Pug

Kind of odd coincidence but he changed his Strava name from "Juan Pelota" to "Lance Armstrong" today.

https://app.strava.com/athletes/125154

marqueemoon

My wife told me about this this morning. I told her there are very few people in the world who would be this arrogant. The guy can't leave well enough alone. That's how he got himself into this mess in the first place.

C'mon, dude. Just sit on your big pile of money and hope that in the few years the public will remember your doped up exploits fondly like they do for Merckx and Pantani. If you genuinely want to come clean for anything other than selfish reasons (to compete again) then out with it all and help clean up the sport.

bikepro

I've read about his alleged negotiations pertaining to: "If I confess to what you already know, will you reinstate me so I can continue to complete".

Well, If any of the agencies agree to this, they are more stupid than anyone ever thought. If Armstrong is trying to pull this off, the bar for arrogance has been raised to a new record level.

BluesDawg

I bet Johan hopes he doesn't come clean.

AndyK 

I can imagine him saying something like "I said I never tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, which was the truth. However, the tests weren't right..."

surgeonstone

And of course, we will all believe because we know Lance never lies.

oldbobcat

Maybe in eight years. That's what Tyler Hamilton got.

On the other hand, maybe he might cop a deal if he can tell how it all went down with McQuaid and Verbruggen.

socalrider

that big pile of money is going to be a lot smaller once all these companies start suing him.. The endorsements have dried up, so he may need appearance fee money in the future to keep the money train a going.

900aero

I guess lance wants to sort things out so he can keep racing tris and ensure Livestrong survives. Whatever he does will be interesting to watch. There will be a lot of nervous people watching this, not merely just the usual roll-call of villains. Could go right through the UCI and Olympics.

Jed19

This.

Angio Graham

I dont think Armstrong has lied any more or any less than all the other dopers who lied. I think Armstrong was just asked for often.

teufelhunden222

I still like the guy. Anyone that has an issue with my opinion...well they can **** off.

RoyIII

Armstrong is OK - so's Roger Clemens...and Pete Rose for that matter. Pro cycling politics is not worth worrying about. The doping stuff is handled about as well as it can be. I'm thinking about getting a cup of coffee.

lostforawhile

I respect the fact that he overcame cancer and continued to race, and I have a lot of respect for the livestrong foundation, I think it will keep going, because of what it does, but I dont have respect for him, whether the others do it ot not, he got caught and as far as I'm concerned he's cheating, how do you know what he won on his own, and what the drugs helped him do? you dont, so I lost all the respect I used to have for him, and I wa a fan for a long time. Not trying to start a debate, just stating my opinion

bikepro

Well, as much as I hate to see the Armstrong lifetime ban lifted, If he can provide evidence of McQuaid and/or Verbruggen's involvement, it would be worth it.

lostforawhile

This is the reason I gave up on most professional sports, how do you compare the achievements of earlier sports figures, who most likely did it on their own, with the achievements of modern athletes who are more then likely doping,

RJM

You don't. Just compare them to their contemporaries.

lostforawhile

Well we know Mark Martin was sponsored by Viagra and still couldnt um get it up to win, does that count? sorry had to go there

bikepro

Only talking about cyclists here, but there has always been the drug du jour. Of course the drugs of past days were probably not as effective as those of today. Perhaps we need some form of handicapping system to make results more comparable over the years. It would be based on the relative effectiveness of the drugs of the era and the probabality that a rider was doping (based on the number found to be doping in that year and the total number of competitive cyclists). It sounds complex, but it would fit right in with the UCI's other formulas -- such as the relative dimensions of an aerodynamic frame, etc.

TakingMyTime

I have to agree with you there. Professional sports is nothing but a bunch of hired guns going to the highest bidder. I don't fault them for grabbing the golden ring, I just don't want to be a fan anymore.

Rowan

WADA has denied Armstrong has been in contact with theml although of course, the phone is always on.

This seems like a fishing expedition. Armstrong can take heart, though, that there are still a lot of his supporters out there (and here), but the groundswell really looks like no-one wants to know.

In the gym today, I had a look at a February 2011 men's health and fitness magazine (yeah, it's a bit behind in its reading material), and there was a double page fold-out advertisement for Nissan with Armstrong front and centre. And the guy who was his so-called trainer, Chris Carmichael was there in name, too, giving strength advice. I thought of the irony of it all... and how this con-job reached much further than just cycling.

I think there are certain legal issues that Armstrong is likely to have to bargain about, and that jail time for perjury might be one of them.

In the end, I don't think this story will come to anything. Armstrong's ego seems too large for him to admit the wrongdoing. He also will be close to 50 if they reduce the ban to eight years and he resumes participating after that, and he will be too far gone to still be a force in marathons and IM.

merlinextraligh

I think he's ok on perjury. IIRC the only time he testified under oath about PEDS was in 2004-2005 in the arbitration. Statue of Limitations for perjury in Texas is 3 years. So that's run.

Civil suits from sponsors may be a bigger problem, and the possibility of charges of lying to federal officials may also be a problem.

I'm sure his lawyers have charted out all the various ramifications.

My bet is that at some point Armstrong will come out with a "Tell ALL" with the purpose of attempting to ressurect his image, and reinvent himself.

How long it will be till that happens, and how candid the "confession" will be remains to seen.

99Klein 

Why not confess? It's all out there and public record now. The lawsuits are in place or are being assembled. It's all about money and publicity for him now.... oh wait it always was.

merlinextraligh

I've been coached by CTS for a number of years, and have met Carmichael a couple of times.

I never had any delusion that Carmichael was the master mind behind Armstrong's success, and I didn't begin working with CTS because of Armstrong's success.

Carmichael had his own professional cycling career, and was U.S. National Team coach. He knows something about how to ride a bike, and how to train to do so.

I've stayed with CTS because I like my current coach, and the approach works for me.

While the Armstrong connection clearly gave Carmichael a marketing advantage getting started, I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of people that continue to work with CTS do so because, like me, they find value in the services provided, not because they have "Lance's Coach."

Jed19

There is nothing in LA's personality/character, in my opinion, that comes close to resembling "candidness". The guy is almost a borderline sociopath (may be that is what you need to be to be as successful as he was/is in pro cycling and the attendant sponsorship riches). LA's MO will always be to use people/events or whatever, for his own ends. And with people like that, the end is all that matters. The means is just "whatever it takes".

Also, could it be out of the realm for people he had attacked so viciously in the past to file civil lawsuits in attempt to get their good names back? I am thinking of Emma O'Reilly, the Andreus etc. I mean, he once insinuated that Emma O'Reilly was doing inappropriate things of a sexual nature with some team members on the US Postal team.