Armstrong has been tinkered with!!

[Perro Loco]

Losing weight has an effect not only on going uphill but also on the flat.

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

Use the above link, set the watts at o and enter 30 mph or 50 kph and see what the difference in power output at various weights is to maintain this.
Dropping 8-10 Kg substantialy reduces the amount of power output needed to maintain this speed. Add in that over a three week tour that extra weight is going to have a toll on you.
While I don't know if Armstrong was or has used performence enhancing drugs lossing weight helps a hell of a lot. Especially over a three week tour.

I remember reading Indurain stating that losing weight helped improved his time trialing and win the tour in 91. He wasn't winning or dominating time trials previous to this.

 

[bobke]

I've read in several places that LA has consistently denied any form of doping, etc. However, the only direct statements I can find turn out to be somewhat qualified statements about being the most tested sportsperson on the planet, not currently taking drugs, etc. Can anyone point me to a categorical, unqualified statement by LA that he does not now and never has used any banned substance or method?


Cheers

Will this do?

Lance Response To French Doping Investigation


Lance Armstrong issued the following statement Thursday, Jan 20 in response to media reports of a French judge's decision to investigate doping allegations made against him last year in a highly publicized book.

"Let me make one thing emphatically clear: I believe in clean and fair competition. As I have said before, I do not use -- and have never used -- performance-enhancing drugs. I am disappointed in the judge's decision to open this investigation without having talked to me first. "

"I will make myself available anytime and anywhere to meet with the investigators in this case. They are also welcome to review my long history of tests for performance-enhancing drugs, which I have never failed. Last year alone I was tested 22 times by ASO, the UCI, WADA and USADA. I will be competing in Paris-Nice in March. I am confident my name will be cleared, and I look forward to racing in France for years to come."

SOURCE: Capital Sports and Entertainment, Austin, TX

 

[oldnbusted]

I know a lot of people feel that the Europeans are critical of Lance' success, (and some are), and deliberately target him, but bear in mind that they also investigate their own riders, and just because Lance is an American, and successful doesn't mean he should be exempt from investigation.

The judge was within his rights to order the investigation, Lance will have to put up with it. But certainly the only way to eliminate drugs from th sport is to keep investigating. I don't know whether Lance dopes, i hope not, but some things are always going to look suspicious.

 

[Flyer]

No, you don't have to believe those people are lying. You only need to recognize that they have no way of knowing. Not one of the people you mention claims to have first hand knowledge that LA ever doped. They are all speculating. Even Walsh's book is nothing more than 2nd hand speculation. Even Emma's claims are speculation based on cryptic comments. No one has claimed that they have seen or have proof that LA doped. Really: LeMond, Hampsten, O'Reilly,Bassons, Simeoni: so much conjecture, no reliable evidence. Contrast it with no positives and seven years of consistent performance with never an unusual hemocrit.

Lance's Junior Teammates have first hand knowledge--and sadly they have legally settled with another of Lance's posse .

You have made a great though, the Lance fans are "speculating that he is somehow clean" when all his rivals are proving NOT to be.

Which position is more rationale?

You have to "want to belive in miracles" for Lance to live independently and protected in a world of powerful anemia dope. How he does that is remarkable.

 

[Flyer]

Will this do?

Lance Response To French Doping Investigation


Lance Armstrong issued the following statement Thursday, Jan 20 in response to media reports of a French judge's decision to investigate doping allegations made against him last year in a highly publicized book.

"Let me make one thing emphatically clear: I believe in clean and fair competition. As I have said before, I do not use -- and have never used -- performance-enhancing drugs. I am disappointed in the judge's decision to open this investigation without having talked to me first. "

"I will make myself available anytime and anywhere to meet with the investigators in this case. They are also welcome to review my long history of tests for performance-enhancing drugs, which I have never failed. Last year alone I was tested 22 times by ASO, the UCI, WADA and USADA. I will be competing in Paris-Nice in March. I am confident my name will be cleared, and I look forward to racing in France for years to come."

