Lance Armstrong confesses to Oprah Winfrey: report

NY Post ^ | 1/14/13 | AP

[jimbo123]

A person familiar with the situation says Lance Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey during an interview Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Adds a whole new meaning to that “Livestrong” thing.

[bigbob]

for some reason, I’m reminded of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

[FatherofFive]

This is so sad. Armstrong was a model of American exceptionalism, and true grit in overcoming cancer.

Will be interested in seeing the particulars.

[FatherofFive]

This is so sad. Armstrong was a model of American exceptionalism, and true grit in overcoming cancer.

Will be interested in seeing the particulars.

[freedumb2003]

How many years has he flipped the bird at those who supported him, his causes and, of course, his protestations of innocence?

It isn’t he is admitting it now — it is he DID it and the LIED about it and LET PEOPLE BELIEVE HIM!

he can go straight to hell.

[nickcarraway]

There are many worthwhile charities. Hopefully money will go to them, and not his sham.

[struggle]

My twitter feed:

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions In England they called me Sir Lance Armstrong. My aide said “Mr. Armstrong has no titles” AND I KICKED HIM

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions My friends bet with me, things get intense, and someone says, “You don’t have the balls” It’s OK GUYS really

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions One Sheryl said “I don’t mean to needle you...but...” and I PUNCHED HER. #hodgster

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions I’m thinking of changing my website to Livedoped #MightWork #hodgster

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions After all my wins got taken away I’m changing my name to “*” to get them back #AHA! #hodgster #AWESOME

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions Ironically, I’ve never been jousting.

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions “Everyday is a Winding Road” unless I’m straight doped up #hodgster

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions I sing Sheryl Crowe’s song “Arm you Strong Enough to be My Man.” She gets real pissed.

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions Sheryl Crowe says “All I Wanna Do Is Have Some Fun” but sometimes she throws lamps at me #hodgster

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions I’ve ridden my bike without the saddle #ouch

#OtherLanceArmstrongConfessions My legs are actually the strong parts #hodgster

[laweeks]

What a sissy-boy to go on that racist, man-hating monster's show to confess that he broke the law for years. How about a manly news conference without her opinions.

That Doprah hasn't showcased a decent white male on her show since she started.

What a jerk!

[nickcarraway]

Cycling should be finished as a legitimate sport. It sounds like everyone is cheating and they can’t prove anything.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Now if only Oprah can get her messiah Obama to admit he was born in Kenya...Oh wait, he already did.

[VRW Conspirator]

Armstrong was the system...

[Berlin_Freeper]

Another dark day in the annals of dark days.

[berdie]

I can’t for the life of me understand why he is doing this.

[nickcarraway]

I don’t know if this really makes sense, but what I read is they thought this admission would help the damage to his charity Livestrong.

[TurboZamboni]

He’s going to be special guest referee at Wrestlemania.

[Quanah]

Celebrity Apprentice...Living as Lance.....Being Armstrong...just think of the possibilities available with our wonderful low-information-voter-friendly-media...

[unixfox]

He is a liberal, what do you expect.

[yldstrk]

Ah’m shocked I tell ya shocked/sarc
Did Oprah kiss and make it better?

[Theoria]

He built his success on fraud and deception. Much like politicians and the financial markets.

He should be apologizing to Greg Lemond.

[eartrumpet]

I had a bike when I was a kid. Then I got old enough to buy a car.

[skr]

I don’t know if he’s guilty or innocent, but why would he confess on a talk show? Sounds more like pumping the ratings.

[BarbM]

I live in the Minneapolis area, and one day while riding my bike, Greg Lemond passed me. His legs were huge.

Lance: gets cancer, dumped wife for nurse. Dumped nurse for another. Takes up with Sheryl Crow, until she gets cancer and he dumps her.

What happens in our private life, shows what kind of a person we are in our public life. I always like Jan Ulrich. screw you Lance.

[zagger]

Armstrong is a sociopath and should quit fooling around with bicycles and go into politics like most successful sociopaths do.

