I heard this on the news this am. The only thing that I can say is that at least he is honest. That is about it. Of course he would do it again. Because if he didn’t he would be Lance who. He would not be rich and he would not be with his latest gorgeous young blonde.
Sick twist. But again at least he is honest. It just confirms that he has no scruples. And of course he doesn’t care that he brought shame on his family and children.
you must have the same opinion of every NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB…etc player. A product of the culture that existed and it’s too bad that they can’t find anyone clean to give those tour victories to…
Plain and simple! Lance is a complete “jackass”! He destroyed several people in his attempt to keep his secret! I am stunned at how many people still idolize this guy and think he walks on water!
Give them all to Riis. He’s apparently untouchable.
There’s two things to keep separate in your mind, though few manage to.
- Lance was a doper.
- Lance was an asshole.
Lance is saying he would dope again if it were 1995 all over again. This is understandable. He became rich and famous and idolized like few ever before. He slept with rock and movie stars. You can take the fame and money away, but you can’t take the memories away. And, if he hadn’t doped, he would be just another roughneck working the oil and gas industry in Texas.
Now, if Lance were to say that he were to be an asshole again, that would be a real shame. Now, probably, in reality, he would. At each point he fought aggressively and successfully to keep his secret buried. If he hadn’t been such an asshole, perhaps it never would have held out until 2012.
I saw this interview and was going to start a thread. I’ve been “studying” cycling - specifically the history around the TDF over the past few months. The cycling fraternity, the club of the peleton, and drugs have a long storied history, well before Lance showed up.
Lance vehemently defended the cycling “stage” he performed on. It almost felt like a WWE smack-down style of show.
The bigger issue I see is how that partnership of corporate vs athlete created such a dysfunctional chain of events. The athletes are almost corroborating victims. I think if you dig deeper into that power differential you’d see that the issues transcend Lance, or any other individual that may pop up for discussion. It’s easy to paint Lance as a focal point Villain. But as an high performance athlete, in that situation, can you really say you would have completely opted out?
The bandwagon of:
- doctors
-officials
-sponsors
-fans and wannabes
-politicians
-team managers & support crew - finally the athletes
I’ve struggled with my feelings about Lance over the past 2 years and all I can say is I’m still as torn. While it’s pretty well known that basically the entire FOP was doping during the 1990-2005 time frame others will argue it pre-dates that. He also was the doper who suffered the most to win those titles. While I agree doping has been around, the pedigree in which it was executed was obviously far more superior to any other era. As somebody with a “winners” mindset I don’t blame him for initially doping. I think many athletes consider it and some follow through. I can excuse the dope usage to a degree where I would allow him to run a marathon.
What I can’t excuse is his bulldozer attitude towards anybody who would try and challenge him on the topic. It’s no different than an organized crime syndicate who kills off their liabilities with brutality. Sure nobody was killed but some careers definitely were. He also simultaneously lived like a rock star and collected millions upon millions of dollars. That in itself is very villainous to say the least. Would I dope again if I were him? Without hesitation! I’d just hope he’d accept when he was caught and take it like a man who owns his decision, not one full of excuses.
Some good points.
I have no inherent ‘moral’ problem with Lance cheating, as 99% of his competitors at the time were also doing it. Not that I support cheating by any stretch, it makes for a stupid and unwatchable sport, but average people (those with average personalities) will often cheat when it is expedient and when lots of money hang in the balance, unfortunately.
But lance did one thing that most of the others did not. He went out of his way to intimidate and threaten those that were trying to take a different path. This puts him in a special class: bullies. And bullies use their actions to hide a hidden streak of cowardice. That’s what makes lance different.
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I saw this interview and was going to start a thread. I’ve been “studying” cycling - specifically the history around the TDF over the past few months. The cycling fraternity, the club of the peleton, and drugs have a long storied history, well before Lance showed up.
Lance vehemently defended the cycling “stage” he performed on. It almost felt like a WWE smack-down style of show.
The bigger issue I see is how that partnership of corporate vs athlete created such a dysfunctional chain of events. The athletes are almost corroborating victims. I think if you dig deeper into that power differential you’d see that the issues transcend Lance, or any other individual that may pop up for discussion. It’s easy to paint Lance as a focal point Villain. But as an high performance athlete, in that situation, can you really say you would have completely opted out?
The bandwagon of:
- doctors
-officials
-sponsors
-fans and wannabes
-politicians
-team managers & support crew - finally the athletes
Hit the nail on the head for me.
.
He does say in the interview that 1) he doesn’t regret doping 2) he does regret being an asshole
There’s two things to keep separate in your mind, though few manage to.
- Lance was a doper.
- Lance was an asshole.
Lance is saying he would dope again if it were 1995 all over again. This is understandable. He became rich and famous and idolized like few ever before. He slept with rock and movie stars. You can take the fame and money away, but you can’t take the memories away. And, if he hadn’t doped, he would be just another roughneck working the oil and gas industry in Texas.