SOURCE: Capital Sports and Entertainment, Austin, TX

And the Subaru crashes into a big tree.


Did they ever test for insulin or Actovegin? No way!

Lance admitted to possesion of both on his website in december 2000, re: the medical waste discarded by his staff in the July TDF.

Actovegin (calf blood) was not a banned product in 2000. It is now, though I am unclear how it can be tested for. Maybe Tyler was a first case.

Drug testing in cycling has been very weak, certainly weak throughout Lance's victory marches.

The UCI just signed the WADA code of ethics AFTER Lance's TDF win #6. Why so bloody late?

 

[micron]

the one test that seems to be working is the EPO test - and that has only really been in place since Sydney. HGH - no test. Insulin - no test. Autologous (with your own blood) transfusion - no test. Cortisone can be tested for and Armstrong fell foul of that.

These are not 'super juices' or amazing drug cocktails that have taken hundreds of people to develop. You can buy HGH off the Internet for god's sake. What they are are drugs with medical applications that can be used to help recovery - and we all know that the rider who recovers best wins the race.

22 tests - well, let's see, how many of those would have taken place at the Tour? Stage winner and yellow jersey get tested automatically - so that makes 12 of those tests at the Tour alone...

 

[bobke]

And the Subaru crashes into a big tree.


Did they ever test for insulin or Actovegin? No way!

Lance admitted to possesion of both on his website in december 2000, re: the medical waste discarded by his staff in the July TDF.

Actovegin (calf blood) was not a banned product in 2000. It is now, though I am unclear how it can be tested for. Maybe Tyler was a first case.

Drug testing in cycling has been very weak, certainly weak throughout Lance's victory marches.

The UCI just signed the WADA code of ethics AFTER Lance's TDF win #6. Why so bloody late?

The anti-Lance crowd sits around parsing his quoted words like Bill Clinton in a grand jury deposition and salivates: "Look, he's never categorically denied any performance enhancing drugs" (although he has a number of times)

In response to the direct question I put up the quote and no one is big enough to say, well there he is denying it categorically. Seems like your minds are impermeable to logic or evidence.

 

[Flyer]

The anti-Lance crowd sits around parsing his quoted words like Bill Clinton in a grand jury deposition and salivates: "Look, he's never categorically denied any performance enhancing drugs" (although he has a number of times)

In response to the direct question I put up the quote and no one is big enough to say, well there he is denying it categorically. Seems like your minds are impermeable to logic or evidence.

Wow, now you are using Bill Clinton as a metaphor for "truth telling"? That's weak.

Or maybe you just flat out wrong. Maybe Lance's numerous versions of drugs in his car, his sport, his doctors office and in his liver are just pure lies.

Maybe Lance has got you faked out?

Maybe David Millar is a more honest and frank representative of the truth?

Hardly, all these guys MUST lie, else they lose their endorsements.

What they say is irrelevant, only how they ride and act.

 

[kennf]

Maybe Lance's numerous versions of drugs in his car ....

Wow. Even Lance's car takes drugs? This is worse than I thought.

 

[Flyer]

Let's review for the benefit of objective readers:

Doping Juniors age 18 and under.
Lance's fellow National Junior Teammates Erich Kaiter & Greg Strock admit to receiving 3-4 injections per day while racing in Europe, in July 1990. Lance was with them on that trip--the whole season too.

Greg, Erich & Lance all got gravely ill. Auto-immune dysfunction, chrons colitis and testicular cancer.

One recovered became rich and infamous, the other two are suing Rene Wenzel & USA Cycling for doping minors without informed consent. Chris Carmichael settled early on, and both he and Lance are legally dismissed.

1990 is an important year to reflect upon as it was when EPO began it widespread roll out into the peloton. Invented in 1983, it was purely clinical and secretive until 1988 or so. Laurent Fignon believes that in 1990, EPO became standard medicine amongst GC contenders.

