lowbike

let's just think about this, what's your opinion on Trek Bicycle Co. not knowing that Mr. Armstrong was doing what he he was claimed to have done during all of those years of cycling for them? Ypu would think that it should have crossed someone's mind in the upper management of the company. So IMO i think now that people would no longer a company who supported people who have cheated to make it better for their company.

Mr. Beanz

FTR, I had a Trek bike and loved it way before I heard of Lance back in 95. Great bke, fit like a glove.

IMO, just about every mfgr has had a cheat on the bike, Pinarello (Valverde) Bianchi (Pantani) and the list goes on and on. Maybe we should just do away with bicycles.

Instead of supporting a sport that supported a cheat, maybe you should take up Ping Pong?

tagaproject6

Think about bigger and better things. You have, at least once, purchased a product from a company/corporation/country that did something worse to people that dwarfs Lance Armstrong's cheating in cycling.

Condorita

I have philosophical reasons for avoiding Apple and Nike. I don't see the same issues with Trek.

jon c. 

I never cared much for Lance anyway. Always thought he was sort of an arrogant SOB. But that's never influenced my feelings about Trek.

cale

I'm sure that a lot of people at Trek had suspicions but in the absence of a conviction there wasn't a compelling reason to replace Lance. He was, after all, very good for business. The bottom line is that few people will hold any sponsor liable for the scandal but all will probably suffer from the fallout to come.

kaliayev

I am sure Trek had a contract with Lance and who knows under what stipulations Trek had legal standing to terminate that contract. If people turned away from every cycling company sponsored a doper who would we buy from?

Okiecardinal

I started a thread essentially the same as this one on the Pro forum. I'm a Trek rider myself and love my bike.

I can't help but wonder, though, that Trek might be more than just an innocent sponsor that got duped by a cheat.

Most people know the Armstrong and Trek vs. Greg LeMond saga. The recent report reveals that when LeMond was "forced" to apologize to Lance for voicing his disappointment that LA was affiliated with a shady physician, it was Trek's lawyers and not Greg LeMond who issued the apology. Eventually Trek and LeMond have a very contentious parting of the ways.

I cannot fathom how a bike company sponsoring the bike that the world's best cyclist rode at that time could not or would not have had ample evidence, complaints and inside info concerning Armstrong's activities. If that were the case, I would think Trek's reputation has to be called into serious question for keeping silent and continuing to have a business relationship with Lance.

Even if that silence were was obtained via legal threats, which has now been revealed to have been a major Armstrong tactic for many years now.

I can see how perhaps Trek decided that standing up to Lance in the early years of his dominance might have been a very bad maneuver considering how many people were affected adversely for questioning LA's achievements. But one might argue that for the last 2-3 years the climate would have been much safer for a company to cooperate.

I dunno....I can't say I'm an avid fan of competitive cycling. And I'm not saying Trek is inherently evil. But I find it hard to believe Trek didn't or couldn't be a part of cleaning up the biggest scandal in cycling history. For the world's largest cycling manufacturer, that's pretty disappointing.

Mobile 155

Looking at all of the reports and evidence over the years it is suggested that at least a third of "all" pro riders juiced during the time frame we are talking about. Lets be honest and realize even that is more than likely a conservitive estimate. More than likely 50 percent were juicing. Heck even back in the day Eddie Merckx was caught juicing 4 times and Anquitil won 4 or 5 TDFs and admitted he juiced. There is no way they all rode Treks so you have to stop riding a lot of differnt bikes if that bothers you. Half of the caught dopers that were willing to testify about doping were allowed to ride this years TDF and many of them were with BMC, so BMC knew they had juicers on their team. Like the former president of the WADA said there is almost no way the ICU didn't "know" about all of the juicing going on so they are even more complicit.

If someone was only going to ride a bike that never supported a pro doper then they would more than likely have to buy a bike no pro would ever ride. In today's world of compitition to boycot a sport because someone in that sport was juicing would mean, no Baseball, Football, Basketball, Tennis, Golf, Track and field, horse racing, auto and motorcycle racing...well you get the point.

Flying Merkel

I ride bikes. I do not care in any way shape or form about Trek's sponsorship of Lance. It has no relevance to the Trek bike line-up.

Sounds like Mr. Armstrong got caught. Can't wait to see the field of riders for the 2013 TdF.

tnvol123

I own 2 Trek bikes and like them a lot. Lance has nothing to do with that.

fietsbob

Rumor The Lemond brand was dropped By Trek,
(more like Greg was a Jerk and was his own worst case )
Lance, like some bird species ...
pushes a couple eggs out of another's nest, lays some of its own,
and relies on the other hen to sit on their eggs. for them.. to hatch..

