Posted on 08/05/2010 4:04:55 AM PDT by Perdogg
Federal prosecutors have intensified their criminal investigation of the cyclist Lance Armstrong since the end of the Tour de France last month. They questioned many of his former associates, including cyclists who have supported and detailed claims that Armstrong and his former United States Postal Service team participated in systematic doping, according to a cyclist who has been interviewed and two others privy to the inquiry.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping
They tested the heck out of Armstrong. It was the European cycling community that wanted him tested and tested often (believing he was doping). They got their way and no test ever came back positive.
I can't begin to say how dumb having a FEDERAL LAW against doping, or any other type of performance enhancing technique is. Why should the federal government be wasting our tax money enforcing the rules of a sport? Why is it so important that some a majority of legislators in the House and Senate, along with the president (whoever that may be) see the need to go after people like Lance Armstrong, assuming that his only "crime" is alleged blood doping.
If Armstrong, or any other athlete for that matter, was found to be cheating by this or any other means, then surely the governing body for the sport in question could take appropriate punitive action against him.
What's next, having the federal government prosecute baseball players who use corked bats, or going after football players for engaging in unnecessary roughness? Come on.
There’s a “United States Anti-Doping Agency”?
Really?
Who funds it?
I guess we do.
Question: why do I have to pay taxes to support investigations into doping of bicycle riders when I don’t give a rat’s patoot if they ride on steroids, crack, heroin or Romilar cough syrup?
What is the constitutional principle that enables the government to tax me to pay for policing of internal sporting rules?
I know in the big scheme of things it’s a small amount of money, but still, it irks me that it’s just SOP for the government to become involved in everything, down to the most detailed level.
I posted before I read your post, which is a very good one. Mine is just a pale addendum to yours. Good post.
Coming years later... never spoke up when it allegedly happened... I do not believe it.
LLS
From what I have read they want to get Lance on fraud charges in regards to his sponsorship deals.
Anonymous sources say other anonymous people have incriminated Lance ping.
Its the “rollerball” complex. The ruling liberal financial cabal wants to destroy and besmirch our hero’s!
Future generations will scratch their head when they try to figure out the priorities of people of this time period.
What about the little leaguers with fake birth certificate?
OGNTSA!
In fairness to Lance, I doubt I would have been able to date Sheryl Crowe on anything less than black tar.
Federal prosecutors are corrupt.
“One does not ride The Tour on mineral water”
-Jacques Anquetil
What most Americans do not understand is that drugs - champagne even, amphetamines in the old days (”cocaine for the eyes...”) were a big part of a rider’s life.
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/03/sports/sp-cycling3
But the testing now is rampant, and extremely sensitive. I think it is possible - even likely - that Lance is the first great rider to NOT use illegal performance enhancing drugs. He has perfected many other legal techniques, such as the altitude tent, and (to some degree, like LeMond) he had the “unfortunate advantage” of being able to rebuild his body after cancer - to the specification of a Tour winner.
Drugs or no drugs, my opinion is that we must count these men - among them Anquetil, Hinault, Poulidor, Armstrong, Indurain - and the greatest, Merckx, as some of the greatest athletes of all time.
I think so too. As much as he’s been tested I just find it hard to believe especially when you look at his teammates that have been caught: Hamilton, Herras, Landis. I think it’s possible they doped just to be part of the team; the question is was it known?
I have a great book called A Dog in a Hat that’s about one of the first Americans to go to Europe and compete as a pro. Drugs were definitely rampant as well as a lot of deal making on the road. He talks about DS’s handing anphetamines out the window with the water bottles.
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