Maybe Lance Armstrong is a Werewolf?

Sorry, I can't get pas the "French Football team" part without breaking into a fit of laughter ;)

Genius :D

SI

the French are big pussys. They can't help it.

It's the generations worth of practice.

I got this far and thought to myself...."this kid has potential"

GOLD!

and



and

So... um, when was the last terrorist attack in France ;).

IIRC, the French have anti-terrorism laws that make Britain's new laws look like bleeding heart liberalism.

BO doesn't count as "anti-terrorism". Or does it?

QOTM!!

I wonder if Antmeister can drum up some sort of Lyrics for the official Lance Apology to the people of France?

Lance has nothing to apologize for.

Hell, the French Football team did win the world cup this century (last 100 years - not this century... ;), something that is probably not likely for the Americans anytime soon.... :D

The other thing that's being reported over here is that the supposedly positive sample is from Stage 1, but they didn't find a positive test from the Prologue sample which he would have had to give as he won the Prologue that year.

So are we expected to believe that he was negative for the Prologue and then doped himself up when he knew that he would be under scrutiny as Tour leader? Why would he need to after only one short stint, prior to a stage he had next to no chance of winning as the first few stages are all set up for the sprinters?

The French have always looked for a reason to discredit Armstrong, as he has won after a prolonged period of French riders failing to win the Tour, and wasn't helped when the (Cofidis?) team, including Virenque and Brochard amongst other French favourites was busted for drugs.

I am not necessarily an Armstrong fan, but I give this very little credence

Thats because the French are doing steriods.

When we refer to football on this board, it's not soccer ;)

SI

He's obviously on something strong to be hanging around with that Sheryl Crow woofer.

Oh yeah?!? Well...Charles de Gaulle took sphincter-enhancing drugs! I've the got the proof right here!

Somewhere.

His buddies called him Charles de Baulle.

That's just silly. I guess it is possible that 1 and 2 may play some small part in this, but the main reason it's not as big of a story as Bonds is because the American popluation doesn't care anywhere near as much about Armstrong and the TdF as they do about Bonds and baseball.

Bonds was/is the biggest star playing in "The American Pastime". The American public is far mor einterested in baseball than they are in bicycle racing and ESPN treats the story accordingly.

I'm not saying it should have more coverage, I'm saying the coverage is totally slanted towards Armstrong, whereas with Bonds it was slanted against him right from the beginning.

Now get this straight: I hate Barry Bonds. I hope he gets exposed, suspended, or otherwise ruined by his obvious steroid use at some point. I just think it's obvious that the american media is handling Armstrong (who has had whispers of drug use for years now) so much differently than Bonds.

It is short for Epogen. It is a drug that is frequently used in cancer patients to help rebuild their red blood cell counts after various procedures. I don't know the half-life off the top of my head. So, I'm not sure if it should have still been in his blood at that time point from his previous cancer treatment.

It certainly does have the potential to boost performance, as it increases red blood cells which can thereby increase oxygen capacity. Interestingly, I've heard of athletes in the past taking out there own blood, training hard with a diminished blood count, and then reinjecting their own blood to attempt to achieve the same effect. Of course, there are risks to that.

Frederic Weis

Do you really think Bonds is a significantly bigger star in America than Armstrong? That the average soccer mom knows more about Bonds and what he's done than Armstrong?

I would say overall yes.


I like me some soccer moms.

I always thought that Lance had ONE time tested positive for something, I did think it was EPO or at least some other hemoglobin/oxegen in the bloodstream enhancing drug. That result was declared to be a result of the effects of his treatment. I'm wondering if this is the same thing? I believe the result came before his first Tour win, and was resolved before the race started.

The thing that this doesn't jive with was that they didn't have a test for EPO back in 99. That means he had to have had a false positive to some other EPO like substance back in '99. I don't know if that existed at the time.

amazing how quickly this thread turned into a french bashing thread...

Considering how long the French have been bashing Lance (including the article that started the thread), I think it's only fair...

Not really all that amazing, considering the topic looks to be based on nothing more than American bashing by a whiny French newspaper.

my point exactly.

Anything coming out of France is shit and not worth even considering, right?

you make tremendous fries.

you mean Liberty fries ? ;)

and those aren't really french, they actually come from Belgium...

Let's just say that this instance appears to be from a highly questionable source (and I'm trying hard to be kind).

I also like their bread pizza. Had it last night, in fact.

the kissing thing can be good at times as well.

touche

the tickler?

salad dressing? the french got it going on.

Sorry, I don't buy that. L'Equipe is the #1 sports newspaper here in France and is not a questionable source. I'm not saying the article is right and there is indeed proof, but the newspaper is a reliable one, not a tabloid in any way and I'm sure they thought long and hard before running that story.

For you guys, the equivalent would be ESPN breaking the story.

Freedom Fries... :D

Sadly, I know that they came from Belgium...I watched a thing about them on the Food Network (this is what I do with all the free time in the world...).

Alas, regarding the ACTUAL story here I think I made my point in post 50 (I think it was there or around there, then). I think this is all bogus, just more sour grapes (grapes that SHOULD have been used in a fine wine/whine!).

/tk

... about an event which their parent company sponsored AND breaking a story that appears to be of benefit to said parent/event.

If you think that wouldn't draw fire pretty quickly, I believe you're overestimating how much we think of DisneyCorp.

I find it hard to believe that Lance haven't used EPO, or any other illegal supplements. Over the years he and US Postal/discovery have beat teams and individuals that has been caught cheating. As much as I admire his achievements, I think there is no way he could maintain a seven-peat against confirmed cheaters.

You're not helping your case by comparing them to ESPN. ;)

How does this help their parent company?

Would having the biggest star of your event, and the guy who's dominated it for almost a decade, turn out to be a fraud really be "good news" for the Tour, even if many fans don't like the guy?

FYI, I made a blog post over at my blog about this, too, where I expanded on my entry here. http://gimpygal.blogspot.com/2005/08...rong-lied.html

/tk

Ah, but Belgium waffles originally came from France so it all balances out in the end :D.

I believe it would, now that he's no longer competing.

By diminishing Armstrong, you diminish the impact of his loss to the TdF.
And no matter how much they might be loathe to admit it, there is a fairly sizable population in the U.S. ... a population that has certain benefits when it comes to both the Tour & cycling in general, especially in terms of marketing.

How long will all those dollars stick around if the U.S. general population returns the Tour to a profile somewhere behind women's exhibition figure skating? Not past existing contracts in some cases seems like a fair bet.
But trashing Armstrong doesn't fix that problem, short of finding an equally marketable replacement.

What trashing Armstrong can do is warm the cockles of all the Lance-haters and bring them back to the fold, especially if you can crown a Euro winner. Doing that opens the door to additional dollars (erm, Euros) from replacement sponsors across the continent.

I just don't see it. That's like arguing that it would have been good business sense for the NBA to bury Jordan on his way out, or for the NHL to invent some scandal over Gretzky when he retired.

Jordan and Gretzky are beloved figures. From what I've read, that's not the case with Armstrong. None of us have been too kind to Jose Canseco or Roger Clemens, and I think the analogy is closer to that.

The whole thing reeks of a WWE style stunt, but considering that it's a national pride thing in France as supposed to a digital cable treat in this country. This seems like an act of jealousy, or the tip of a very big iceberg.

I think Jon is wrong about this reaching out to the US market. Thi is just old fashion jealousy and the fact many in that country would do anything to bury Armstrong.

And with that comment, I'm leaving this thread, because honestly I could care less.

Just FTR, that's kinda backwards to what I was saying -- this is about knowing the US interest & involvement are going to drop & reaching out to Euros.