Winning at all costs , still has a cost..

heard the TdF will just leave the winner those years blank,
since 2nd and 3rd were also suspect.

mprelaw

The people who would have had "inside information" were his teammates. And they were all riding Treks, too.

dramiscram

Lance who?

Juggler2

I believe Trek knew what was going on, but turned a blind eye to the activity's of their golden goose. You sell more bicycles with a 7 time TDF winner than the sales you get from a sponsorship of "Earl" down at the corner service station.

Aeolis

Mike Vick, Tiger woods, Lance Armstrong. Nike dropped one of them and kept supporting the other 2. What's wrong with that picture.

tergal

I have a trek, lance never rode my bike and i couldn't care less

ultrarider

I won't be buying any more trek bikes due to the local dealers attitude. If I ever get cancer I hope I get we'll enough to watch a bike race. Maybe the doctors and lance should be praised instead of crucified. The man returned from deaths door to win the tour 7 times. The world needs more "doping".

mprelaw

Another American rider was a lot closer to death's door than Lance, and he came back to win two more Tours. Clean, with over 30 shotgun pellets around his heart. He also established a foundation to assist and counsel kids who were victims of sexual abuse. That foundation, unfortunately, isn't marketed as glitzy as Livestrong was. He preferred to keep it out of the headlines.

He also had a line of bikes that Trek managed to kill off. Under pressure from Lance. He sued, and when Trek settled the lawsuit, he had the award go to his foundation instead of putting it in his pocket.

You need to choose your heroes more carefully. And be better informed about them.

cale

Well....Tiger was guilty of marital indiscretions, so it's not really in the same class as cheating in your sport. Mike Vick... yeah, I don't get Nike but then I'm not in their marketing sights.

no1mad 

Meh. Any Trek product that is/was related to Lance in anyway has always been out of my price range and I suffer no delusions or aspirations of becoming competitive in any realm of the cycling universe. The guys at the local Trek shop are a great bunch, but I can buy a comparable product cheaper from Giant, Specialized, Kona, and a couple of other brands locally.

Mobile 155

Is that the same line of bikes he was willing to destroy his relationship to his father for? So if I have this correct he started building bikes, put his dad in charge and then blamed him because of lack of capital? Then he decided to fight his dad and toss him under the bus so he could make a deal with Trek. When things looked bad at Trek he lied about how he felt about Lance to keep peace that he wasn't willing to keep with his dad? You have to like your hero both on and off the bike as well. It is all a matter of perspective, our hero doesn't have to be an American nor a cyclist.

I was just pointing out that we all have a different standard for hero. Very few people that get paid to play a game meet the standard for me but they do to thousands that call themselves fans. (Chain pulling is free of charge.)

Phil_gretz

I think that pre-1984 Treks are pretty special. I also appreciate pre-1984 riders. Modern celebrity and modern convenience/technological/consumerist products...meh...I can live mostly without them. No offense intended to modern Trek fans, though.

Today's athletes, just as with 20th century athletes, are entertainers after all. All the sport squabbling about "rules of the game", whether they be high hits in hockey, or the 5-yard bump zone in football, or the designated hitter rule, or the cycling lower weight limit, or whatever...they're instituted for a reason. And that's to deliver the most entertaining product at an acceptable combination of risk and social liability. Get the fans and sponsors to continue paying...

I'm unfavorably disposed toward substances that increase performance at the expense of destroying the athlete (see Lyle Alzado). Otherwise, who cares? Do we police the private lives of ballet dancers or musicians, actors or circus clowns?

Condorita

Just what do athletes do to qualify them for the description "hero"?

LarDasse74

Anyone the least bit familiar with elite cycling (and sports in general) would have been a fool to be surprised by Lance's doping. It is rampant among the pro peleton, as it is among NFL players, high school students, dudes who like to work out, etc... wherever there is a reason for someone to increase the limits of their physical performance - reasons like money, pride, chicks (or dudes), to avoid bullying, etc - people will find unfair and unhealthy ways to do it.

I think it not very honest of Trek to suddenly step back and say "*Gasp!* Cyclists use drugs? We had no idea! Lance - you eveil evil man! We cast thee OUT!!!!!11"

However, this has very little effect on my opinion of the bikes, or the likelihood of my buing one in the future. I was more upset when Aflak fired Gilbert Godfried for making rude jokes about the Japanese Tsunami - he could have been fired for making unfunny jokes, but rude jokes should be encouraged.