[JaguarXKE]

I don’t know if he’s guilty or innocent,

The fact that he confessed might be a clue. Just sayin'

[subterfuge]

Now there are two people I care nothing about....

[Baynative]

"...should quit fooling around with bicycles and go into politics like most successful sociopaths do."

I have a strong suspicion that after laying low for a few years that is exactly what he will do.

[Morris70]

he’s Much worse than Nancy Kerigan.

[yadent]

Could it be his particular cancer was caused by his choice of performance enhancing steroids/drugs??

[RetiredTexasVet]

He chose the right venue. Does anyone watch Big O other than the rent-an-audience (expecting some free stuff), the camera crew, and perverts that couldn’t get on Ricki Lake?

[Hot Tabasco]

If the world wants to condemn Armstrong, then strip every stage win and every TDF win from 1990 onwards from those who participated and then I might give a damn........

What the average person doesn't know is that Armstrong doesn't even place in the top 30 of current stage winners in the TDF......

[Mears]

“It isn’t he is admitting it now — it is he DID it and the LIED about it and LET PEOPLE BELIEVE HIM!”

—

And to add insult to injury,he ‘fessed up to OPRAH for heaven’s sake.

Oprah !

.

[Baynative]

Bike Ping

"Could it be his particular cancer was caused by his choice of performance enhancing steroids/drugs??"

Now that's question I've never heard.

[Revolting cat!]

Evidently, Lance's PR advisers advised Lance to jump on Oprah's couch in order to enhance his likeability factor.
(Photograph for illustrative purposes only.)

[exPBRrat]

This really hits me in the gut because I supported him all these years thinking he was either being set up, harassed or blackmailed. After all he passed a whole lot of tests over the last 10 years?

And Dopera too...now I wonder if he sits down to pee?

[fireman15]

He should be apologizing to Greg LeMond.

Thank you. I competed against Greg LeMond. When I knew him he was a true sportsman. Greg took a lot of heat in 2001 after he said it was troubling that Lance continued to associate with Dr.Ferrari. He was villainized and attacked by Lance and Lance's followers, but it went far further than that. He was attacked by even the head of the UCI. It should now be clear to all that Greg LeMond was trying to keep the sport from descending into this horrible mess.

Lance would have never been caught if he hadn't been such a jerk to almost everyone around him. Lance was caught because scores of people just couldn't take his antics anymore.

[Vision]

"Could it be his particular cancer was caused by his choice of performance enhancing steroids/drugs??"

No, Lance didn't start doping until they started racing in Europe and wanted to keep up- long after the cancer comeback.

[vet7279]

Sports are entertainment, you were entertained... get over it. It’s not like these sporting events really matter to anyone or have life changing impact on anything. This entire conversation is a waste of time.

[Tea Party Terrorist]

I wanted to believe too for a very long time.

I know a fellow who is really into cycling and knows a lot about it. A few years ago he convinced me it was impossible that Armstrong did not dope. I did not want to believe it but the way he explained it was totally convincing. Looks like he was right.

[FewsOrange]

Jan Ullrich doped as well.

[Doctor 2Brains]

Too funny!

[NautiNurse]

AP story cries for an editor:

Diagnosed with testicular cancer in October 1996,
the disease soon spread to his lungs and brains.

[Slyfox]

That was a howler!

[Revolting cat!]

I must say that the excuses for Lancey offered on these pages in the past couple months, offered oftentimes quite violently, by the members of the Lance and Cheryl Fan Club (I know the official name is a little out of date, but we’ll get around to updating it very soon) those excuses have been quite educational while being entertaining at almost the same time:

(1) Everybody does it (Klintonian.)

(2) Sports are shoe biz, therefore ethics don’t apply.

(3) Lancey passed all tests in the past 10 years.

The proponents of the last excuse must be saintly citizens who all come to full stops at all street STOP signs, drive under the posted speed limit all the time, and never ever cheated in high school (that is if they ever attended one), because they don’t seem to realize that the very purpose of cheating is, HOW SHOCKING, SHIRLEY! it is to, to... get away with it, imagine that!

