right then too.

The reality is that none of us here know for sure if Lance is clean or a cheat. My personal view, however, is that every bit of logic and understanding of probability that I have tells me that he was a drugs cheat for many years. I would be genuinely stunned if he was clean.

mossbags wrote:I would say the greater pity is that so many good people like yourself BE have allowed the wool to be pulled over your eyes for so many years this shameless drug cheat and this shameless drug fueled sport

They aren't all like that mossy, i am priviliged to know a few pro and former pro cyclists who carved decent careers for themselves, these men are not and were not drug cheats, and i have met a few former pros that tested positive at one stage or another. I enjoy the sport for what it is and until a cyclist is proven to be a cheat then i take him to be clean. No wool is pulled over my eyes, there are drug cheats and abusers in every sport and some of them won't ever get caught.

Parouisa wrote:

ahhh a hospital radio classic...