Rowan

Oddly, unless i have missed something since I've been away, I don't think South Carolina is in Australia.

Jed19

I am going to make a prediction about the Oprah interview. LA won't tell the truth. I do not think he has it in his constitution to ever be truthful about anything, so, why should he start now?

What says you?

Rowan

You would have to know what the end point in Armstrong's mind is. After the picture of him reclining in front of the yellow jerseys (giving the bird to everyone metaphorically), and its publication so recently, I find it difficult for him to have come to his senses and is ready to confess.

The tipping point would have to be that someone has threatened him with something he cannot fight either in the courts or in a public relations exercise whereby he remains (in his mind) blameless. Bruyneel may well be that person.

I think it will be one of the more interesting interviews in 2013, but to see if Armstrong is telling the truth, those experts at places such as ETaC (a school for deception detection) need to be on board to give their analysis afterwards of his body language.

Angio Graham

when I was younger my grandpa told me "its not a confession if everyone already knows".

if lance comes out and admitts to doping it would be a step in the right direction but i think he needs to basically write a book and detail every single piece of information about himself and others who doped.

i believe lance doped no more and no less than all the other top riders.

Cat4Lifer

Was never much of a Lance supporter--not until all the lemmings started lining up to single him out for special treatment.

Rowan

I think the evidence shows otherwise. The evidence goes back to before he had testicular cancer. As ringmaster, he would always have kept the best for himself.

Angio Graham

how long has hincapie been doping for ? how long has hincapie been lying about doping ?

Cat4Lifer

I believe that too.
Of course, there are those who "know" differently based on some often cited but never produced evidence.

Rowan

Remind me again how many of those riders have admitted they doped?

Remind me again, has Armstrong admitted that he doped?

That will be the crux of the Soap Oprah interview.

Fidelista

Fidelista

...but they wouldn't have been "top riders" without cheating. They didn't get to the top level and suddenly start doping. They started when they were lower level riders competing against clean riders who were beating them.

Cat4Lifer

Oh of course, without a doubt...
remind me again how we know this to be the case?

Fidelista

Because if they were winning clean, they wouldn't have any "need" to use PEDs, would they?

Tony N.

For those that believe, around pre-99 the Lance teamates had the alledged Lance discussion where he said, we gotta dope to compete with these guys just like they do. By confessions, they did and then they won. Of course these confessions came after years of coertion and offers of redemption and allowances to continue in their careers. A price is/was paid by the sponsors pulling support which results in others not coming clean imo.

merlinextraligh

Armstrong was on Oprah during his hay day.

He got Oprah on a bike, and they raced, with Armstrong pedaling with one leg.

Wonder if Oprah's going to claim she's now the rightful winner of that race.

merlinextraligh

That version of events ignores the evidence that he doped well before 1999, specifically Frankie Andreu, Betsy Andreu's testimony, and the statements of the Oakely rep.

FrenchFit 

The story that isn't being followed is ... why did our DOJ suddenly drop its investigation/prosecution of Armstrong? Who pulled their strings on Armstrong's behalf?

Angio Graham

Haliburton

merlinextraligh

I doubt that is a sinnister, as some are making out. The DOJ came up close to empty on Bonds. Got their asses handed to them by Clemmons ( in a trail the DOJ botched leadind to a mistrial and a retrial).

With those rather public failures, I think the U.S. Attorney didn't want another protracted fight and potential loss ( recall that the crminal case against Armstrong would have required a lot more than simply showing he used PED's). I'm sure some high powered lobbying didn't hurt in the decision to drop the investigation, but I think it also was an ass covering decision by the U.S. Attorney. Those guys do not like to lose cases, and only pursue matters they have a high probability of winning.

telebianchi

If I understood things correctly, the DOJ was investigating whether Lance used United States govt money (through USPS sponsorship) to fund illegal activities (use of illegal PEDs) and that doing so violated the contract with USPS. So they could only directly investigate the time-frame where USPS was the sponsor. They had to show that it was USPS money and not money from some other source that was used for any illegal activity they may have found. So DOJ may have had (and likely did in my opinion) plenty of info showing that Lance doped but if they couldn't follow the money back to USPS sponsorship they would not have had much of a case.

telebianchi

From Jimmy Fallon:

‏@jimmyfallon. Lance Armstrong will sit for 90-minute talk with Oprah. Though it'll be kind of suspicious when he finishes in just 60 minutes.

Commodus

haha wow. if there was ever easily available evidence of anything, it's this case. do you really need someone to hold your hand and sift through it all?

seriously, at this point some of you guys are just purposely staying ignorant. which is fine, there are lots of sports I don't care about too - but these posts just make you sound like idiots.

Cat4Lifer

hahaha double wow
your posts makes you sound like an idiot
did i already say wow?

Cat4Lifer

tthey must have been on the receiving end of one those much talked about sinister armstrong text

Cat4Lifer

The thing is PEDs have been around for decades; armstrong and the riders of his era came into the sport at a time when EPO and steroids were already being used in the peloton. That is, had they (the top riders of that era) raced clean, they would have been racing against other riders that were using PEDs. We can't know for sure when Armstrong started using PEDs, but he was a great talent straight away--beating many seasoned pros as an amateur just out of his teen years (Andy Bishop & Greg Oravetz). Had he and every other racer refrained from using, I'm confident he still would have been or at least nearly as succcessful as he was. Sure I believe he "cheated" (used PEDs), but I also believe that about nearly every other pro.