Lance Armstrong snaps back at poll asking cycling fans if he should have wins reinstated; Bilbao wins stage three of Tour Down Under, Jay Vine takes race lead; Irish minister to get cycling bodyguard + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Bilbao wins stage three of Tour Down Under, Jay Vine takes race lead
Jay Vine, Simon Yates and Pello Bilbao escaped the peloton on the third stage of Tour Down Under as the race crossed the brutal slopes of the Corkscrew on the now-familiar route to Campbelltown. Vine was happy to press on for GC time, leading out the wiry climbers behind in a repeat of stage 12 at the 2019 Tour de France when Yates pipped Bilbao for the first of two stage wins.
Pello Bilbao soars into first place from @BHRVictorious for Stage 3 🥇 Followed closely by Simon Yates and Jay Vine, and the rest of the riders as the race wraps up in Campbelltown! 🚴♂️
Hahn | @SantosLtd #TourDownUnder pic.twitter.com/nFTnTgnCdS
— Santos Tour Down Under 🚴🚴♀️ (@tourdownunder) January 20, 2023
However, it was Bilbao who just about held on this morning, climbing to second on GC with his bonus seconds. Yates sits third, one second behind Bilbao who himself is 15 off Vine ahead of the final two stages this weekend.
Spaniard Pello Bilbao from @BHRVictorious reflects on battling to first place out of the KotM Corkscrew to cross the line first at Campbelltown 🥇
Hahn | @SantosLtd #TourDownUnder pic.twitter.com/G0BpZPNawP
— Santos Tour Down Under 🚴🚴♀️ (@tourdownunder) January 20, 2023
Photo of the day?
PIC OF THE DAY 📸 Getting up close and personal with your heroes 🤗#tourdownunder #cycling #southaustralia pic.twitter.com/IWG14v9tp5
— Santos Tour Down Under 🚴🚴♀️ (@tourdownunder) January 20, 2023
Top 10 | BEST Road Bikes For 2023 Awards Show
Irish minister to get cycling bodyguard
After the Gardaí announced that all cabinet ministers are to receive protection officers, often seen in ministerial cars, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has decided his should be a biking bodyguard.
The Irish Independent reports that Mr Ryan primarily cycles to his duties, with his new bodyguard to join him in riding around Dublin.
“There was a decision made by An Garda Síochána that we [cabinet ministers] will have protection officers,” the politician explained.
“I suppose they will have to be flexible in my case because I will still be cycling. But that’s something I have to work on with An Garda Síochána, to make sure it works for them as well as for me.
“I haven’t seen as many of [Garda cycling units] as I used to, but yes, I’ll be working with the guards to make sure it (cycling bodyguard support) works for them in whatever way, as well as for me.”
Sorry
Me or Lance?
But what do the fans think?
Lance might think he’s got the support of the peloton and what supporters think is irrelevant, but we’ve got more than few of your thoughts on his latest comments…(for those of you who aren’t feeling like Tom D)…
Andrew Mee in a rather lively Facebook comments section wrote: “I’ll tell you one thing, you can’t deny this guys determination and dedication to getting whatever the hell he wanted… Reminds me of other narcissists through history.”
Garry Templeman: “Others were doping isn’t an excuse. He’ll probably be known as the biggest sports cheat in history, he will never get any of his titles back, not a chance. The fact he can’t give up chasing this dream says it all about him.”
William Speed touched on a point made by many, that all the ‘other stuff’ beyond the doping riles many fans more than the actual doping…
Nope. He’s done more to sully the sport than any rider before or since. Enjoy your legacy Lance, you deserve it.
— Chris Egan (@CelticChris1916) January 20, 2023
The comments on social media roughly followed the pattern of Procyclingstats’ poll, with some support for Armstrong (although mainly on Facebook, admittedly… make of that what you will)…
ShutTheFrontDawes had one of the more convincing tales (although did say they believe his punishment was fair) pointing to the inspiration the story (doped or not) brought many… “Everyone is probably going to hate me for saying this but… in my opinion Lance Armstrong is one of the most inspirational sportspersons in my memory. To do what he did despite his afflictions is, to me, amazing. Yes he doped — and I always suspected he did — but like everyone says, so did so many others. And he beat them all, despite his advanced and aggressive cancers.
