monty wrote:
who "won" this? Seems like Lance gets off easy, so does this show that the case likely wouldnt have gone well for govt? // I think the real winners are Floyds contributors, if he actually has to pay them back. Most of those people believed him and probably gave more than they could really afford because of that belief. The next biggest winners are Floyd's lawyers and the govt. ones who were going to have to prosecute this case. They would most likely have been big losers if this got drug out, millions in fees accrued, and likely losing in the end with no payment, or very little. So Floyd's got some coin, the govt, got to save money likely lost, and next up would be Floyd. He gets just enough probably to stay out of
bankruptcy(if he hasn't already), and able to pay some bills until he finds his niche in life.
Lance was also a winner in this.Won't change his life much, and he has already moved onto the next thing in his life, besides raising his kids. And I think he has another chapter or two to write now that this is over. Floyd will now reside in relative obscurity, Lance will most likely find some niche still in the public eye. People that did a lot worse than him, have come back and had radio/tv shows, wrote best selling books, or just landed on their feet and made big money again. It might be a big stretch still, but looking at politics these days, that would not be out of the question. I think it was a consideration before all the ruckus came about. We now know that skeletons known and unknown are not a disqualification to becoming a politician...
It will be interesting to see where his ambitions lie, I dont believe he is the same guy I knew 30 years ago. Some elements yes, but are any of us the same as we were? That drive that won 7 TDF's( yes folks, he won them, look it up, do you see someone else's name as the winner) is still there I think. Dont think he is going to go quietly into that dark night, but I could be wrong. Wont be the first or last time, that for sure....Oh wait, I thought that Lance was flying around on Jetblue and Ryan air with a bunch of jersey's giving them out to Alex Zulle, Jan Ullrich, Marco Pantani (RIP pirate that 2000 stage on Ventoux, we're still debating the gift or not), Joseba Beloki, Andreas and Ivan Basso. I heard that Beloki said, "no Lance don't give me that Jersey give it to Raimondas Rumsas, his wife was just traveling around with special drugs for a family member at the border" and when offered the same Jan Ullrich said, "No just give it to Vinkourov" LOL. Basso just said, "I loved getting beaten by you so much that I joined your company but I got no faster on the Disco motoman resupply vs when I was riding for Bjarne Riis at CSC and was not your waterboy"
OK OK. Can we also give back the 2006 TdF to Floyd and call it done now that all the $$$ have been dispersed?
The real part about all this is that there was not even any competition with real undoped riders (Jens Voigt's pathetic "I was the only clean guy" claims aside....yeah right, he rode 1000km on breakaway for Bjarne Riis in the turbo doped 2003 in front of a completely juiced peloton and he was clean....whatever, not sure why Jens gets so much love). We just watched around 15 years of full on EPO fueled madness. Pretty much like watching juiced up NFL.
OK back to the money thread. Maybe Lance has some money to tech invest in my startup now LOL!