Now Leipheimer. http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/10/ ... ure_256640


The lid has absolutely come off. Can Lance really continue to deny with any credibility/plausability at all?? I suspect he will devote all his waking hours to his cancer efforts until his name drifts from the news.

More from velonews.com:

Following, in alphabetical order, are statements from Tom Danielson, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie, along with a statement from Slipstream Sports management.

Tom Danielson full statement:
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a professional cyclist. It has always been my dream. Along the road to following my dream, I’ve had several ups and downs, but I stuck with it because I love the sport. I never set out thinking I would cross a line, I set out simply wanting to compete, to race my bike and do what I love. And that is exactly what I did, clean. Then, after years of doing things the right way, I was presented with a choice that, to me, did not feel like a choice at all. In the environment that I was in, it felt like something I had to do in order to continue following my dream. I crossed the line, and that is something I will always be sorry for. I accept responsibility for my choices and apologize to everyone in my life for them — in and out of the sport.

When I heard about the team Jonathan Vaughters was creating, I knew that his team was exactly what cycling needed — it was exactly what I needed and I wanted to be a part of it. Even though I made the choice to compete clean before Slipstream’s inception, I’ve seen both worlds, and I believe that today, cycling is in a good place, and that organizations like Slipstream have helped change the sport. I believe, too, that it’s time to confront cycling’s past, so that we can continue to build its future. That’s what I’ve done, and I promise it’s what I’ll continue to do.

Christian Vande Velde:
I love cycling, it is and always has been a huge part of who I am. As the son of a track cycling Olympian I was practically born on the bike and my dream, ever since I can remember, was always to be a professional cyclist. I have failed and I have succeeded in one of the most humbling sports in the world. And today is the most humbling moment of my life. 



As a young pro rider I competed drug free, not winning but holding my own and achieving decent results. Then, one day, I was presented with a choice that to me, at the time, seemed like the only way to continue to follow my dream at the highest level of the sport. I gave in and crossed the line, a decision that I deeply regret. I was wrong to think I didn’t have a choice — the fact is that I did, and I chose wrong. I won races before doping and after doping. Ironically, I never won while doping; I was more or less just treading water. This does not make it ok. I saw the line and I crossed it, myself. I am deeply sorry for the decisions I made in the past — to my family, my fans, my peers, to the sport that I love and those in and out of it, I’m sorry. I always will be. 



I decided to change what I was doing and started racing clean again well before Slipstream, but I chose to come to Slipstream because I believed in its unbending mission of clean sport. Today, I am proud of the steps that I and cycling have made to improve the future of the sport that I love so much. I am proud to be a part of an organization that implemented a no-needle policy. I am proud that I published my blood values for all of the world to see after almost reaching the podium at the 2008 Tour de France; showing first and foremost myself that it was possible to and then, confirming it for the rest of the world. I continue to be proud of the strides the sport has taken to clean itself up, and the actions our organization has taken to help shape the sport that I love. 
 


We’re in a good place now, young riders of the new generation have not had to face the choices that I did, and this needs to continue. By looking at the mistakes of cycling’s history, we have an opportunity to continue to shape its future.


I’m very sorry for the mistakes I made in my past and I know that forgiveness is a lot to ask for. I know that I have to earn it and I will try, every day, to deserve it — as I have, every day, since making the choice to compete clean. I will never give up on this sport, and I will never stop fighting for its future.

David Zabriskie:
Cycling was a refuge for me. Long, hard training rides were cathartic and provided an escape from the difficult home life associated with a parent with an addiction. My father had a long history of substance use and addiction. Seeing what happened to my father from his substance abuse, I vowed never to take drugs. I viewed cycling as a healthy and wholesome outlet that would keep me far away from a world I abhorred.

In 1996, soon after joining a local cycling club and winning a state championship, I qualified to participate in training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

After winning the GP Des Nation under-23 category race in 2000, I was invited onto a pro-level team. Ironically, the sport I had turned to for escaping drugs turned out to be rampant with doping. I chose not to focus on that. I was young, everyone was telling me I had a great future, and I knew I could do it clean. From the beginning, I always had.


After distinguishing myself in an important race, management presented me with drugs and instructed me on how to proceed. I was devastated. I was shocked. I had never used drugs and never intended to. I questioned, I resisted, but in the end, I felt cornered and succumbed to the pressure.

