or Frank Beard would have been a better choice.
Posted on 07/22/2014 3:02:57 PM PDT by Baynative
STURGIS | Perhaps, the comeback starts in Sturgis.
Lance Armstrong, who has been stripped of seven Tour De France titles and received a lifetime ban from competitive cycling for doping, was named Monday as the grand marshal of the 12th Annual Mayor's Ride at the Sturgis motorcycle rally.
(Excerpt) Read more at rapidcityjournal.com ...
I would like to be added to the “Biker” ping. Thanks.
if he would change his name to Barry Bonds there would be no problem.
And all the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc......finishers breathed a sigh of relief following his bust and raised a glass of wine in a salute to the guy who took the heat off them.
As a matter of record, Lance Armstrong doesn't even rank in the top thirty of TDF stage winners............
And since he has been proven to be "juiced", what does that say about the top 30 who never had to experience the same scrutiny Armstrong did?
Oh wait, those other international racers never fell under the jurisdiction of the USADA and thus were exempt from their investigation.........
I don’t get the vitriol regarding Armstrong. I guess I’m also unconvinced that his “doping” was so much of a factor in his success. At that level they’re only talking seconds here and seconds there. The training and work is all still there... Not like he’s laying on the couch eating chips and bon bons. If he truly cheated what I feel is disappointment, not anger.
Like him or hate him he was still a phenomenal athlete. He battled back through cancer, even. Geez... I wish I had that kind of drive.
Dude, you’ve missed the first two thirds of this year’s TdF.
Welcome to the biker ping list.
He is not just a deeply dishonest person, a serial liar, a devoted cheater, a fraud -- He is a bad person.
Sturgis messed up picking that garbage.
If you care about this subject, read The Secret Race and tell me if you think the same thing.
He’s a monster.
Man.
Nice ride ain’t it?
Very true!
Decades ago I competed at the national level in bicycle racing in the USA. At that time there were no substances that seemed to give a decisive edge in road racing. People still tried and some actually died from heat stroke and other maladies after using stimulants. Large amounts of caffeine was and probably still is the most common stimulant used and is still tolerated.
The Eastern Europeans demonstrated in international competition that hormone treatments were effective in weight lifting, swimming and many other sports such as bicycle track racing. The Eastern Europeans were the most successful original innovators in these types of “scientific” training methods.
After the 1976 Olympics a Polish cycling coach named Eddie Borysewicz defected and was hired by the USCF (United States Cycling Federation) as its first full time coach. I was at one of the very first events presided over by Coach Borysewicz, the Jr. World's team trials held in Colorado Springs, CO in 1978.
One had to have a specified number of points from winning or placing in bicycle races held early in the season. I was a district champion that year and highly ranked nationally. My completion in the trials included most notably, Greg LeMond.
Like so many other endeavors by quasi-governmental organizations the Jr. Worlds Team Trials were a farce in so many ways that it would take several pages to describe it in detail. But it was an education also. The morning of the long road race the temperatures were forecast to be over 100 degrees in the afternoon. The officials decided to start it earlier than scheduled to beat the heat. Only one minor detail, no announcement was made until some of us tried to get some breakfast and were told there was no time for us to eat, and also no time to get food to take with us on the way or in the race.
Now this wasn't an issue for those such as Lemond who had family and support with them, but for many of us it was a big problem. At that time I weighed 135 pounds and had little in the way of reserves. There was no one with me to hand up water or food, I didn't get breakfast. I was in the winning break away before I bonked out. This means my reserves ran out and my blood sugar dropped. I rode to a convenience store and bought food and pop and then rode back to the line in time to see the end of the race.
A guy who I knew personally used stimulants came across the line fifteen minutes after the leaders. His face had white dried saliva all around his mouth and he looked bad... as he crossed the finish line he his eyes rolled back and he collapsed. He was still unconscious when the ambulance transported him to the hospital. I thought that he had died.