“He inspired me to apply myself despite my own health conditions, and I was honoured to represent my university in rowing at BUCS championship level, despite having very active Crohn’s disease.
“I think that the way he has been punished is fair and think that it is such a shame that he and so many athletes were able to dope to such an extent and for so long.”
Anyway, get involved in the comments if you wish. We’ll leave the reaction with this classic…
— Richard Patterson (@RichEPatterson) January 20, 2023
Professional KOM hunting
Even the pros check their segment standings after every ride 😂@JensenPlowright added another KOM to his tally at the Tour Down Under 👑
______
🇦🇺 #TourDownUnder pic.twitter.com/q13Yi2ZJgS— Velon CC (@VelonCC) January 20, 2023
So what did happen 10 years ago? Let's take a trip down memory lan(c)e
As we’re ‘celebrating’ the tenth anniversary this week…
As ever road.cc Simon was on news duty, ready to catch all the action from Oprah’s bombshell interview with Armstrong.
Such big news, in fact, it was split into two stories…
“Did you ever take banned substances to enhance cycling performance?”” “Yes.” Thus replied Lance Armstrong to the very first question put by Oprah Winfrey in part one of her interview with him that aired at 9pm Eastern Time in the United States yesterday evening. Admissions to using EPO, cortisone, testosterone and having illegal blood transfusions swiftly followed as he admitted he had doped his way to all seven of his Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005. However, he strongly denied doping following his comeback in 2009.
From the outset, it was clear that Winfrey would not be giving Armstrong an easy ride. Her research had been meticulous, the questions were uncompromising, and each was preceded by a short montage that set the scene.
> Oprah interview Part 2: Lance Armstrong accepts little prospect of lifetime ban being lifted
Also on that day…
- Heavy snowfall covered the United Kingdom, cancelling 395 flights at Heathrow.
- News broadcasts included grim reports from the Syrian civil war.
- A certain Mauricio Pochettino was appointed as Southampton’s new manager.
- Cardinal Antonios Naguib resigns as Patriarch of Alexandria and head of the Coptic Catholic Church.
- NASA scientists beam a picture of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft orbiting the Moon
- Scream & Shout by will.i.am featuring Britney Spears was number one in the UK charts.
Wikipedia’s good, isn’t it…
Banned hit-and-run driver who killed cyclist then torched car jailed + a new petition
> Banned hit-and-run driver who killed cyclist then torched car jailed
As Simon explains at the end of the story…
The sentencing coincides with ITV News highlighting a petition calling for lifetime bans for those convicted of causing death by dangerous driving – although, of course, in this case he was driving the vehicle despite already being disqualified.
The petition, hosted on the UK Parliament’s website, was started by Angela Burke, whose 14-year-old daughter Courtney Ellis was killed in 2020 by speeding driver Brandon Turton.
The 21-year-old driver was subsequently jailed for six years and nine months after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, and banned from driving for seven years.
In the petition, Ms Bourke wrote:
I would like to change the law on ‘if you are convicted for causing death by dangerous driving then a lifetime driving ban should be imposed’, they should never be allowed to drive again.
My child was killed by a speeding driver, who was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving. My child suffered horrific instant death injuries, the driver was driving at speeds of 73-93mph when he hit her on a 30mph road, he was sentenced to 9 years minus 25 per cent reduction for going guilty also given a 7 year driving ban to start immediately, when he’s released he will have 4 years ban left. Driving is a luxury and it should be taken away if convicted of this crime. I’ve lost my child forever.
At the time of writing the petition, which remains open until 4 April, has attracted more than 5,200 signatures.
Should it reach 10,000 signatures, the government will be required to provide a response, and in the event it gathers 100,000 signatures, the issue will be considered for a House of Commons debate by the Backbench Business Committee.
Pothole pain — a road.cc reader's tale
A road.cc reader has been in touch with their experience of the danger poor road surfaces can cause road users, in this case cyclists…
On January 2nd, while cycling home from the City to Twickenham, I encountered a pothole on Upper Richmond Road and attempted to avoid it. However, I ended up flying over the handlebars and landing on my head, causing severe pain and screaming.