After one week I stopped. I subsequently succumbed in less than a handful of confined instances never making it a systematic part of my training practices or race routines. But it happened and I couldn’t be sorrier. It was a violation — a violation not only of the code I was subject to, but my personal and moral compass that I had set out to follow. I accept full responsibility and was happy to come forward and tell USADA my whole story; I want to do my share to help bring this entire issue to the fore and ensure a safe, healthy, and clean future for cycling.



I returned to being 100-percent clean long before the Anti-Doping Commitment was issued for riders to sign in 2007. I was one of the first to sign. I embraced complete transparency. When Slipstream surfaced I was eager to join for all that it stands for and its unwavering commitment to clean cycling. I only wish a team like this had existed when I was a neo-pro. Cycling started out as a refuge for me and I want to play my part in making it the sport I had always hoped it would be and know that it can be.

_________________
"New York City is a mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign."
--Alex Baldwin, unknowingly describing his socialist utopia.

Read the addendum to the USADA report -- the summary of the testimony that George Hincapie gave to the USADA about Lance says without equivocation that Lance doped. I haven't read the summary of the other 10 team mates' testimony, but I assume it is equally damning. How does Lance deny that? Answer: His camp calls them "serial perjurers" and implies that Big Tobacco is doing this to discredit Lance, who is an anti-smoking advocate. Pretty effective arguments . . . .

_________________
A bicycle is a splendid thing.
~Ernest Hemingway

1) none of these guys freely called the usada on a whim one morning and told them that they were doping. they were probably bent over a barrel.

2) none (well maybe one) of these guys freely gave armstrong up to the usada. they were probably bent over a barrel and given a bargain.

3) this investigation was simply to make an example of a top dog, armstrong. and although he almost assuredly was doping, just as assuredly was everyone else, down to the domestiques. and the guys who now have the titles were very, very likely doping.

4) armstrong won on a level playing field.

5) which of these guys have not been caught/admitted doping:
Bjarne Riis, Jan Ullrich, Marco Pantani, Alberto Contador,......
yet wasn't only Landis stripped from the TdF list (Alberto Contador tested positive during the race and yellow assigned to Schleck, yet TdF website recognizes Contador the winner; similar with Riis, but then Ullrich came in 2nd, see where i'm going with this?)*

* from the esteemed source, wikipedia. J

_________________
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

To me it doesn't matter if EVERYONE was doping at the time Lance won. When the guillotine is dropped, it's Lance who loses his head. He chose to dope, and he's going to pay the consequences.
It's like being pulled over for speeding, I cannot make the excuse that everyone else was speeding and I shouldn't get a ticket.
What all the dopers did, including Lance, is wrong, and he deserves everything that is coming to them. He chose the route to the top, and he's going to pay for it. Those who got away with the crime of doping weren't good enough at it to win the TDF.

Cool t-shirts to show your support

http://doperssuck.typepad.com/photos/limited_editionusps_tee/bjdg-0009-usps-t-shirt-v04-600.html

This is sad news indeed. It does bring one question to mind though; how could Lance pass all the tests he was subjected to? Was he on something the Doping Agencies couldn't detect, didn't know about or both?

I feel that he should still retain the records that he was given and remain the 'winner' of seven TDF's. He did win while passing all the test availible to give him at the time. Put an asterisks next to his wins in the record books, have it say, "Former teammates whom were caught cheating snitched on Lance Armstrong years after the fact. Everyone was doing it."

Drug development and drug detection don't go hand in hand. EPO, a growth hormone that increases red blood cells, is what he was using, but the test to detect EPO is not very accurate. He could have tested clean all along, but it was because there wasn't and currently there isn't a good way to test for EPO. Synthetic EPO and can easily be changed so that it's not detected. Making antibodies to EPO and testing for it, takes time, and changing the sequence for EPO is very easy.


http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/P01588
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythropoietin

Also:

There appears to have been far fewer tests than Lance claims. Also the timing of the tests, using saline for dilution, and avoiding testers at key times appears to have been a cat-and-mouse game Lance and others engaged in. Also many of the tests weren't for detection of banned substances. Many factors help explain the purported lack of positive tests.

I really wanted to believe. I am a cancer survivor and followed Armstrong's comeback closely and with a great deal of interest. I also used the bike as a "comeback" tool (in a far less glorious way) and continue to use it as a self-monitor on my health. I remember the day I attempted to ride my bike over the Sepulveda Pass in L.A. and felt like I was going to die. That was only a few weeks before I was diagnosed.