That night Coach Eddie Borysewicz who was still unable to speak English yelled at our group through a translator that those of us who hadn't finished the race would never amount to anything. Most of us were just kids who were barely able to afford a plane ticket to Colorado Springs. This was a shameful slap in the face to a bunch of kids who had given their all.
Then to top it off Coach Borysewicz held up my friend who was still in the hospital, as an example of someone who gave his all and was now one of his favorites. Of course he never amounted to anything despite his talent and willingness to use “performance enhancing drugs”.
This was the first race in my career that I hadn't finished, and it seemed obvious to me that the organizers were more than a little to blame. They were suppose to have helped those of us who had no support staff. At the time I wondered if the coach was too stupid to realize why the guy had collapsed or if being someone who was willing to take drugs to perform was somehow considered desirable to him? It has always troubled me.
Within a few years Greg Lemond went on to win the Tour de France three times even after nearly being killed in a hunting accident. I knew Greg to be an extraordinary sportsman and I find it hard to believe that he used performance enhancing drugs. Lance was also one of Eddie Borysewicz’s protégés.
I believe that the coach may have brought an attitude with him from Poland that whatever was legal or wouldn't be discovered was alright if it enhanced performance. I knew many of the riders who were caught up in the “blood doping” scandal in the 1984 Olympics. It wasn't illegal at the time and they were definitely encouraged by Eddie Borysewicz and the rest of the coaching staff to do it. I think this sent a bad message to young riders such as Lance.
At the time Lance ascended to the top... using EPO and other techniques that were truly effective were just coming into their own. The attitude was if the other guys are doing it... we are going to have to do it to only better than them. And that is what Lance did.
My biggest problem with Lance is not that he used performance enhancing techniques and then lied about it. It is that he attacked Greg LeMond and others who I know to be honorable and attempted to ruin their lives. Lemond made the constructive criticism that Lance should distance himself from Doctor Ferrari who was known to be helping others with illegal performance enhancing drugs and techniques. Lance went on a vicious campaign which caused Greg to lose nearly everything. So it is not going to bother me if the same thing happens to Lance.
I know a bunch of people who have been highly critical of professional cyclists. Mostly I think that it is funny because people who have never bicycle road raced at a high level simply have no concept of the actual effort involved. The closest most will ever come to it are longer distance running races, but even that is not really very comparable.
Sorry for the very long post.
Excellent post. THIS is why I come to Free Republic.
I agree, Liberty. Armstrong doesn’t measure up next to these guys.
Thanks for the long post. No apologies necessary.
There are quite a few of us here in "The FR Peloton" who have ridden at Cat3 USCF or better and fully understand not only the dedication to maintain that level of fitness, but the pressures that increase as status grows.
When I was riding I lived near Santa Cruz where a lot of riders lived and trained. I knew Jock Boyer who was the first to ride the Tour and met Greg only once. But, both of them had a respect and admiration for the sport and seemed to me to feel a responsibility to American cycling for setting a good example and image. Greg, more so IMO. I'll never believe LeMond used any PED at all, even though he was riding when the simple practice of blood doping became common. I think that began in eastern Europe too, but I could be wrong. There was a lot of talk about it when the '84 Olympic team was exposed, but it was something that was so wide spread it was a case of doing what everyone else was doing. Besides, what was so wrong with saving your own blood to use later, eh? That of course led to other techniques, then EPO.
If you've been following the Tour de France thread here over the years, you'll know that there is a wide variety of opinion in the FR Peloton. I think I am in the minority. "Vision", "euro-twit", "kevkrom" and others are very hard line on PEDs and also came down much harder on Lance than I did. They eviscerated Contador, too. I defended Lance longer than anyone, maybe because of his cancer ordeal and having met him at a USCF banquet when he was still with Motorola. When you meet someone its easy to feel for them a bit more, I guess. I also defended Floyd Landis - I just didn't want it to be true.
(I have a hunch there's something about the exhaust pipes too)
Hey they aint snobs up there.
Plenty of them love Birmingham steel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2DJLVWZASw
bttt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