I feared that something serious had occurred, such as a skull injury, and screamed for help. Passersby came to assist me and a doctor happened to be present and began to assess my condition. I attempted to sit up but my left arm was immobile and I realised it was injured. I was unable to determine the extent of my other injuries.
Someone called for an ambulance, however, due to the backlog it was estimated that it would take two to three hours for the ambulance to arrive. The doctor checked my spine and neck and determined that they were not injured, but the pain in my upper body was severe and I was unable to identify the source of the pain. He advised that due to the wet and cold conditions and the long wait for an ambulance, it would be best for me to try to get off the road. However, I was physically unable to move and scared about my condition, unsure of what to do next.
After about 15 minutes, I attempted to stand up with the help of others, but the pain was so intense that I was screaming. I still didn’t know what was wrong with me. Across the road, there was a bike shop, and I was carried over there to warm up. I was in shock and couldn’t believe what had happened.
The next day, we found out that the pothole had already been reported and filled. We were unsure of how the council had been informed but I remember one of the passersby saying that they had reported it a week earlier and couldn’t believe it hadn’t been fixed yet. It is possible that one of the passersby contacted them after my accident and reported an injury caused by the pothole, leading to it being fixed quickly.
I was given some strong painkillers and water. My wife was contacted and she decided to come and collect me instead of waiting for the ambulance to take me to the hospital. She arrived in 20 minutes and took me back home at 7:30.
My experience at the A&E department was extremely difficult. I had to wait for over 5 hours without receiving any attention from medical staff, which caused my wife and family to leave. I was in a wheelchair and had to navigate my way around the department while not knowing the extent of my injury.
During the night, I underwent several scans, during which I nearly passed out due to the severe pain. Unfortunately, there was no pain relief provided by the NHS and I was told that if I did not undergo the scans, my injury would not be treated properly. Despite feeling faint from the pain, I pushed through and eventually received a scan, after which a cast was put on my arm.
I was recently assessed and it was discovered that I had suffered multiple injuries, including broken ribs on my left side, a fracture in my elbow and damage to my neck. To ensure that my internal organs were not damaged, a CT scan was performed. The uncertainty of not knowing the extent of my injuries made the experience quite challenging
When the cast was put on my arm, I did not experience much pain relief. The medical staff did not inform me that they were going to attempt to reposition my bone. This caused me to experience the most excruciating pain of my life. After the cast was finally put on, about an hour later, I had to go back for another scan. The pain was so severe that I passed out during the procedure. It was a very difficult and traumatic experience.
I was later informed that my bone would never heal properly. To fix this, I had to undergo surgery on the weekend. After the surgery, I thought the worst was over, but soon after the doctors came back in and informed me that the cast had been applied incorrectly, so I had to go through another round of scans and have a new cast put on. This caused me to experience the same level of pain again and it was a very difficult and frustrating experience. I couldn’t believe that I was going through this again and I was disappointed that I was not provided with adequate pain relief during my entire time in the hospital.
After the initial diagnosis, I had to wait several days before I could get the surgery on the weekend. Again, I was not provided with much pain relief, and the morphine that was given to me was not sufficient. My entire experience with the NHS was terrible, from the long wait times, to the lack of pain management. Even though I am now on the road to recovery, the whole experience has left me feeling scared and unsure about getting back on my bike. I hope that the situation in the NHS can improve soon, so that others don’t have to go through a similar experience.
road.cc contacted the NHS Foundation Trust which runs the hospital the reader was treated at but has not received a reply.
The last thing we want this blog post to be is an attack on the hard work of healthcare professionals, especially during such difficult times, but it is hard to ignore the fact our reader’s account makes for a worrying read.
Have you been treated in hospital for cycling-related injuries this winter? What was your experience?
Lance Armstrong snaps back at poll asking cycling fans if he should have victories reinstated
Yesterday was the 10-year anniversary of Lance Armstrong’s confession — what did you do to mark the occasion? Take your cycling buddies out for a fancy meal? Ride to the spot where you first heard the news? Slice up an Oprah cake? Or go about your day blissfully unaware until someone in the cycling media inevitably mentioned he who cannot be named…
Reporting anything Armstrong does these days is normally met with the same barrage of ‘who cares?’, ‘stop giving this guy air time’ etc. etc. but if I have three Lance tokens a year (to mention what one of the most famous cyclists ever is doing with his life) I’m using one of them up on today’s live blog.
