heh, heh, heh..... You said "one nut"..... heh, heh, heh
Posted on 03/25/2003 1:40:32 PM PST by RetiredArmy
Armstrong: I'm an athlete and that's all
From: The Associated Press; Posted At ESPN.com, March 25, 2003
MADRID, Spain -- Lance Armstrong will worry about his team's safety this summer during the Tour de France if the United States is still at war with Iraq.
The four-time champion said he would be concerned about his U.S Postal team as it rides each day through the mountains and countryside.
"Two-hundred kilometers (124 miles) of road without barriers cannot be kept under control,'' Armstrong said Monday on Catalan regional television.
"I don't represent one side or the other, but I do represent a sponsor'' of the war, the Texan added.
"I'm an athlete and that's all,'' he said. (Is he not an American?)
Armstrong has overcome cancer to win his Tour de France titles. If he wins a fifth straight race, he will tie the record of Spain's Miguel Indurain, who won from 1991-95.
Armstrong is in Spain for the Catalan Week race.
Can't someone say someting that sounds neutral without people taking it as "unAmerican?"
You read wrong. His French is rotten and if you know where to look you can see him training in Austin most of the year.
The five-day Setmana Catalana is the second race of the year for four-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who finished safely in the lead group. Armstrong expressed his worries about the war in Iraq to the Spanish daily El Periodico.
"I do have fears because of being an American, I'm not going to deny it," said Armstrong, who repeated his apprehension of climbing up narrow roads lined with fans under little or no supervision.
"For example, on Thursday I'll be climbing up to Pal and there are certain to be people on the roads. The people will be close to me and they could have contact with me," he said. "That's one of the differences between my sport and others like football or Formula One. People are in contact with the cyclists but not footballers or F1 drivers. ... People must make a clear distinction between sport and politics. I'd like it if cycling fans could make that distinction."
He was answering an interview question. Not answering a question when you are asked is rude.
I think he is smart for not spewing his political views on TV. I wish more celebrities would follow his example.
People who think they are experts on everything just because the happen to be famous make me ill.
Yeah, it bugs me, too,
but remember that these days
athletes are pretty
uneducated,
and have no hope for money
other than keeping
corporate sugar
daddies happy. Desperate
and dumb say dumb things.
IIRC, there were some concerns over his safety last year, before the whole Iraq mess boiled over. I definitely remember hearing that Lance was booed by a LOT of the French. Apparently the uselss, slimy Frogs are getting tired of having an American win "their" race.
Not on this forum. There are some really bloodthirsty folk here.
* * * *
Armstrong limbers up with broadside at Bush
William Fotheringham
Monday March 10, 2003
The Guardian
Lance Armstrong, who is close to George W Bush, has told the president that he is opposed to war in Iraq. "He's a personal friend of mine but we've all got the right not to agree with our friends," said Armstrong.
The two Texans have a close relationship. Bush has appointed the cyclist to his presidential commission on cancer, has received Armstrong several times at the White House and phoned Armstrong almost immediately after he won his fourth Tour last July. But Armstrong is also famously independent-minded.
"I think we ought to consider the opinion of other strong nations," he added. "Entering in a unilateral way into the war is an error. But he has got all the information, he's the president and my opinion doesn't really matter. I'd always opt for a peaceful solution and not for a war."
Armstrong was speaking during the Tour of Murcia in southern Spain, his first build-up event to his attempt to win a fifth successive Tour de France. Showing signs of form already, he came close to his first win of the year yesterday in the final time-trial stage.
Armstrong was only 2sec behind the stage and overall winner, Javier Pascual Llorente of Spain, in the 12.9km (eight miles) individual contre-la-montre around Murcia.
It could well be that, when Armstrong rides the Tour in July, his country will be at war and he accepts that there could be threats to his personal security. "That is one of the consequences of war. I don't know if it would cause me problems, in the Tour de France for example. I hope it won't."
* * * *
And this, an interview found on Armstrong's own website, also dated March 10, 2003
Did you have any problems with the Spanish / Euro media? We read a few interviews you did that seemed pretty upbeat and focused mainly on cycling.
- No, no real problems at all. The only slight problem is that I was doing media stuff every night and that gets stressful. It's funny, you'll have a guy that just stands around and expects a 20 minute interview and will wait till he gets it. On the other hand you have other media outlets who call Jogi - our press manager - and schedule stuff weeks in advance. With the demand these days these are the ones I do and not the others. There's just not enough time in the day for every one of them.
I got lots of war questions which are making me more and more uncomfortable. Their position is "Well, you're the President's friend, so what can you tell us?.." I suppose at the end of the day athletes should be athletes and not diplomats or politicians. While I've told them I hope we can avoid war (who doesn't want to??), know this: I support the President and our troops 100%.
If I'm not mistaken, Lance use to own a house in France and stayed their often to train. But, when the French got all in his face over dopping and such, it pissed (no pun intended) him off pretty good. I've heard he sold that house and now owns a residence in Spain.
heh, heh, heh..... You said "one nut"..... heh, heh, heh
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