DV1976 said:
Who did what? The fact that you don't like what a paper writes it doesn't mean that is a rag journal...
This is correct. They could argue, however, that since day one the knew that he was a fraud and they did their best to prove this. As for Indurain, well, he is not exactly a saint on one hand and on the other neither is he impartial as an LA buddy...
. Again a possible argument could be that they didn't test anything from 2001 (unless I missed something) and also that by 2001 athletes had become more sophisticated in their EPO use and could avoid detection (e.g. by micro-dosing) as was suggested this year. As for LA he can always refute it. There are courts and if he doesn't feel confident in the French Justice system there is always the European Court...
Anyway... Patience...
I have read L'Equipe many times, and I base my opinion that it is a rag journal on the fact that it is so very biased and slanted against Armstrong. Why else would they opine that at Lance's retirement, "never has the leaving of a champion been greeted with so much widespread relief." That is just flat out wrong.
I was in the Alps this summer baby. I saw the cyclosportif La Marmotte and saw my son finish up Alpe d'Huez with about 8,000 other cyclists from all over Europe. Never, ever, anywhere in the U.S., including Austin at Lance's Ride for the Roses, have I seen so many Trek bikes tricked out USPS, so many USPS and Discovery full team kits, and even so many of Lance's new line of Livestrong kits and 10/2 kits. These were not Amerticans dude! They were Europeans, and they were Lance fanatics. So L'Equipe stands alone in their vehement refusal to acknowledge his widespread acceptance in EUrope.
Thats point number one.
Point number two, if, as you argue L'Equipe "knew" magically that Lance was a fraudfrom Day 1 and then worked for years to prove it, that, to my mind, is the definition of a witchunt, and not impartial investigative journalism. L'Equipe would be quite comfortable in the France of the Reign of Terror: execute first, ask questions later. Not to be too xenophobic, but I believe that these tendencies do aggregate in certain peoples and it would be fair to say that from Cardinal Richelieu through
the Reign of Terror down to Vichy France, there is a certain thread of what I would call, being shitweasals, that the French may not monopoloze but certainly have predilection for.
Yes, you missed something. They tested in 2001 for EPO with their new and wonderful accurate test. So accurate and wonderful taht they have had to constantly revise and re-do the test---because it is so unreliable in other words, duh. And yes, all of USPS and Lance's urines from 2000 were teswted as well for EPO with the 2001 testm they were all negative. USPS were the only ones to have this done.