Procyclingstats put out a Twitter poll asking whether Armstrong should have his wins reinstated. Perhaps unsurprisingly the results were fairly clear — 69 per cent said no — but more importantly the call to the people landed a big fish…
Baited by what he’d seen, Procyclingstats reeled in the big one…
The only people that should be asked are the ones who were in the battle with me. I know their answer. https://t.co/qz7ZoQQSyh
— Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) January 19, 2023
You can say what you want about Lance, but asking every single professional cyclist he ever raced against is commitment to democracy personified. All in four hours after the poll was posted too…
20 January 2023, 09:05
Until next week, have a good one everyone!
Extension to Middlesbrough protected cycle lane set to be scrapped due to safety concerns
Rethink comes after poedestrian and cycling injuries on part of route already open
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Latest Comments
It's not a 'statement' though - it's road.cc's words, based on l'Equipe's interpretation. The actual statement issued on it said that the judge authorised it "guaranteeing strict proportionality between the infringements on the rights of the athlete and the stakes of the fight against doping in terms of fair competition and protection of his health."
Trust me Callum, if you'd grown up watching the Tour in the 1980s, as I did, you would not be hankering after those long flat stages that weren't even as exciting as watching paint dry, it was more like listening to paint dry. As for the supposed benefits of those long TTs, what did they give us? Indurain winning five Tours in a row without winning a single road stage in any of them. As McT says below, you simply can't Pogacar-proof a course and we just have to accept, and enjoy, the fact that we are watching the greatest GT cyclist of all time. Anyway I think it has been a great Tour so far, yes no enormous drama about the inevitable winner (though of course Vinegaard and now Lipowitz have shown us that anything can happen) but just about every day has had a fascinating plot and multiple subplots. Some time in the future there will be another Indurain-style winner, playing it cautious, following moves, making incremental gains and winning without ever lighting up the race and we'll be saying I wish the old days of Pogacar making those spectacular solo breaks were back.
The main issue is the layout of the stages with the bigger climb first then a shallow finish climb. It means pogacar can get a gap at the top of the big climb and then stretch 10-15 seconds to a minute plus at the finish over smaller riders like Vingegaard. A summit finish on the hardest climb might not lead to the most exciting racing but equally would keep the gaps closer. I totally agree with the TT kms though, they should have 60+km tts in the grand tours.
@MaxiMinimalist I mean, that statement makes it sound like they had reason to think those two are doping. Either they didn't follow procedure and are making shit up to cover themselves up or something is going on.
Quite possibly. But the changeover time loss would be a bit more significant if it was done on the flat just after the downhill when the riders are travelling faster, the deceleration, changeover and acceleration loss could easily be around 30 seconds, which is quite a lot of a 34 minute effort.
So Skoda have taken a leaf out of Dung-Old Karen Taco Trump's book and are re-naming something when they have no authority to do so?
@Mr Blackbird Fair points, though I was wondering if doing the climb and descent on a standard bike and swapping to TT for the flat section would have been worth it? Certainly quite a few riders seemed to be having handling difficulties maintaining the best line on the descent with their TT machines.
No. The climb wasn't severely steep and allowed a reasonable speed to be maintained on a TT bike, his bike handling skills on road or TT bike are outstanding for the descent and on a road bike he would have lost a lot of time on the flat last 9k section. Terrific performance by him though!
Would he have performed better on his normal bike?
the National Bus and Rail Union told the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) the following month, saying the requirements (making the cyclist scum wear helmets and HiViz) would, “make the roads a safer place, as it would make potential hazards easier to spot.” Nothing to do with driver behaviour then? Stagecoach is even putting intimidating threats against cyclists on the side of the buses now! ttps://upride.cc/incident/px60beo_stagecoach41-closepass/
63 thoughts on “Lance Armstrong snaps back at poll asking cycling fans if he should have wins reinstated; Bilbao wins stage three of Tour Down Under, Jay Vine takes race lead; Irish minister to get cycling bodyguard + more on the live blog”
69% said no? Nice.