I really wanted to believe. I read through page 157 of the report last night and have concluded Lance doped, along with his teammates. I am disappointed. I love the TdF for the spectacle, battle, and fight that it is. Damn! I wanted to believe!

Hopefully a new chapter will emerge for bike racing. There will always be cheats, but hopefully they will be fewer and farther between.

_________________
"New York City is a mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign."
--Alex Baldwin, unknowingly describing his socialist utopia.

Thanks, Abzillah. I was more being sarcastic than anything. Better Life thru Chemistry right?




I felt the same way. My heart is not broken, nor is my view of the TDF and Lance Amrstrong tarnished. If all the fellas that came out against Lance were themselves doping also, then Lance kicked their butts on an even playing field. That's just what that era of cycling will be know for. Look at it like another racing league, in the F1 seasons of the late 70's thru the early 90's the cars had huge turbos with lots of horse power and lots of downforce because of ground effects and gigantic wings. The cars were faster than anything since (minus tyre technology), but the cars were also deadly in a wreck. Lance's years of the TDF will just be know as the 'turbo' years.

^^^ I hear you. But I can't take his denials anymore.

_________________
"New York City is a mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign."
--Alex Baldwin, unknowingly describing his socialist utopia.

No, you are absolutely right. He won all those TDFs but his denials make him look like a piece of poo. Be a man and own up to what you have done. No apology though, just say "yep, I doped" and be done with it. May be hard though, he has put himself in a place where he cannot do that. What would all his business associates think about his integrity if he just up and said I've been lying the worst lie for a decade?

That is why cheating is such a bad thing, it hurts everybody.

hopefully, as sasquatch said, this is a phase that has peaked.

and i agree, doping is bad and the lies it carries with it beyond pathetic.

so again, as per sasquatch, he should just man up and admit it. 'yeah, i doped' 'so did everybody.'

what i didn't like about this is the usada's approach.

not an armstrong fanboy. prior to cancer, i found armstrong a distasteful, small and contemptibly arrogant person that would dishonor our country in this sport, unlike lemond whom even the french love. then after cancer he became seemingly more humble. a better sportsman. he slowly won me over for many of the same reasons as slowgrind. allowing pantani to take the win at mt ventoux was not something a younger armstrong would even consider. funny though, my initial impression was unfortunately correct.

_________________
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

This Last Story Ever Written About Cycling

AIGLE, SWITZERLAND —In the wake of overwhelming allegations that he engaged in illegal doping throughout the course of his professional career, cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles Monday, effectively making this article the last story ever written about the sport of cycling.

This one, right here, sources confirmed.

Accepting the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s sanctions against Armstrong for allegedly overseeing a far-reaching doping conspiracy, the International Cycling Union has erased his name from the record books and banned him from the sport for life, marking an ignoble epilogue to the athlete’s career and ensuring that cycling will never be mentioned in a mainstream news publication ever again, because, what’s the point?

“Given the staggering body of evidence and testimony against Armstrong, we cannot advocate sanctions any more lenient than these,” ICU president Pat McQuaid said Monday at a press conference in which reporters who had covered cycling since Armstrong won his first Tour title in 1999 exchanged farewells with one another. “But while his conduct has dealt a heavy blow to cycling, we are confident that—actually, why am I even here anymore? Lance Armstrong is done and cycling is over.”

“I understand why you’re all walking out of this press conference,” McQuaid added. “I would be too.”

According to sources and basic common sense, now that the storied career of cycling’s most prominent and marketable figure has been revealed as a complete and undeniable fraud, there is no chance the sport will ever again receive even one line of coverage from any news outlet in the world.

Though Armstrong has tarnished the unpopular sport’s reputation with drug trafficking, blood-test manipulation, and general moral hypocrisy, nothing else really needs to be reported on the subject. In fact, these statements, sources confirmed, are redundant and would have been removed in the editing process if anyone still gave a shit and didn’t just want this article to be over.

At press time, now that a few hundred words have been obligingly thrown together on the matter, this is reportedly the last paragraph in the last article ever written about cycling, and it will conclude with a few more words and then a final period.


OCTOBER 23, 2012 | ISSUE 48•43 | THE ONION

_________________
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

Good. Now, maybe we can all turn our attention to more important forms of cycling; World Cup DH comes to mind.

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Seriously?

Do you realize that DH world cup is run by UCI also!? They will squeeze DH world cup they way they did Tour De France and Lance armstrong to get every single dollar they can!