Lance Armstrong and the French disconnection

Illinois Leader ^ | 09-13-05 | Andrew Longman--Opinion

[Rodney King]

I thought Lance was gay?

[Leo Carpathian]

Who Gives French!

[Dark Skies]

Are you saying Cheryl Crow is a cross-dresser?

[Texas2step]

ping...

[the_Watchman]

Sounds an awful lot like Dan Rather insisting that "It wasn't the truth of the accusations against Bush, it was the seriousness of the charges!'

[tumblindice]

"Le 'backbone'? Le 'testicles'? What are zeeze tings"
(French doctor, baffled by Lance's CT scan)

[tx_eggman]

I thought Lance was gay?

Not true, it took a real ball to come back like he did.

[bruin66]

hmmm... Sounds like RatherGate - The evidence is fraudulent, but the story is still true.

[Bon mots]

Actually, French authotities recently found banned drugs and chemicals in Lance's apartment.

In a search of Lance's room where he stayed in France during the recently completed Tour de France, French authorities found soap, deodorant and toothpaste, all of which have been banned in France for at least 50 years.

Lance was also found to be anatomically different than the average Frenchman. His anatomy actually has features not found on the French, namely, testicles and a backbone.

[STFrancis]

There were I believe 4 or more tests from that year in which he tested positive not only 1. However, since the original A-samples were destroyed you can not do double testing and nobody can prove conclusively that he indeed doped. Drugs found were NOT due to his cancer treatment. I love it that he is considering to go for No. 8

[smoothsailing]

ROFLOL !!!

[Edsquire]

His anatomy actually has features not found on the French, namely, testicles and a backbone.

Testicle (singular). One was removed for cancer.

[DB]

"If multiple other laboratories confirm the evidence of chemical, fine. If they don't, fine. But the absolutely critical thing for the French, for us all, is that we as public people and as private people insist that objective truth, supported by evidences, be our requirement in all things wherein we pass judgment."

I strongly object.

The "evidence" has been in French custody for six years where it is totally unknown who had access to it or how it was secured for all that time. Anyone could have tainted the blood knowing it was going to be tested including the lab technicians. Take note that many of the numbered samples tested positive for EPO. The odds hitting Lance's were high.

Since there is not independent samples that were securely held by a neutral party it is now impossible to determine much of anything now.

Also note that his blood was tested for all the years in between, where he still won, and there were no positive results. So there is hard proof he didn't need EPO to win - win consistently. Then it becomes, what's the point of him using EPO?

All the evidence points towards the French. That the French manufactured this event.

[Defiant]

Shall we employ it for lack of a better? Perhaps Francois-ness would more artistically capture. Yes, done.

How about "Francois se quoi", as in "je ne se quoi"?

[DB]

I believe all the "positive" test results were from the same original batch of blood drawn - including the other players having similar results.

Lance DID take EPO with his chemotherapy. He said it saved his life. It IS commonly prescribed for that.

[DeweyCA]

Francois-ness is the odd and Bohemian presupposition of one's own superiority in the absence of objective evidence to support the claim.

This is the essence of John Francois Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and other Democrats.

[intendedconsequences]

He seemed pretty happy the last time I saw him.

[smoothsailing]

I missed that at first,and just now read the article again.

It is odd that the author,who obviously see's the French as snobbish and unreliable,would think the samples could be accepted if only blind tested by nuetral labs.

I agree with you,that's a tremendous flaw in the authors argument.Thanks for pointing it out!

[Fred Hayek]

A little factoid about EPO. I was at Masters Nationals Track Cycling Championship this year in Indianapolis, and had a discussion with a biochemist. EPO is a rather fragile molecule, which even in the best freeze condition, breaks down, a half life measured in a few months at best. So the claim of EPO found in a six year old sample becomes quite questionable.