[Baynative]

Wasn't he already riding in Europe with Motorola and (then) under contract with Cofidis when he was diagnosed? I remember a dust up when they either cut him or offered him a no salary performance based contract and he quit which (I think) led to the Postal Service team.

My memory is shaky, but I think he had been moving up in status for a couple of years and aready won the Worlds and a few one day classics.

[Third Person]

Lance wasn't doping before his testicular cancer? That's not what I've heard...

From Selena Roberts and SI:

According to Dr. Donald Catlin’s estimate, his lab at UCLA performed more than two dozen tests of Armstrong between 1990 and 2000. In May 1999, USA Cycling sent a formal request to Catlin for past test results – specifically, testosterone-epitestosterone (T:E) ratios – for a cyclist identified by a source with knowledge of the request as Lance Armstrong. Three results indicated high T:E ratios, specifically: a 9.0-to-1 ratio from a sample collected on June 23, 1993; a 7.6-to-1 from July 7, 1994; and a 6.5-to-1 from June 4, 1996.

Roberts and Epstein report: “Most people have a ratio of 1-to-1. Prior to 2005, any ratio above 6.0-to-1 was considered abnormally high and evidence of doping; in 2005 that ratio was lowered to 4.0-to-1. But the high ratios had not led to sanctions. In his letter Catlin did not address the 6.5-to-1 result, but he wrote that he had attempted confirmation (a required step) on the 9.0-to-1 and 7.6-to-1 samples, and ‘in both cases the confirmation was unsuccessful and the samples were reported negative.’ ”

And don't forget the Strock v. USA Cycling/Rene Wenzel case.

[Vision]

I believe you're correct.

I'll try to go back and read Hamilton's book. When the initial team was being put together for the TdF the group started racing in Europe, and they were getting killed. It took the group, collectively, a while to figure out why they rocked the US but were finishing last over there (they weren't doping). Since Armstrong was the star then maybe he wasn't involved with that.

Just curious, what race or TdF stage was it when that iconic rider blew past Armtsrong like he was standing still?

[Vision]

According to Dr. Donald Catlin’s estimate, his lab at UCLA performed more than two dozen tests of Armstrong between 1990 and 2000. In May 1999, USA Cycling sent a formal request to Catlin for past test results – specifically, testosterone-epitestosterone (T:E) ratios – for a cyclist identified by a source with knowledge of the request as Lance Armstrong. Three results indicated high T:E ratios, specifically: a 9.0-to-1 ratio from a sample collected on June 23, 1993; a 7.6-to-1 from July 7, 1994; and a 6.5-to-1 from June 4, 1996.

Roberts and Epstein report: “Most people have a ratio of 1-to-1. Prior to 2005, any ratio above 6.0-to-1 was considered abnormally high and evidence of doping; in 2005 that ratio was lowered to 4.0-to-1. But the high ratios had not led to sanctions. In his letter Catlin did not address the 6.5-to-1 result, but he wrote that he had attempted confirmation (a required step) on the 9.0-to-1 and 7.6-to-1 samples, and ‘in both cases the confirmation was unsuccessful and the samples were reported negative.’ ”

Well done.

[Third Person]

Another interesting tidbit from the VeloNews Strock article:

"Strock and Kaiter have continuously maintained that Wenzel, team soigneur Angus Fraser and another U.S. team coach had on several occasions injected riders with cortisone, treated them with other steroids (corticoids and anabolics) and provided them with amphetamines and other possible performance-enhancing drugs during the 1990 season in the U.S. and Europe. That other U.S. coach remains unnamed in the suit, but former U.S. national team coach Chris Carmichael reportedly settled out-of-court with plaintiffs in the case in late 2000 or early 2001. Carmichael has repeatedly declined to comment on questions about an out-of-court settlement."

[Slings and Arrows]

Do you mean Tonya Harding?