Posted on 11/20/2012 12:11:09 PM PST by Notary Sojac
What's there to watch? Cycling is a spectator event that is huge in Europe where doping got it's start and the only cycling event that's televised here in the U.S. is the TDF and that only draws interest here when an American team is in contention.
Had it not been for LeMond and Armstrong, it's unlikely that ESPN would even be televising it..............
Armstrong has done more for the U.S. cycling industry and his respective charities than any politician could ever hope to achieve. To have a government sponsored entity launch this all assault effort to destroy him is a travesty.............
Question: If a huge percentage of the best competitors are cheating, over many years, and the event owners and sanctioning and enforcement authorities let it go, again over many years, is it, or any particular act of breaking the rules, really cheating? For practical purposes, I’d have to say it might as well not be.
The L’Equipe article in particular ought to tick you off. Not because their reporters are a bunch of bitter Frenchmen, well, at any rate not just because of that, but because L’Equipe and the Tour are owned by the same company. L’Equipe is a Groupe Amaury paper. Amaury Sport, the owner and organizer of the Tour, as you might have deduced from the name, is also part of Groupe Amaury. You know the prize money Lance got? That’s their money. You’d think they’d have a vested interest in not paying their money to cheats, in finding the cheats and punishing them before, not after, the cheats win seven Tours in a row and win lots of money, and Groupe Amaury makes even more money covering the winning streak. Is Lance a cheat? Yeah. The problem is, pretty much everybody else in the sport including the guys running the events, enforcing the rules, and gathering the news, are crooks.
Who were "those" people?
AMEN!
i’m against doping in sports, but our Congress critters have no interest in the serious issues that we are experiencing in this country. they want a little show now and then to make people think that they are doing something, but turn a blind eye to what’s most important.
where are the leaders this great country once had? “gone to graveyard everyone, when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn.”
I participated in a sport for years involving horses which meant that a urine test for banned substances could be taken on my horse at any place or time during or immediately after the competition. I had 2 tests collected in those years. No problem.
I need someone to explain to me how Lance could undergo over 500 tests, sometimes EVERY day & not ever get a positive result.
That doesn’t make any logical sense to me.
If we can send a rover to Mars, can we NOT collect & properly test a person for doping?
I am inclined to think that he has been totally railroaded.
It has never been a secret that Lance has treated a lot of those who have helped him the most... badly. His downfall is a result of the USADA being able to get many of his former closest allies to turn against him. "Those" people are Lance's former friends... he was able to beat the drug testing system, but being nasty eventually brought him down.
I'm not surprised Armstrong is an atheist; he seems to think he himself is a god.
You may like this discussion:
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/08/roger_noll_on_t.html
Roger Noll of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of sports. Noll discusses the economic effects of stadium subsidies, the labor market for athletes, the business side of college sports, competitive balance in sports leagues, safety in sports, performance-enhancing drugs, and how the role of sports in the lives of children has changed.
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