69% said no? Nice.
The other 31% were on drugs,,
The other 31% were on drugs,,,
I’m so fed up of reading
I’m so fed up of reading about this man.
The challenge I have with the
The challenge I have with the way Armstrong was treated is it differs so greatly to how other cheats have been accepted and even lauded as role models, despite their misdemeanours.
It leaves me wondering if it’s a case of nobbling the “mouthy Texan” while letting the sophisticated Europeans atone for their sins. After all there was no doping before Armstrong.
Or is it that we all like the underdog and cheating your way to second and third on the podiums of the major tours is okay because you didn’t win? Cheating and winning is a sin! Cheating and losing…… that was you just trying to keep up with the arms race of that day; you can’t be blamed for that!
Personally I’d be more than
Personally I’d be more than happy for all convicted dopers to be banned from any association with the sport for life, including being denied journalism credentials et cetera. However, there are two things that make Armstrong a special case: firstly, nobody else (to my knowledge) threatened, bullied and intimidated anyone who questioned his honesty in the same way that Armstrong did, and secondly most others have expressed at least some level of contrition whereas Armstrong, as today’s comments demonstrate, still appears to pretty much believe he didn’t do much wrong and has been unfairly treated.
Maybe there was an element of “nobbling the mouthy Texan”, I don’t know; from a personal point of view I was a massive fan and vociferously defended him, giving him the benefit of the doubt until it became absolutely impossible.
Whom of the ones who were “in
Whom of the ones who were “in the battle” with you should we ask, Armstrong? Christophe Bassons? Filippo Simeoni? All the dozens and dozens of riders* who have titles and/or stage wins missing from their palmares because you cheated your way to them? Vaffanculo.
*Not all clean themselves, obviously…
I think that’s his point…
I think that’s his point…
Patrick9-32 wrote:
Or, at least, I hope that’s his point…
Rendel Harris wrote:
I assumed that the answer to Armstrong’s seemingly rhetorical question was “no”. Am I missing something? Are there fellow racers who think he should have them reinstated?
ShutTheFrontDawes wrote:
I think you’re missing every single thing Armstrong has ever said on the subject! Lance 100% thinks he won his races fairly because in his mind all of his rivals were on the program too.
Problem is that in his era racers who did commit to staying clean were nowhere near the top of the GC sheets, so to him they just don’t count.
Wingguy wrote:
I think you’re missing every single thing Armstrong has ever said on the subject! Lance 100% thinks he won his races fairly because in his mind all of his rivals were on the program too.
Problem is that in his era racers who did commit to staying clean were nowhere near the top of the GC sheets, so to him they just don’t count.— ShutTheFrontDawes
I know that Armstrong has a serious victim complex, but he’s not naive or stupid enough to think that his fellow competitors think he deserves mercy or forgiveness.
I think he feels that he does deserve forgiveness, but he knows that he does not have it.
He knows that if his fellow competitors were polled, their answer would be a resounding ‘no’, surely?
ShutTheFrontDawes wrote:
Yes he is. He absolutely, 100% is. And in terms of the people he’s thinking of (GT contenders and podium finishers) he is right. They were ALL part of the same world and like him don’t see what they were doing as cheating, but ensuring they were on the level playing field with everyone else.
Come on, you can’t be naive enough to think that Armstrong isn’t saying the answer would be ‘yes’.
The point that I took away
The point that I took away from many interviews and documentaries such as ‘Stop at Nothing’, is that his competitors (including some within USPS) saw him as a ring leader and architect of doping and hated him for it.
I don’t believe that if you asked all those competitors “should LA have his TdF wins re-installed?”, That the answer would be “yes”. Perhaps the answer would be “we should all have our standings re-instated”, but I would have thought that if LA had his wins reinstated, there would be many vocal detractors.
ShutTheFrontDawes wrote:
But you’re not LA, so what you think their answer would actually be is irrelevant. LA is saying that the answer would be yes.