Mentor gone bad?
In 1988 Eddie Merckx admitted to using drugs throughout th 1970s. This after years of denials and three positive tests for stimulants, (Giro, Lombardy & Flanders)

Lance became close to Eddie Merckx while at Motorola and rode on his bike frames. Eddie became a mentor to Lance. On or about November 1995 Eddie Merckx introduced Lance to Michele Ferrari, then infamous for EPO jokes & Orange Juice and a protege of Francesco Conconi, the father of blood doping and mastermind of the Team USA 1984 Olympic blood transfusions.

Lance began working with Ferrari immediately. Lance road strong the very next season winning the Fleche Wallone while getting pipped on the line by Pascal Richard at Liege Bastogne Liege. He also won a another TDF stage.

By October 1996 Lance announced his advanced cancer.

On May 8, 1998 Mauro Gianetti nearly died from an overdose of PFC, perafloracarbon an HBOC oxygen booster agent. He spent 10 days in ICU, recovered and is now Chris Horner's boss at Sanier Duval.
This doping mistake happened in Mauro's important Swiss Race, the Tour of Romandie.

One month later, ***** Voet, high on his Team's drug The Belgian Mix, a compound of Heroin, Cocaine & Morhine was caught out on a secondary road reentering France from Belgium.

He was busted big time as he had massive supplies of EPO, Growth Hormones, Corticosteroids, Belgian Mix, saline feeds, testosterone easter eggs, blood thinning agents and plenty of other drugs.

The 1998 TDF was ruined. Nearly 50% of the field quit or was DQed or was threatened with DQ. Eventually, Marco Pantani won the race.

Marco Pantani is now dead at age 34.

Lance returned from cancer in just one year and claimed 4th in the Vuelta and 4th in the World Championship RR won by---you guessed it Oscar Camenzind. Oscar went on to go EPO positive in July 2004 and is now retired.

May, 1999
Lance proclaimed that doping was "finito" within the peloton. The very next day Pantani was DQed for an illegal hematocrit level.

July 1999
Lance wins the TDF amongst doping rumors. He is able to TUE his way out of a cortisone test failure.

July 2000
French TV-3 films USPO dumping medical waste into a dumspter in a small town in the Maritime Alps.
Actovegin (calf blood) and insulin are found.

Lance eventually confirms possesion (whilst claiming medical privacy) on his own website in December 2000--while threatening to bycott the 2001 TDF, unless the French witchhunt stops.

2004
4 Cycling World Champions go EPO positive. Cofidis blows up, Kelme blows up, the Ausralian Junior and Senior Track programs are tained by horse growth hormones and spent needles in Mark Frenches dorm room. They weasle out and dominate track in the summer months---just recently losing the Junior Champs medals won in Los Angeles.

Greg LeMond accuses Lance of using EPO and hiding a "big secret".

Lance's staff and one teammate accuse him of using illegal drugs

Lance goes bi-polar (or goes Postal) on Stage 18 and 21 as he chases down Filippo Simeoni (114 GC) and assigns his entire team to mark him, spit on him, blow snott on him, and curse both he and his wife (actually much worse things were spoken) on the ride into Paris.

Lance's doctor is convicted of malpractice. After 10 years of support, Lance publicly terminates the relationship. Privately, who knows?

2005
Yet another doping probe is opened to pursue the truth in the matter of Lance and illegal drug abuses.


Wrap-up:
1) Eddie Merckx is both a doper and Lance's mentor
2) Michele Ferrari is an EPO specialist and doper exraordinary performance druggist. Before Lance there was Rominger, Berzin and work with Moser.
Now he is a convicted quack.

3) Chris Camichael was present as the Junior Coach alongside Rene Wenzel in 1990. This was when doping was active with 17 & 18 year olds. A lawsuit still in progress.

4) Greg Lemond thinks Lance is a doper so do a staff and teammate.

