Brian Cookson: Lance Armstrong participation in Tour de France charity ride "inappropriate and disrespectful"

I am in the camp who really doesn't like Cookson as a leader for a international governing body, he seems to completely lacks the required skill set to lead the organisation like that

anyone with any political nature would have spun that story, first of all pointed out that 'its nothing to do with cycling and the UCI, however he hopes LA will wake up each morning of that challenge realising the mistake he made and what he has lost in his life due to choices - and how UCI is concentrating now on what is relavent'

Rather he has ompletely denounced the person like the rest of the sensationalist- but not tried to force ASO to not invite any former convicted doper to the tour.

It smacks of amatuerism and weak leadership.

I myself aren't seeing huge strides being made by the UCI under cookson - with Astana, I don't know the full story, bt why not put the team under 'special measures' - rater than trying to loose another sponsor from the sport by pulling the license.

Whther its liked or not, McQuiad seemeda specialist in damage limitation, trying to hide and plug the holes in a barrel that was leaking like a sieve, if they had blown LA in 1999 - the sport would have been rubber ducked, then after that it was perpetual, tesing couldn't keep up with he cheats in any sport so remained damage limitation.

CIRC mightbe all well and good but it should be about shoving in the face how good/clean/moral thesport is now - and even finding a way to prove how dirty other sports are to provide relative statements to the common man and commercial sponsors - not making your focus what bad.

Nothing to do with the UCI. Whatever you think of LA the UCI have already dealt with him to the extent of their power and need to leave it there. LA doesn't exist to the UCI any more, why are they talking about his activities at all?

The correct statement from Cookson would have been 'what's this got to do with us?'

Whilst not a fan of Mr Armstrong the UCI should not have a stated opinion on this. Ok, so it has a tenuous link to the TdF but it is not a UCI sanctioned event.

On the face of things I have no problem with Armstrong raising money for charity at this or any other event.

The problem comes when Armstrong uses the oxygen of PR for his own agenda, and I think that this is where Cookson and the ASO are coming from. While I'm sure they don't object to him raising money either, they will be concerned if he starts using it to further his cause.

Perhaps Cookson and others are wrong to object, but I doubt that Armstrong is going to simply turn up and ride without holding court with the press. He will use it for his own purposes. Given his attempts of late to manage his public image I have no doubts about that.

Armstrong always has an ulterior motive and I'm sure that's the case here and what the UCI and ASO are worried about.

Christ there are some mean spirited miserable f*ckers posting on here.

Where can I donate? I have remortgaged my house and want to give as much as I can. It's great that Lance is willing to agree to this guy's request and hopefully raise a shed load more cash for cancer. I bet he doesn't give a stuff about Brailsford, Cookson or any of their cronies. Whooooo hoooooo!

Lance could move his little finger and give a million if he wanted to(if the lawyers haven't taken it all by now). The riding is just because he is an attention whore. His charity never did anything to fight cancer just "bring awareness" and feed money to his banking friends. Cancer has been cured already try looking up honeybee venom therapy or cannabis oil. The game is just to feed cash and victims to the pharmaceutical companies. Amgen makes EPO (the dopers favorite) and sponsors the tour de California. The whole thing is entertainment nothing more, a show.

What a laugh. You have to give Armstrong top marks for his cheek.

Trek, Giro, Nike. What's your thoughts then?

RIP Tommy Simpson.

Cookson really has no class , it's not as if Lance is only person who has admitted doping or been caught . Laurent Brochard to name but one is working for the Tour organisation the hypocrisy from Mr Sky is stunning

Cookson needs to start banning for life the 'newbie dopers', I am, unlike others getting less and less respect for Cookson, concentrate on the job at hand and not the passed. It's now coming across as bitter kids who were bullied in the playground and now feel safe, so they just keep going on about it.
What I find more distrispectful to the sport the TdF is that they, UCI, are thinking it's ok to let the like of Riis etc continue to be the mentors etc, for the young and impressionable pro riders.
Lance is last years Chip paper. Let him ride, oh, no one can stop him, public roads, so Cookson needs to get out of his old school boy network clubs and start doing what matters.

Cookson seems to have done a good job of delivering on his election promises, but in this case he sounds more like his predecessor and playing to the crowd with a fairly meaningless sound bite. As others have pointed out, it's a very hypocritical statement when guys like Riis and Vinokourov are still involved in running teams. Maybe his comment should've been "No comment"?

The UCI were in cahoots and knew about the doping, so that's why they don't want him to do it. They're just sore that he got found out.

Go on, Lance, do it anyway just to piss everyone off.

Cycling; one of the few sports to constantly live in the past. We're advanced in terms of what's being done to frames, wheels, helmets etc but yet stuck in the past with regards to our riders past mistakes instead of just leaving them be and moving on.

If cycling was an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend then it'd be the worst at moving on after the split!

It's disappointing that Geoff Thomas would invite Armstrong along. What was he thinking of?

He that walketh [or cycleth] with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Call me cynical, but to me this is all about publicity for Geoff's charity ride. How do we drum up publicity? How about we invite the most divisive figure in cycling to ride with us for a couple of days? That'll get 'em talking and get us noticed. From Armstrong's perspective, it's the chance to be seen to be supporting a truly inspirational figure and doing something for the good of others rather than himself. This improves his image (it couldn't get much worse!) - nothing to lose. If the opposition to him riding is overwhelming, he makes a gracious withdrawal from the event and wishes Geoff well (as we all do). Armstrong gains again, but so does the profile of the charity ride. Didn't somebody once say 'there's no such thing as bad publicity'?

Does anyone actually find "Sports Cheat Returns to Scene of Crime" that inspiring a tagline? What Thomas is doing - as someone with no professional cycling history - is phenomenal, and an inspiring challenge.

On the other hand, the fact that Armstrong can complete a few stages of the tour, isn't really that amazing. In fact, "Lance Armstrong riding the Tour" is, for many people, anything BUT inspiring. It's a bitter revival of something they thought had been put to bed.

I think people are more inclined to throw money at an ex-footballer building himself up for a monumental new challenge, than some disgraced cheat coming out of retirement to do his old day-job.

For the sake of the charity, it might be better if Armstrong pulled out. They've already got the publicity from all this controversy; there's no need for the purity of Thomas' effort to be tainted or distracted from. It doesn't matter if Armstrong's he's doing it for 'the right reasons'; this isn't about Armstrong; it's about Thomas' challenge and his cause. If either of those are diminished by Armstrong's presence, he shouldn't be there.

Cookson, and UCI are probably worried that Lance doing a few stages for an incredible worthy cause ( regardless of his history ), will get more publicity and be followed by more people than the actual tour.

My grind with Lance is the way he abused his position and made other's lives misery to further his end however he has been some what repentant and I'm willing to give him have the chance to make a mends and raise a bit of money for cancer charities.

He is already banned from competition and events that align with USADA policies so I think making a fuss / blocking him from this is not achieving anything other than dredging up history .

The fight against doping and abuse of position should be in the present and let Lance get on with his life

Odd really as the UCI have let Riis and many others with a doping past -where admission only came once they could not be touched- into the pro sport itself and that is fine. LA wants to ride on some french roads and he's targeted. Yep, fully aware he is a bit of an arse, but it is rather skewed.

Guy gets cancers. Guy reads mostly fallacious book written by a fraudulent sociopath, and returns to it time and again for inspiration during treatment. Guy survives and takes up cycling to raise money for cancer, again inspired by fraudulent sociopath. Guy befriends fraudulent sociopath.
Guy loses respect. The world goes mad!!!