Wingguy wrote:
But you’re not LA, so what you think their answer would actually be is irrelevant. LA is saying that the answer would be yes.— ShutTheFrontDawes
That’s what you think. Not what he thinks. He didn’t say in his tweet what he thinks.
ShutTheFrontDawes wrote:
He claims – and unusually for him I should imagine he is telling the truth – that plenty of riders of his era would say that everyone was cheating and he was still the best of all of them, people were cheating in other eras and still have their titles and so should he. A few years back a newspaper asked all twenty-five living Tour de France champions if he should be allowed to keep his titles, four declined to comment, two had no opinion, twelve said he should and seven said he shouldn’t. Of those who think he should be given the titles back the main arguments are that there are plenty of historic champions that we either know or are pretty certain were doping who still have their titles and that it looks silly trying to change history by saying that nobody won the Tour de France for seven years.
Voldemort has gone a long way
Voldemort has gone a long way in my eyes to redemption, but he’s not forgiven. Never forgiven for being such an arsehole to people.. but for the actual cheating.. I’m of the general opinion that 90% of the peloton were cheating at the time. I hate the double standards, Eddy Merckx is held up as a cycling god but he’s been caught multiple times and no one dares talk about him in the same breath as Lord Voldemort.
There are so many ‘that’s not right’ moments in cycling.. but we still get our knickers in a twist about his nibs.
Operación Puerto hurts more than Lance ever has.
Not a sport cycling person
Not a sport cycling person but am I right in thinking Lance is symbolic for tainting the image of the sport as a whole?
Car Delenda Est wrote:
He was the most famous sportsperson on the planet for a while. His story inspired millions. As it turns out he was a horrible bar-steward who cheated. So yeah.. it’s fair to say his was the biggest fall from grace in sporting history and with that tainted the sport as a whole. The moral question asked is should be be erased from history while others remain/ed?
It’s been what..fifteen years since his last race, ten years since him admitting to it publically. Does time passing even matter?
Lord Lance Armstrong. Every
Lord Lance Armstrong. Every noticed 2nd – 180th in TDF behind him never protested that they should have won! Trained their whole life to win one of the biggest races in the world in any sport. But none protested – not one. Why? Let’s just say maybe Lance is right, the guys he raced would poll in his favour! WADA denied cycling its chance to come clean by having an amnesty on drug taking. Noticed very people have given any up? US Govt threatened jail if his team mates lied under oath – that’s why he got caught. They eventually dobbed him in but the actual facts of what happened at any particular team is still somewhat a mystery…
He sounded like a prick and probably was. He did however do miracles in the cancer world which of course doesn’t justify his behaviour at the time. But it is a fact whether you like him or not.
As above this saga will never go away – there was a missed opportunity for all involved to come clean but it was missed…
Viva La Tour
Penguin1 wrote:
It’s not true to say that none spoke out, Filippo Simone and Christophe Bassons did and everyone saw where that got them, their careers destroyed on the direct orders of Armstrong.
Also remember LeMond and Trek
Also remember LeMond and Trek. There were consequences for ever raising Armstrongs possible medications, either from him or from people/organisations heavily related to him.
It was the bullying that
It was the bullying that makes him so toxic for me, rather than just the cheating…
What I will say for Lord
What I will say for Lord Voldemort is that he’s made the past ten years very interesting. I must have watched a dozen hours of TV about it, written thousands of words online in various posts forums and spent hours discussing it with mates.
Cycling sport is entertainment.. then, in very appropriate context, the words of Gladiator Russell Crow to an crowd of bloodthirty spectators “Are you not entertained?”
..erm yes I am actually.
Dave Walsh’s Seven Deadly
Dave Walsh’s Seven Deadly Sins was such a great read, found it incredibly difficult to put down and spent several days very, very tired.
Everyone is probably going to
Everyone is probably going to hate me for saying this but… In my opinion Lance Armstrong is one of the most inspirational sportspersons in my memory. To do what he did despite his afflictions is, to me, amazing. Yes he doped – and I always suspected he did – but like everyone says, so did so many others. And he beat them all, despite his advanced and aggressive cancers.
He inspired me to apply myself despite my own health conditions, and I was honoured to represent my university in rowing at BUCS championship level, despite having very active Crohn’s disease.