Considering the lawsuits and threats that will follow any public disclosures with Lance, Inc. it is remarkable so many people have stepped forward.

But even without these very credible people, the sport speaks for itself. Lance must dope, because everyone else does---and especially since Lance surrounds himself with dopers and advisors who are active participants of doping.

Conjecture, coincidence? It is one hell of a lot of empirical data, that's for sure.

Or is it a duck who can fetch a newspaper?

 

[Flyer]

I know a lot of people feel that the Europeans are critical of Lance' success, (and some are), and deliberately target him, but bear in mind that they also investigate their own riders, and just because Lance is an American, and successful doesn't mean he should be exempt from investigation.

The judge was within his rights to order the investigation, Lance will have to put up with it. But certainly the only way to eliminate drugs from th sport is to keep investigating. I don't know whether Lance dopes, i hope not, but some things are always going to look suspicious.

I think "disclosing doping abuses" is the very best that can be hoped for.

"Eliminating" is not possible as a practical matter.

The drug companys refuse to add markers to their products--quite deliberately. Athletes are recruited for research both in and out of clinical trials. The drugs can and do work.

Doctors such as Lance's own Michele Ferrari have convinced the riders that it is healthier to dope, than to race a Grand Tour w/o drugs.

Retired riders such as Luc Leblanc say that drugs such as EPO are authorized/proven and safe, whereas some HBOCs such as PFC are not. And so long as you stay within the 50% limit it is far less dangerous than other doping methods for performance.

Luc Leblanc also remarked, let's not be hypocritical.
He believes the EPO (anemia market) is too profitable to stop its distribution.

He is quite correct. The USA drug sales were 216 Billion last year. Anemia drugs account for more than 13% of that at 30 Billion.

That is nearly all profit too, just some anemia and sport medicine doctor vacation packages to schedule and fund.

Forget what Lance says publicly, his peers have stacked up as pro-doping and even believe it is safer to use drugs than to not.

Even Jacques Anquetil (5 time TDF Champion, deceased at age 52, of pancreatic cancer) said that Tom Simpson died because he DID NOT USE ENOUGH drugs!

Zulle, Camenzind, Planckaert, Lublanc, Merckx, Fignon, Delion, Pontier, Moser, Garcia, Van der Velde, Simeoni, Virenque, Rous, Moreau, Millar, Brochard, Herve, Gaumont, Manzano, Sassone to name a very few all admit to what Armstrong denies;

Doping is a standard practice of pro-cyclists.

 

[Matt N]

Will this do?

Lance Response To French Doping Investigation


Lance Armstrong issued the following statement Thursday, Jan 20 in response to media reports of a French judge's decision to investigate doping allegations made against him last year in a highly publicized book.

"Let me make one thing emphatically clear: I believe in clean and fair competition. As I have said before, I do not use -- and have never used -- performance-enhancing drugs. I am disappointed in the judge's decision to open this investigation without having talked to me first. "

"I will make myself available anytime and anywhere to meet with the investigators in this case. They are also welcome to review my long history of tests for performance-enhancing drugs, which I have never failed. Last year alone I was tested 22 times by ASO, the UCI, WADA and USADA. I will be competing in Paris-Nice in March. I am confident my name will be cleared, and I look forward to racing in France for years to come."

SOURCE: Capital Sports and Entertainment, Austin, TX

I saw this statement by LA after I posted my question about his previous responses to doping allegations.

A few further queries:

* he denies drug use but where does he deny blood doping?

* has he previously made a categorical denial of drug use and/or blood doping (I can't seem to find one)?

* why on earth should the judge consult a suspect prior to launching an investigation?

Cheers

 

[Flyer]

I saw this statement by LA after I posted my question about his previous responses to doping allegations.

A few further queries:

* he denies drug use but where does he deny blood doping?

* has he previously made a categorical denial of drug use and/or blood doping (I can't seem to find one)?

