[rocketassist]

Will anyone ever take the sport of cycling seriously now.

[Kat_YYZ]

Slick move by Armstrong. He can't really win. Why waste years of your life in courtrooms in a 'he said/she said' game. He's right: people will think what they want about him regardless of the outcome or evidence presented. They've already made up their minds.

Really... the more I think about it, the more brilliant it seems.

[Litotes]

So it's final? He loses his seven TdF's? That is good. Too bad it took so long. It's not the same to have won TdF in 1999 when you get the title in 2012.

[tripwires]

So what happens to those 7 titles? Apparently the runner-ups were dopers as well, so who will they "give" them to?

Cycling is so messed up.

[Kolya]

1999 - Zulle doped, Escartin
2000 - Ullrich doped, Beloki (involved in Operation Puerto), Moreau (doped), Heras (doped), Virenque (doped), Botero (involved in OP), Escartin
2001 - Ullrich doped, Beloki (involved in OP), Kivilev
2002 - Beloki (involved in OP), Rumsas doped, Botero (involved OP), Gonzalez de Galdeano (?), Azevedo
2003 - Ullrich doped, Vinokourov doped, Hamilton doped, Zubeldia
2004 - Kloden (alleged blood transfusion), Basso (banned), Ullrich doped, Azevedo
2005 - Basso (banned), Ullrich (DQ), Mancebo (involved in OP), Vinokourov (doped), Leipheimer (was with US Postal), Rasmussen (doped), Evans

Funny stuff this cycling...

[Har-Tru]

Originally Posted by rocketassist

Will anyone ever take the sport of cycling seriously now.

Nothing has changed between yesterday and today. Why would this make a difference?

The only thing that sets cycling apart from other sports like tennis is that cycling actually fights doping.

[Har-Tru]

Originally Posted by Kolya

1999 - Zulle doped, Escartin
2000 - Ullrich doped, Beloki (involved in Operation Puerto), Moreau (doped), Heras (doped), Virenque (doped), Botero (involved in OP), Escartin
2001 - Ullrich doped, Beloki (involved in OP), Kivilev
2002 - Beloki (involved in OP), Rumsas doped, Botero (involved OP), Gonzalez de Galdeano (?), Azevedo
2003 - Ullrich doped, Vinokourov doped, Hamilton doped, Zubeldia
2004 - Kloden (alleged blood transfusion), Basso (banned), Ullrich doped, Azevedo
2005 - Basso (banned), Ullrich (DQ), Mancebo (involved in OP), Vinokourov (doped), Leipheimer (was with US Postal), Rasmussen (doped), Evans

Funny stuff this cycling...

Gonzalez de Galdeano was also doped.

EDIT: And Kivilev would get his Tour postumously of course.

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by rocketassist

Will anyone ever take the sport of cycling seriously now.

Yes, me. Is there a particular reason why I shouldn't? Has something big happened that we didn't know already? No.

Originally Posted by tripwires

Cycling is so messed up.

Cycling is not Tour de France, right?

Originally Posted by Kolya

Escartin

Busted.

[scoobs]

The problem with having no "definitive" outcome is that there is no closure on all this. People will go on believing what they choose to believe and there's is nothing official to provide the best answer that can be found.

For my part, if you refuse to fight the charges and concede, then you're leaving people to draw the conclusion that you are guilty.

[Har-Tru]

Originally Posted by Echoes

Busted.

Escartin was never busted.

He raced in a very dodgy team, but he was never caught.

[Kolya]

Originally Posted by Har-Tru

Escartin was never busted.

He raced in a very dodgy team, but he was never caught.

That was what I thought.

Do you have any sources Echoes?

[scarecrows]

Originally Posted by Kolya

1999 - Zulle doped, Escartin
2000 - Ullrich doped, Beloki (involved in Operation Puerto), Moreau (doped), Heras (doped), Virenque (doped), Botero (involved in OP), Escartin
2001 - Ullrich doped, Beloki (involved in OP), Kivilev
2002 - Beloki (involved in OP), Rumsas doped, Botero (involved OP), Gonzalez de Galdeano (?), Azevedo
2003 - Ullrich doped, Vinokourov doped, Hamilton doped, Zubeldia
2004 - Kloden (alleged blood transfusion), Basso (banned), Ullrich doped, Azevedo
2005 - Basso (banned), Ullrich (DQ), Mancebo (involved in OP), Vinokourov (doped), Leipheimer (was with US Postal), Rasmussen (doped), Evans

Funny stuff this cycling...

you make it look like those spanish riders were clean

[BodyServe]

I do feel a bit sorry for him, i mean he was the best among dopers.

[jrm]

Armstrong still claiming he was never caught; of course it was in interest of entire cycling world to keep that information secret as the fairy tale story from death to the top would destroy the sport

i mean, you don't have to be smart one to know something is wrong, all his teammates were failing doping test like dominos and some of them accused him of doping and he was clean and beating them all, in minutes???

he says this is the black day in world of sport

Bolt case: i'm not saying there is something wrong but just in case something was wrong, again, IAAF would do everything to kept it a secret because Bolt equals track and field at the moment!

[Looner]

Originally Posted by tripwires

Quote from NYT:



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/sp...mid=fb-nytimes

Sounds like his decision was made because he was sick of the whole thing rather than him admitting to doping.

10 years, though, is a ridiculous amount of time to investigate a case and formally bring charges, even for normal litigation standards. Maybe it's more complex in doping cases, I don't know.

Just a last gasp attempt at trying to spin the story in a way that still preserves some of his image. It was obvious he doped but no one wanted to admit it. I, for one, am glad for this ruling because as an Ulrich fan (who also doped) it seemed to me Armstrong was from another planet if he could beat those guys by such margins when they doped.