Now, if Lance were to say that he were to be an asshole again, that would be a real shame. Now, probably, in reality, he would. At each point he fought aggressively and successfully to keep his secret buried. If he hadn’t been such an asshole, perhaps it never would have held out until 2012.
I would say in this regard he is quite similar to many people of power. Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, many politicians have done the very same to opposing people. In fact, there are few I can think of that got to the top by being nice to competitors. The funny thing is that the Treks, Carmichaels, Giros, and all sponsors who benefited greatly still move forward with no backlash…sad.
Some good points.
I have no inherent ‘moral’ problem with Lance cheating, as 99% of his competitors at the time were also doing it. Not that I support cheating by any stretch, it makes for a stupid and unwatchable sport, but average people (those with average personalities) will often cheat when it is expedient and when lots of money hang in the balance, unfortunately.
But lance did one thing that most of the others did not. He went out of his way to intimidate and threaten those that were trying to take a different path. This puts him in a special class: bullies. And bullies use their actions to hide a hidden streak of cowardice. That’s what makes lance different.
.
I still think he is a pretty shitty individual and shouldn’t be recognised as the winner of those TDFs. That said, I’d have no problem with him running a marathon for funsies. Taking away his titles is one thing but cutting him off from every sports community forever seems a little harsh.
… He also was the doper who suffered the most to win those titles. While I agree doping has been around, the pedigree in which it was executed was obviously far more superior to any other era. As somebody with a “winners” mindset I don’t blame him for initially doping. I think many athletes consider it and some follow through.
There were many athletes who chose not to dope and therefore either quit professional cycling or languished in the back. Some of those guys could have had careers and made money if the others didn’t dope. So it was not just dopers racing dopers. They were stealing money, careers and memories from honest athletes.
…What I can’t excuse is his bulldozer attitude towards anybody who would try and challenge him on the topic. It’s no different than an organized crime syndicate who kills off their liabilities with brutality. Sure nobody was killed but some careers definitely were. He also simultaneously lived like a rock star and collected millions upon millions of dollars. That in itself is very villainous to say the least. Would I dope again if I were him? Without hesitation! I’d just hope he’d accept when he was caught and take it like a man who owns his decision, not one full of excuses.
His aggressive kill or be killed attitude is why he was successful in hiding his doping in the first place. He cannot go back and dope but be a really nice guy and expect it all to turn out the same way for him. But I have to say that living like a rock star and earning millions of dollars is not “in itself very villainous”. They WAY he did it was villainous.
He does say in the interview that 1) he doesn’t regret doping 2) he does regret being an asshole
He could not have succeeded at hiding 1) if he did not also do 2). So he is still full of shit.
Heard it yesterday on BBC. The limited interview when asked if he’d dope garnered the conditional response (paraphrasing) of “If racing today no because I wouldn’t have to” and “If racing in the same time then yes”. I have no problem with that. That’s brutal honesty coming through, IMO. I guess he could have taken the high ground and said “hell no I wouldn’t dope” but he was merely being honest in his answer. In the context of the 90s when so many top riders lined up at the start doped up, it was either dope like the others and have a job or deliver pizzas. I do hope cycilng is cleaner than ever, and with the better checks and balances the risk/reward today is nowhere what is was in the 90s and early 2000s. There are plenty of “clean” riders now, so to stay on an equal playing field it means you don’t have to dope.
It was interesting, but that is a bygone era now. I’ve moved on to the current generation.
There were many athletes who chose not to dope and therefore either quit professional cycling or languished in the back. Some of those guys could have had careers and made money if the others didn’t dope. So it was not just dopers racing dopers. They were stealing money, careers and memories from honest athletes.
And if pigs could fly or the sky was red or the moon was made from a different king of cheese then those cyclists coulda been contenders.
Any one of the top riders could have not doped and it would not have made a damned bit of difference because there were hundreds or thousands of people willing to do what was necessary to step into his place. They would not have even had to start after getting a pro contract; the amateur ranks in Italy and Spain were chock full of riders using EPO. Individuals riders did not cheat come poor schmuck out of his chance to ride the Tour. A systemic problem that was facilitated by the UCI did.
I’ve moved on to the current generation.
Hard to say when the current TDF winner’s team is full of dopers and managed by one of the biggest dopers of them all…
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/astana-accused-of-systematic-doping
It’s just a matter of time before the doping “arms race” will begin again.
But lance did one thing that most of the others did not. He went out of his way to intimidate and threaten those that were trying to take a different path.
Uh. No. Bassons has said one brief exchange with Armstrong had no affect on him and was not the reason he left cycling. It was the treatment from his own teammates that showed him how useless it was to continue. In fact, ostracizing those who did not fit in was standard operating procedure throughout the peloton.
Armstrong had a base response mechanism: He attacked those who attacked him. There are many who enjoyed their feuds with Armstrong and kept poking the bear to make them continue. Check out Betsy Andreu; every time an article appears about Armstrong she hounds the press so she can attack him in the media. Now those people are wrapping themselves in a bogus cloak of truth rather than admitting why they were feuding with Armstrong in the first place.
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.
But this is all probably a dead horse …
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