* why on earth should the judge consult a suspect prior to launching an investigation?

Cheers

Lance's latest remarks out of Solvang, (Santa Barbara County near Michael Jackson's Ranch) last week were that he "believes in a fair playing field".

That's nice. But believing and doing are apparently not the same thing in Lance's world. Wind tunnel testing in multi-million dollar Jet research facilities, high tech skin suits, and other extreme equipment engineering are NOT offered to all competitors.

And neither are the specific anemia drugs.

Is that a "fair playing field?"

Back in July 1999 Lance tested positive for "triacinolone" a corticosteroid. The dose was low at that point (after 5 hours of racings) and he scrambled for a TUE (theraputic Use Exemption-explanation) TUE are to be filed prior to a race, not produced after a positive test. But the Yellow Jersey is allowed some wiggle room.

More amazing was that 2nd place GC Alex Zulle did not test positive, and he was a daily user of corticosteroids, from 10 milligrams to 20 mls, per dose, sometimes twice in a 24 hour period.

Had Lance used more than 30 milligrams that day?

The very next year, Lance's USPO team was found to carry Actovegin (calf's blood).

Actovegin is a "clinically unapproved" product sometimes referred to as the "gas bus". It is used in concert with EPO and can help mask EPO use by increasing total blood volume, thus reducing the hematocrit level whilst adding boost to oxygen capacity.

Lance confirmed possession of this now illegal product in December 2000.

Insulin was also found, and Lance confirmed that too, but refused to identify the users for "medical privacy" reasons.

On August 1, 2001 Lance threatened Greg LeMond and claimed to him that "everyone uses EPO!"

So is Greg a liar--or is it the other way around?

 

[kennf]

That's nice. But believing and doing are apparently not the same thing in Lance's world. Wind tunnel testing in multi-million dollar Jet research facilities, high tech skin suits, and other extreme equipment engineering are NOT offered to all competitors.

So Armstrong now has an unfair equipment advantage? I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that Ullrich could use some of his $3 million salary to get access to any wind tunnel he wants. I would also hazard to guess that every top pro (if they're smart) undergoes wind tunnel testing for time trial position. As for the high tech skin suit, I think you can buy them from Nike if you want, but I doubt it will mean the difference between 1st and 2nd place.

 

[tcklyde]

Let's review for the benefit of objective readers:

Doping Juniors age 18 and under.
Lance's fellow National Junior Teammates Erich Kaiter & Greg Strock admit to receiving 3-4 injections per day while racing in Europe, in July 1990. Lance was with them on that trip--the whole season too.

Greg, Erich & Lance all got gravely ill. Auto-immune dysfunction, chrons colitis and testicular cancer.

One recovered became rich and infamous, the other two are suing Rene Wenzel & USA Cycling for doping minors without informed consent. Chris Carmichael settled early on, and both he and Lance are legally dismissed.

1990 is an important year to reflect upon as it was when EPO began it widespread roll out into the peloton. Invented in 1983, it was purely clinical and secretive until 1988 or so. Laurent Fignon believes that in 1990, EPO became standard medicine amongst GC contenders.

Mentor gone bad?
In 1988 Eddie Merckx admitted to using drugs throughout th 1970s. This after years of denials and three positive tests for stimulants, (Giro, Lombardy & Flanders)

Lance became close to Eddie Merckx while at Motorola and rode on his bike frames. Eddie became a mentor to Lance. On or about November 1995 Eddie Merckx introduced Lance to Michele Ferrari, then infamous for EPO jokes & Orange Juice and a protege of Francesco Conconi, the father of blood doping and mastermind of the Team USA 1984 Olympic blood transfusions.

Lance began working with Ferrari immediately. Lance road strong the very next season winning the Fleche Wallone while getting pipped on the line by Pascal Richard at Liege Bastogne Liege. He also won a another TDF stage.

By October 1996 Lance announced his advanced cancer.