I think that the way he has been punished is fair and think that it is such a shame that he and so many athletes were able to dope to such an extent and for so long.
Its not the doping that makes
Its not the doping that makes people hate amstrong with such vitriol. As you state, many others were doping. Its the campaign of intimidation, threats and violence against those who tried to expose the doping. Armstrong’s sporting achievements despite his cancer may be inspirational but he is a bad person and he wouldn’t have been able to attain those sporting achievements without the other stuff, he would have been banned from competition far, far sooner.
He is a bad person, but
He is a bad person, but unfortunately bad people tend to dominate the upper echelons in any field (not just sports). It should come as no surprise that the ruthless c*nts dominate more readily. As the old saying goes, nice guys finish last.
There are many things I respect about the guy, and many things I don’t. But overall, he remains inspirational to me, especially as a reminder to not give up, and to not let my own shortcomings hold me back.
I never expected Vince Vaughn
I never expected Vince Vaughn to be on here.
I thought Vince Vaughan was
I thought Vince Vaughan was the good guy, and Ben Stiller was the baddie who believed all that guff about Nietzchean sport.
We are talking about ‘Dodgeball’, aren’t we?
Aye, it’s Vince Vaughan who
Aye, it’s Vince Vaughan who he gives the inspiring speech to about not giving up etc
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Was.
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Was.
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Flintshire Boy wrote:
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Flamingo
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He also inspired me at the
He also inspired me at the time and I was naive enough to believe his protestations he was clean. As a fellow testicular cancer survivor, I will never ever understand how he could have subsequently risked taking that crap just to win a bike race. He went from hero to below zero in my eyes and still has a lot of making amends to do before I will give him the time of day.
Of course he should get them
Of course he should get them back, it’s a farce, he’s being used as a scapegoat, dopping has been going on since the dawn of time, it’s dilusional to think any sport is totally clean, tw@ts are being caught dopping to win a sportive ffs what’s even some idiots think they are races????
Why do those twats think that
Why do those twats think that it is reasonable to dope though? Is it, maybe, becuase it was accepted and normalised at the top level of the sport?
If he wasn’t a lying, career
If he wasn’t a lying, career destroying, narcissistic piece of crap, he might have kept them. It’s his failure to resemble anything even remotely human is probably why they were they were taken from him.
If you don’t take them away
If you don’t take them away then there is no motivation in not taking drugs
Krd51 wrote:
The bloke is a cunt.
The end.
I appreciate that this is
I appreciate that this is something I ought to have asked years ago, but when did Armstrong start being nicknamed as Lord Voldemort/H,WMNBN?
When… I can’t remember..
When… I can’t remember.. some years ago after some story appeared.. you’ve nailed it though… ‘he who must not be named’
I’m happy to take Geoff
I’m happy to take Geoff Thomas’s perspective – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jun/12/lance-armstrong-redemption-geoff-thomas-charity-ride
Steve K wrote:
There is quite a difference between forgiveness/redemption, e.g., letting him back into the sport in some fashion as a coach or commentator, for which there would be some justification (or would be if he showed the slightest sign of contrition), and behaving as if his offences were never committed and handing him all his titles back, no?
Rendel Harris wrote:
— Rendel HarrisI’d prefer it if he simply stayed away from pro cycling. There are a huge number of positive thigs he could do without being involved in pro sport – go riding with Geoff Thomas, doing cancer-related or cycling advocacy stuff and so on. Or did he burnt too many bridges there too?
He should let pro cycling carry on without him, the sport doesn’t need him and he doesn’t need the sport. He may be rehabilitated more readily if he did that. But if he lets himself be defined solely by his pro cycling past by wanting to go back to it or be accepted by the current pro cycling world for whatever reason then that’s a big mistake IMHO.
To answer brooksby, HWMNBN was a widely used acronym for a while. It was used widely in American discussions because his name inevitably polarised and derailled any discussion, regardless of the topic. I don’t recall seeing him referred to as Voldemort, he could have chosen that himself since he’s very good at dictating the narrative.
I see sunak is getting an fpn
I see sunak is getting an fpn from lancs police – surely this is fake news?!
