DarkSpeedWorks wrote:
I am no expert, but from my reading, lance's retaliation and intimidation hounded far far more people than just Bassons. And I am not saying that
no one else
ever did this, but that lance did it far more extensively and aggressively than anyone else in cycling.
My point would be, "So what?" There is no WADA rule against being an asshole yet many people seem to think there is and penalties should be harsher if the public judges someone to be less than a nice guy.
The behavior of those supposed victims of Armstrong after he was exposed has shown them for what they are and it is a far cry from the innocent people on a quest to protect truth, justice, and the American Way that their version of events would have you believe.
Look at LeMond. It turns out that doping had nothing to do with his feud with Armstrong. He has never said one word about Kelly, Hinault, Fignon, Indurain, Roche, Rooks, etc. These days he is praising dopers and hanging out with riders whose doping cost him wins. According to him he only spoke out about Armstrong because he was concerned Armstrong might be doping. This is bullshit. He would have us believe that he was unaware that every Tour winner (other than him of course) had doped. He raced at a time when doping was even more of a wild west than when Armstrong raced. It was openly discussed among riders. Before races UCI officials would tell people whether there would be testing, and the word would be spread rider to rider so everyone would know whether to load up on amphetamines or not. Corticosteroid abuse was rampant and destroyed entire seasons of riders. Steroids were commonly used. It beggars belief for LeMond to pretend he did not know that Armstrong was doping. He knew just like everyone else inside cycling knew. Even the savvy fans knew.
LeMond went out of his way to cast doubt on Armstrong because he was upset he had been eclipsed by a new American cycling star and was not getting the accolades in public that he felt he was due. As the figurehead of a bike brand, attacking a current and wildly popular star of the sport was stupid. His brand suffered a predictable backlash. This did not require a shadowy conspiracy by Armstrong. Regular Joes were coming into IBSes and telling owners that they would never buy a LeMond bike. He cut his own throat.
These days Betsy Andreu is a professional victim. Her version of events has her innocently going about her way, getting a subpoena for the SCA arbitration, and Armstrong hating her for refusing to lie. She leaves out the part where she was feuding with Armstrong for years before the SCA suit, was hounding journalists to go after Armstrong, and was in part responsible for the SCA case taking place in the first place.
Betsy blames Armstrong every time she trips over a crack in the sidewalk. The latest is a doozy. Within hours of notification that Armstrong had given an interview with the BBC, she was searching for a news outlet to say Armstrong was not really sorry. Her reasoning was bizarre. Frankie receiving notification that he would be subpoenaed in the qui tam case was held up as evidence that Armstrong is still attacking her family. There was not a hint of acknowledgement that these days Armstrong is doing little more than signing the checks while his lawyers turn over every stone. Of course Frankie is going to get subpoenaed. Everyone remotely involved will be subpoenaed. Meanwhile, over on Cycling News, Frankie is playing dumb by saying he does not understand why he is being subpoenaed because he left the team before Landis joined so it must be vengeance by Armstrong. He seems to forget that he could give information about the riders on Postal who were already doping before Armstrong joined the team, throwing doubt on the fairy tale of Armstrong forcing people to dope that is being pushed by his wife and Travis Tygart.
She also never says anything about people in every profession relying on a network of friends and contacts, and she and her husband burned every bridge to those. No one can trust Frankie after she had him sucker his friends into conversations about doping so he could record what they said. George Hincapie might have said it best when he said Frankie's ex-friends could not understand why he was attacking them for doing the same thing he was doing when he was racing. After stabbing Jon Vaughters in the back, he destroyed his chances of employment with JV's team. Yet, Betsy blames everything on a conspiracy by Armstrong rather than her own inability to move on.
David Walsh is, perhaps, the biggest hypocrite. He is now acting as the chief propagandist for Team Sky and Chris Froome. His hypocritical reversal was so repugnant to Paul Kimmage that Kimmage ended their friendship. All the laughable explanations that were used by Postal to explain Armstrong's performance are now being promoted by Walsh. In a rather digusting display of chutzpah, he has compared those who doubt Froome as dejected Armsrong fans who chose to support Contador instead of Froome just as the Jews chose Barabbas over Jesus. He now mocks the very reasoning he used to decide that Armstrong must be doping because it is being used to question Froome's sudden and unexplainable transmogrification.
One of the few in this whole sordid affair that turned out to have consistency and integrity is Paul Kimmage.