On May 8, 1998 Mauro Gianetti nearly died from an overdose of PFC, perafloracarbon an HBOC oxygen booster agent. He spent 10 days in ICU, recovered and is now Chris Horner's boss at Sanier Duval.
This doping mistake happened in Mauro's important Swiss Race, the Tour of Romandie.

One month later, ***** Voet, high on his Team's drug The Belgian Mix, a compound of Heroin, Cocaine & Morhine was caught out on a secondary road reentering France from Belgium.

He was busted big time as he had massive supplies of EPO, Growth Hormones, Corticosteroids, Belgian Mix, saline feeds, testosterone easter eggs, blood thinning agents and plenty of other drugs.

The 1998 TDF was ruined. Nearly 50% of the field quit or was DQed or was threatened with DQ. Eventually, Marco Pantani won the race.

Marco Pantani is now dead at age 34.

Lance returned from cancer in just one year and claimed 4th in the Vuelta and 4th in the World Championship RR won by---you guessed it Oscar Camenzind. Oscar went on to go EPO positive in July 2004 and is now retired.

May, 1999
Lance proclaimed that doping was "finito" within the peloton. The very next day Pantani was DQed for an illegal hematocrit level.

July 1999
Lance wins the TDF amongst doping rumors. He is able to TUE his way out of a cortisone test failure.

July 2000
French TV-3 films USPO dumping medical waste into a dumspter in a small town in the Maritime Alps.
Actovegin (calf blood) and insulin are found.

Lance eventually confirms possesion (whilst claiming medical privacy) on his own website in December 2000--while threatening to bycott the 2001 TDF, unless the French witchhunt stops.

2004
4 Cycling World Champions go EPO positive. Cofidis blows up, Kelme blows up, the Ausralian Junior and Senior Track programs are tained by horse growth hormones and spent needles in Mark Frenches dorm room. They weasle out and dominate track in the summer months---just recently losing the Junior Champs medals won in Los Angeles.

Greg LeMond accuses Lance of using EPO and hiding a "big secret".

Lance's staff and one teammate accuse him of using illegal drugs

Lance goes bi-polar (or goes Postal) on Stage 18 and 21 as he chases down Filippo Simeoni (114 GC) and assigns his entire team to mark him, spit on him, blow snott on him, and curse both he and his wife (actually much worse things were spoken) on the ride into Paris.

Lance's doctor is convicted of malpractice. After 10 years of support, Lance publicly terminates the relationship. Privately, who knows?

2005
Yet another doping probe is opened to pursue the truth in the matter of Lance and illegal drug abuses.


Wrap-up:
1) Eddie Merckx is both a doper and Lance's mentor
2) Michele Ferrari is an EPO specialist and doper exraordinary performance druggist. Before Lance there was Rominger, Berzin and work with Moser.
Now he is a convicted quack.

3) Chris Camichael was present as the Junior Coach alongside Rene Wenzel in 1990. This was when doping was active with 17 & 18 year olds. A lawsuit still in progress.

4) Greg Lemond thinks Lance is a doper so do a staff and teammate.

Considering the lawsuits and threats that will follow any public disclosures with Lance, Inc. it is remarkable so many people have stepped forward.

But even without these very credible people, the sport speaks for itself. Lance must dope, because everyone else does---and especially since Lance surrounds himself with dopers and advisors who are active participants of doping.

Conjecture, coincidence? It is one hell of a lot of empirical data, that's for sure.

Or is it a duck who can fetch a newspaper?

Most of this stuff is not empirical data. Heck, it isn't even coincidence. For example, what does Millar's positive have to do with Lance? Or the Festina affair? Or the fact that Pantani ODed while using a recreational drug recreationally? And why throw in the fact that Chris Horner is now back in the European peloton? Is it because he's American?

Other information is extremely misleading. For example, LA did not fail a cortisone test in the 1999 Tour. To do that, he would have had to reach limit. Instead, they detected a tiny, tiny fraction of that. If you remember the UCI statement, it read: "The UCI declares with the utmost firmness that this was an authorized usage, and does not constitute a case of doping."