Will wtjs be claiming in each submission ‘lack of seat belt’?
hirsute wrote:
wtjs must be absolutely fuming. I didn’t even see a rear-facing camera view or 2 minutes before and after the offence!
wtjs must be absolutely
wtjs must be absolutely fuming
I don’t think I’ve ever been ‘fuming’. I have long years behind me training with the indolence and cyclist-hostility of the police, so I’ve seen most of their dodge-book. It’s years since they tried the ‘2 minutes video before and after the incident’ one, and I think it was five minutes here in 2019. The idea was just to make it impossible to send in HQ videos in the 60 MB limit they had at the time, so they could then say the quality wasn’t good enough to assess- they don’t even competently look at the short ones, never mind 5 minutes worth. I asked the purpose, and they fell into the trap and said that it was to see how I had been cycling. This was clearly insisting that I provide evidence against myself before they would even accept the video of the incident, and I pointed out that if someone wished to make charges against me, they only had to provide the video evidence, just as I was obliged to do. The ‘before and after’ dodge was then abandoned. In the days before they decided to simply refuse to respond to anything at OpSnap Lancs, there would be only 10-15 seconds of video of me standing there watching people go through red lights, for instance.
I was only joking, and poking
I was only joking, and poking fun at the expense of lancs constabulary, who from your reports seem to be completely feckin useless 🙂
I wasn’t taking it seriously!
I wasn’t taking it seriously! I am happy for people to make merry at my feud with LC
I heartily commend your
I heartily commend your persistence.
It must be wearing.
It must be wearing
It must be wearing
Not really- Lancashire Constabulary traffic is very consistent, so you know beforehand what they’re going to do: whatever the moving traffic offence, they’re too busy to pay any attention to it
I see sunak is getting an fpn
I see sunak is getting an fpn from lancs police – surely this is fake news?!
Will wtjs be claiming in each submission ‘lack of seat belt’?
I’m pretty sure I have never claimed that, and I don’t think I have detected it
Yet another poor driver being
Yet another poor driver being milked for cash! How will he afford it, what with paying the highest fuel tax in (fill in Europe, the world as appropriate) plus *road tax*, insurance etc…?
Of course it would be the
Of course it would be the driver who is responsible for the passenger not obeying this rule.
And would that highly trained professional be from the same excellent unit that gave their compatriots the nicknames “the rapist” and “bastard Dave”?
On a side note, why do the
On a side note, why do the police always use knowing circumlocutions (“a 42-year-old man from London”) instead of simply naming the person?
Sriracha wrote:
Deleted – misunderstood the question!
Cyclist close passed 3 times
Cyclist close passed 3 times by the same young driver.
The third one, he has gone around a small roundabout a few times to repeat this.
Cyclist not getting any police help.
https://mobile.twitter.com/jaj991/status/1616487553367932960
Time to move ot Oulu
Time to move to Oulu
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-64354089
Oulu in northern Finland has snow on the ground for five months – but that doesn’t stop residents using their bikes.
I found this interesting not
I found this interesting not just for the point it makes about winter cycling – after all it’s Finland so they are obliged to know how to cope with snow – but for what it says about cycling in general. Cycling rates in the 70%s over Summer, and 40%s in winter, because there is a will and determination manifested in good cycling infrastructure…
[I]”950km of safe segregated cycle paths, we don’t have to worry about motor traffic at all”[/i]
…and ongoing maintenance. In short, they are able to cycle because, as a city, they prioritise it. And being enabled to, they choose to.
Yup, notjustbikes has a good
Yup, notjustbikes has a good vid on that place (and winter cycling in general) as does bicycledutch. And lots of others now I Google…
chrisonatrike wrote:
Has chrisonatrike’s account been hacked by Yoda?
Local rag has a story on an
Local rag has a story on an out of town shopping place and the traffic issues.
A few queries about whether anyone would walk or cycle there. The clinching argument against bikes is that you can’t take a dining table and 6 chairs home on a bike.
Where to start …
Another 2 poor souls killed
Another 2 poor souls killed in a hit and run.
Says police eventually arrested someone.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-64360894
When’s that government review coming ?