Is Lance going down though? Of course he's going down in the sense, that in order to be in the limelight, races/he have to jump through bigger hurdles now (race having to go non-sanctioning), but overall it's more of just an annoyance to him, or atleast that how it came across this weekend.

I just witnessed Lance at a triathlon this weekend. He was walking on water, and even when the event acknowledged his "controversy", the larger majority of people simply dont care. He had the collegiate crowd eating out of his hand when the conference our team races in had a meeting with him. And let me state it now, I choose not to attend anything that was with Lance, but told the team that it's up to them to make their own decision on that.

Meanwhile, LA's lawyers are now blaming USADA for enlisting the services of a legal team with ties to big tobacco. Clearly a giant conspiracy then! It's getting laughable.

Correct, we don't all know this. But anyone with a brain knows this. George pretty much said it in his confession.

I was just trying to get the point across that as far as current young pro riders are concerned, this sanctioning of Lance is a big thing and does more to affect omerta than any new policy change.

No disagreement with you that this will have minimal impact on his adoring public or foundation.

Doesnt that support the statement that this whole thing really is about busting Lance though?

Not trying to get into a big debate, but if you are saying that the little fish always get off easier to nail the bigger fish, doesnt that support basically the whole idea that Lance really was the target the entire time?

It's still a blanket accusation that anyone that won a stage or other race doped. It's that kind of thing that could possibly get the thread closed down. Admittedly there were no names mentioned, but I think Dan probably has a hair trigger lock finger on this.

John

Bottom line, I object to the evidence used to snag LA -- still do!

No they will continue to dope. There was one suspended this week. No one is going to turn in anyone on their team. It has never happened it probably never will happen.

Can't say I've been paying attention closely forever.

but it seems to me that the overwhelming argument has been that yes he doped

but so did everyone .

Which is still the argument. .

(Sure a few knuckleheads think he didn't dope.) .

I'm not saying it's a good or bad argument

but it seems it's been pretty consistent for quite awhile.

I thought there was more than one, but USADA's site is not responding ::snerk::

John

Hey, George Hincapie said it, not me.

Agreed. It doesn't matter whether he did or didn't. They didn't catch him fairly.

Imagine this: 2 people are caught drag racing on a city street. They tell the judge that they know another guy that has been drag racing for years. He's never been caught, but they have dates and times. So the judge hauls the guy into court and suspends his driver's license for life and all the 2 guys that got caught have to do is testify against him and they get a fine and 6 month suspension.

No one in their right mind would consider that fair (or legal), yet that is what we are being led to believe is happening to LA.

And so what is your point?

You don't think this happens 100x a day in America or almost every country in the world?

The people who talked were basically the the users and people down on the totem pole. The people the USADA really wanted was Ferrari, Marti, Brunyeel and maybe even show that the UCI knowingly allowed PEDs to be used to improve the "story and image" of the sport for profit.

The hookers generally get off turning in the pimps.
The drug dealers on the corner get off turning in the suppliers and importers
Get busted with some cocaine and you might do some jail time, provide evidence against the thug selling kilos of the junk weekly and you get spared.

Part of almost any plea deal is that you have to tell the whole truth and if you are caught fabricating evidence, etc., your deal is off and basically you have testified against yourself legally.

Perhaps the most despicable thing that LA has been doing is lying to cancer victims and their families.