And what about the Merckx charge? Mentor to Lance? Despite the fact that "mentor" is pushing it big time, so what? So Eddy doped. There is no logical reason to believe that Eddy doping would mean that Lance dopes. Lance is his own man.

Look, it's impossible to prove a negative, so this speculation will go on forever. But I'll say again, there is no reliable or incontravertible evidence that LA doped/dopes/will dope.

 

[Perro Loco]

Most of what I read as "proof" that Lance Armstrong is doping borders on conjecture and reads very similar to the latest conspiracy theories. Being a dye in the wool skeptic I am unconvinced one way or the other. Fact- Cycling has a significant drug problem. Extent is hard to quantify, as data tends to be unreliable. From semi-reliable scources the average hematocrit at the Tour De France has declined since 1998 and in one report the hematocrit at the tour de Suisse has declinded from 1996. Based on actual empiric data from the journal Nature recombinant Erythropoietin usage was extensive in the 1998 Tour despite the first use of the 50% rule. Recently, the more extensive testing and participation of legal authorities APPEARS to have some effect on the extent of doping. I repeat appears, as data is either scant or unreliable. Regarding Armstrong, I find it amazing with so many legal authorities and investigative reporters that nothing more concrete can be found. Suspicions will remain as he is succesful in a sport with a known drug problem.

 

[Flyer]

Most of what I read as "proof" that Lance Armstrong is doping borders on conjecture and reads very similar to the latest conspiracy theories. Being a dye in the wool skeptic I am unconvinced one way or the other. Fact- Cycling has a significant drug problem. Extent is hard to quantify, as data tends to be unreliable. From semi-reliable scources the average hematocrit at the Tour De France has declined since 1998 and in one report the hematocrit at the tour de Suisse has declinded from 1996. Based on actual empiric data from the journal Nature recombinant Erythropoietin usage was extensive in the 1998 Tour despite the first use of the 50% rule. Recently, the more extensive testing and participation of legal authorities APPEARS to have some effect on the extent of doping. I repeat appears, as data is either scant or unreliable. Regarding Armstrong, I find it amazing with so many legal authorities and investigative reporters that nothing more concrete can be found. Suspicions will remain as he is succesful in a sport with a known drug problem.

Unconvinced? WOW!

Why are you surprised that commercially endorsed dopers deny doping? Is that a surprise?

Why are you surprised that testing does not work?

Were you unaware that most of these products are not dectable or are simply not even screened for?

Does Greg Strock's interviews sound like conjecture?
Does Greg LeMond lack credibility? Does Lance escape from Nice to Giorna in 2000 sound more like flight from Doping compliance?

Do you know that sports is BUSINESS and not a Corinthian concept? It is money and results driven. There is little money budgeted for so-called compliance. WADA's entire sports budget is smaller than Lance's personal income. Only 50% of that goes to observation---ZERO for tests. (10 million for all sports, maybe 1 million for cycling?) Pitiful.

It ain't cheating if everyone is doing it. And who you stop them? You? Me? or the Lance fans? No way.

Hematocrit levels are irrelevant. HBOCs, synthetic hemaglobin, bovine plasma, RSR-13, and saline feeds can and do alter hct levels, as desired.

Many of these trauma oxygen boosting drugs can boost oxygen delivery at 45% hct more rapidly than Mr. Riis 60% rumor.

Faster delivery and CO2 removal are the keys, not sludge-like syrupy blood flow.

The way we learn about the usage is by chance and/or by a very rare confession. The Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Camenzind, Perez cases were unusual---as well as the female Ironman Triathlete winner in October 2004.

More typical are the Richard Virenque, Alex Zulle, Philippe Gaumont, David Millar, David Rebellin, Christophe Monreau, Pascal Herve, Johan Museeuw, Raimundas Rumsas, Eddie Merckx et al.... where these atletes are linked to doping, and then later admit to it, or are banned or are subject to arrest warrants---as is Rumsas.

