Lance in trouble with the UCI

[VLAD (the Friendly Vamp)]

Everyone smiles.so..........................How about Valverde then ??????

[JohnG]

Who? Never heard of him.

[VLAD (the Friendly Vamp)]

Prudhomme expects Armstrong at the Tour,Link Here.JohnG Hangs Head in shame of a once gallent Countryman now turned traitor.

[Dai]

JohnG wrote (see Deary me, you fell for the nasal spray line.Baxter didn't expect to finish on the podium and therefore didn't expect to be tested simple as.  The International Ski Federation also "fell" for the Nasal spray line accepting it as mitigation and handing out the minimum ban. The Court of arbitration for sport also "fell" for the nasal spray line and overturned the Ban imposed by the ISF. The scientific evidence put forward by his defence was that the isomer of methamphetamine in the nasal spray was innactive and would have had no effect on performance I dont remember the full facts but I dont think this was contested, however the rules banned all isomers of a banned substance regardless of activity/inactivity. Baxter lost his medal, fair enough as he had taken a banned substance albit unwittingly but I wouldnt consider him a drugs cheat as two courts/hearings have accepted he took the amphetamines by mistake (in the spray) and they had no effect on performance.As for not expecting to end up on the podium he had 4 top 10 WC finishes in the run up to the Salt Lake Olympics so whilst not a shoe in he could hardly be seen as a no hope, and your implying that he would then take drugs as he had no chance of making the podium therefore wouldnt be tested makes very little sense to me.   

[Odd Brown Mutt]

IMO Armstrong has never been caught out so in my eyes is innocent. Same as the rest of them; Indurain, Merckx etc etc. I am all for aggressively going after riders, and making it as hard as it can be to effectively dope, but once the crime is done, its done, the sopers won on that day. I think if you look at it objectively, it would be impossible for Indurain or Armstrong, or anyone else of that time to do what they did without dabbling in the magic sauce, so it is relatively safe to say that Armstrong will have helped his performance medically some how. Now, is that why he won the tour 7 times? Of course not, so as far as I am concerned, he got away with it so let it go, he is innocent in my eyes. Now as for his come back, I think tis great, as he can play in the supposed 'new world' and lets see how he gets on. Over the years, I have not known a single team mate that hasn't talked of doping and its benefits, and has joked about getting junked up. I would put a grand of my money down any day that none of them ever actually tampered with the sauce. Its a different game at the top I admit, but talking about something and doing it are two different things.

[Odd Brown Mutt]

Oh and the shower thng... if the tester didn't want him to go to the shower and he did, that would surely be a fail... the tester would/should have left saying no specimen given (or whatever the term is) the moment Lance walked away with his shower cap in ahnd. If the tester didn't then there is no come back. .. no story here, move on, must do better next time.

[Richard Hallett]

Dai wrote (see)JohnG wrote (see Deary me, you fell for the nasal spray line.Baxter didn't expect to finish on the podium and therefore didn't expect to be tested simple as.The International Ski Federation also "fell" for the Nasal spray line accepting it as mitigation and handing out the minimum ban. The Court of arbitration for sport also "fell" for the nasal spray line and overturned the Ban imposed by the ISF. The scientific evidence put forward by his defence was that the isomer of methamphetamine in the nasal spray was innactive and would have had no effect on performance I dont remember the full facts but I dont think this was contested, however the rules banned all isomers of a banned substance regardless of activity/inactivity. Baxter lost his medal, fair enough as he had taken a banned substance albit unwittingly but I wouldnt consider him a drugs cheat as two courts/hearings have accepted he took the amphetamines by mistake (in the spray) and they had no effect on performance.As for not expecting to end up on the podium he had 4 top 10 WC finishes in the run up to the Salt Lake Olympics so whilst not a shoe in he could hardly be seen as a no hope, and your implying that he would then take drugs as he had no chance of making the podium therefore wouldnt be tested makes very little sense to me.  From what I remember of the case, Baxter went out and bought a cold treatment that, as formulated for sale in the UK, did not contain any banned substances. He erroneously assumed that the formulation would be the same in the USA and bought the remedy confident that he was safe in doing so.

[Gary Sellars]

Agree with you OBM that what's done is done if they haven't been caught but how much of a hypocrite must an athlete feel when they go into a press conference and proclaim the only thing that won them the race was a lot of hard work when down deep inside they know the truth , in Armstrong's case he was never caught and a good job for him otherwise the whole Carmichael Training System empire would have fallen flat on it's face ,  Another question that was never properly explained was why the work with Ferrari ?    was Chris Carmichael not an adequate coach ?   Ferrari is of course the man who proclaimed EPO no more dangerous than orange juice , yeah right Michele tell that to the grieving families who've lost loved ones to the side effects of EPO  namely blood turning into jam overnight when the heart slows.   

[Richard Hallett]

Is that smiley to show your pleasure at contemplating such a fate for a doper, Gary?

[Gary Sellars]

Not at all Richard, i just wish he'd stayed retired and let the future of cycling carry on ,  i thought that we'd left a lot of speculation and such like behind after Lance retired, now that he's back it's all systems go again.