See the bit about him not co-operating with the Federal Courts.
Iād need to watch back the documentary again to recall exactly what he says, but LA was very clear that he was not offered the same deal the rest of them were.
He was the target. They had no incentive to offer him such a sweet deal to confess as they did to the rest of them in order to nail Lance.
Well, tbh, Iām sure that Lance is lying in a bed of his own making.
Iām equally sure that he must be a genuinely fascinating person to talk to.
All dopers stopped the clean riders from progressing, but this pretty vile human apparently made others dope if they wished to stay in the gameā¦
See, this is where we disagree then. Iām not disputing LA was a horrible person, but to say he instigated this attitude in the pro peloton is just too much of an exaggeration of reality.
This is well before Lanceās time as the ābig playerā he became, when he was just a guy in the peloton DNF-ing the TdF every year:
https://www.theguardian.com/observer/osm/story/0,6903,481524,00.html
The years from 1994 to 1998 were crazy ones for the Festina team: full of success, popularity and results which took us to the top of UCIās world team points rankings. These were the years of folly. Aside from the new boys and a few other clean riders who were left on the margins we would see the whole spectrum of drug-taking; everyone was at it, whatever team they were in. Even if some went further than others in the arms race.
But why believe what he says, heād p1ss on your shoes and tell you itās raining if he could gain any advantage by it. I had a quick google. It isnāt difficult to find that he didnāt cooperate with the Grand Jury or USADA. He was even given a deadline and then an extension of when he could testify under oath but instead he went on Oprah and lied some more. You donāt cooperate with a process looking at what you and colleagues did and then complain about it? The easiest way for him to prove that was the case was to give the truth under oath. But then he would have to cede control and his ego couldnāt cope with that. Not taking part and then crying about how unfair it is playground stuff.
i didnātā¦
But the evidence shows that he gave certain team mates the choice of play his game or leaveā¦
And sepcifically the program Armstrong and Bruyneel wanted you on. Not your own doctor. That way Ferrari can ensure you donāt have the opportunity to beat Armstrong (same for Ferrariās other clients whether they wanted to be GC contender or not).
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Itās an interesting watch. Iāve seen the first part. The second part is waiting as turbo fodder. The whole situation and system was a mess. I do think it is harsh that he got punished so much more heavily than others. Iām not saying that what he did is excusable, nor the way he treated people, but I think the system failed everyone. It failed riders who doped because they felt they āhad toā, and worse, it failed those who chose not to. The system can now punish the likes of lance but how can it ever identify and make it up to those who stayed clean and got spat out? Iām sure thereās more than Bassons out thereā¦
Obviously a big thing here is also corruption at the highest levels of the sportās governing body. Not unusualā¦
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I donāt see that the system is any different now. It isnāt in the interest of a sports govenrning body to catch their own athletes, and largely they donāt. Usually itās law enforcement or a persistent journalist with the help of athletes who want change.
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I see the former IAAF chief has just been done for covering up positive tests.
What. A. Surprise.
Absolutely. Weāre talking about the marginal sport of cycling and its level of corruption. Just imagine getting below the surface of FIFA. The allegations against Sepp Blatter was mere lip service
ftfy
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A French court has convicted him.
Are we allowed to trust the french at the moment?
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Absolutely but I bet his vice president from 2007- 2013 was also dodgyā¦ Oh no wait it was Lord Coeā¦ Scratch that heās a Brit and a Lord.
100% @awildt, all the money in football and no one is doping. Rugby players clean as a whitsle 
The press are complicit IMHO. I donāt expect them to name without concrete evidence as that doesnāt help anyone except lawyers. But they do perpuate this notion that doping is being lazy and taking a short cut. Dwain Chambers (iirc) said the difference between being clean and doping is training x2 day vs x3 when doping. The press also create a pantomime villain of dopers.
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We did this exercise at work, a couple of years ago. Pre-reading: The Curious Case of Lance Armstrong.
You had to decide if, at the end, his presence as a world class cyclist was a good thing.
Or, decimating a sport and ruining peopleās lives against raising a ridiculous amount of cash for charity.
Discuss for x amount of time, unanimous decision required across all participants.
I was a pig in muck, and the facilitator is a good mate of mine who loves his cycling. Great exercise.
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ā¦and?
I think we came to the consensus that it would of been better if he had never been famous, Kaneās take on ethics and all that.
Itās an interesting though one, isnāt it?