EPO, growth hormone, stimulants, testosterone & hCG female fertility drugs are used in 1) track & field 2) soccer 3) cycling 4) football 5) baseball 6) race-walking.

The notion that the TDF champ would not, is simply incredulous.

 

[micron]

There's actually an interview with Armstrong in 1997, when he has finished chemo, where he says he didn't lose weight as a result of the chemo because he was stuffing his face in the canteen. He also says that given the choice between living life cancer free and never racing again v. winning and there being even the slightest chance of the cancer coming back, he'd choose never to race again. In short, this is not the hyper motivated, skinny as a whippet Armstrong that we are sold as the reason for his sudden ability to win the TdF at will.

And yet his amazing Tour results are apparently entirely due to the fact that he lost weight and got motivated. As Anquetil was fond of saying 'you don't win the TdF on vitamins and mineral water'. The other great pros knew it and knew what they had to do. To say that a businessman of Armstrong's savvy is as naive about doping in the sport as he would have us believe strikes me, I have to say, as total bollox.

 

[Flyer]

Dope inside Lance:

July 4, 1999, urine test at 5:00 pm local time. Stage 1 Montaigu to Challans.

Traces of "triamcinolone acetonide" were discovered.

This contradicted Lance's immediate pre-test written declaration: "Drugs Taken: Nothing"

This synthetic corticoid cannot get into your system exogenously. (eg: saddle cream)

Injection is the most likely way to deliver this product.

The results were not made public until after Lance had secured the Yellow Jersey--and were made public on July 20, 1999.

According to Armand Megret, then President of the Medical Commission of the French Cycling Federation,
there seemed to be a resurgence of the use of corticosteroids in the 1999 TDF.

This corroborates ***** Voet who came to the 1998 TDF loaded to the gills with this dope and claimed to inject his riders with 10-30 milligrams of the stuff most days. 10 mls at 10:00 pm, then often again in the morning, another 20 mls. Each athlete might require a different dosage/frequency.

Another physician interviewed in 1999 was quoted as saying; "If they are late corticoids, the low levels detected are not surprising, since their spread in the body happens more slowly and their tracability becomes harder."

Lance was NOT the only rider busted for corticosteroids and/or abnormal T/E ratios in the 1999 TDF. At least 30 samples were.

Specific riders with odd urine, besides Lance were;
my friend Daniele Nardello, Tom Steels, Mechele Coppolillo, Mariano Piccoli all had corticosteroids in their urine too.

Another rider was off-the-chart; Christophe Rinero for corticosteroids. However, he too got his doctor to explain his bad crash in May and his injury healing.
So he cleared the dope control as well.

No harm, no foul. No dope, no tour, no commercial revenues.

Got it?

 

[Flyer]

Lance admits to possesion of Actovegin (calf blood), not a banned product in July 2000. Later banned in December 14, 2000.

However, on Decmber 17, Lance's USPO manager, Mark Gorski, claimed that none of the 9 Postal riders used Actovegin.

Lance claimed that the product could be used for burns or road rashes.---but this was somewhat in conflict with what Mark Gorksi said.

On Lance's website, Lance himself suggests that he will not participate in the 2001 TDF.

Meanwhile, Lance moves to Spain and sells his dream home in Nice, France.

Greg LeMond chimes in with an interview later that day saying: "You don't bycott the greatest race of the year like that."

Speaking on the doping scandals and Lance latest threats to boycott the 2001 Tour, Greg remarked;
"I don't understand it. It's not logical. I know that Lance is disturbed by everything that is currently happening, but you don't boycott the greatest bike race of the year like that."

If Lance had nothing to hide, why threaten a bycott?


You can bet that Jean-Marie LeBlanc worked overtime to make assurances for USPO and his TDF show.

The rest is history.