Liverpool FC Forum

I know there are a few cyclists on here. The UCI has upheld USADAs decision to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and ban him for life. The UCI president has said he will not resign despite, in my view, pathetic attempts to regulate the sport. What do people here think? Who regulates the UCI?

As one of teh mentioned cyclists on the forum, I agree with banning Armstrong 101%. Cycling is a wonderful sport and drugs has no role in cycling nor anyother sport.

As for UCI, I have high hopes Sebastian Coe will become president og the IOC (International Olympic Committee in Lausanne) and will work to rid all sport of drugs. Til then we inch forward bit by bit.

Whats sad though is everytime a drugged up cheat retires, another takes his place.

Tweets:

Lance Armstrong paid UCI to help fight doping. UCI failed to discover doping despite testing Armstrong 188 times. Armstrong deserves refund.

Change your bio @lancearmstrong - you've just been stripped of your 7 Tour de France titles. #LiveWrong

Sure it's monday, you're tired. But remember, you've won the same number of Tour De Frances as Lance Armstrong.

Lance Armstrong. This says it all really http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/arc ... 75548c.jpg …

Lance Armstrong stripped of 7 Tour de France titles. Lance isn't the worst drug user, look at this guy. What was he on? pic.twitter.com/2YJs87EI

Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his cameo appearance in Dodgeball.

Ouch. RT @oakley: Please see the following link for our statement on our relationship with Lance Armstrong http://oak.ly/OW3W1k    Bizarrely Oakley are caught up in this as well - their rep allegedly lied under oath at his trial in 2005.

Reg » Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:31 pm wrote:As one of teh mentioned cyclists on the forum, I agree with banning Armstrong 101%. Cycling is a wonderful sport and drugs has no role in cycling nor anyother sport.

As for UCI, I have high hopes Sebastian Coe will become president og the IOC (International Olympic Committee in Lausanne) and will work to rid all sport of drugs. Til then we inch forward bit by bit.

Whats sad though is everytime a drugged up cheat retires, another takes his place.

Agreed Reg. The UCI stink to high heaven as well. Widespread corruption, they need to be held to account and to restart with much greater transparency.

Previous UCI head of doping criticising Pat McQuaid:

Former anti-doping chief admits Armstrong got special treatment in 2009

Anne Gripper – the head of anti-doping at the UCI between 2006 and 2010, has called on the sports international governing body to do more in the fight against doping and acknowledge its involvement in the past.

Gripper left the UCI in 2010 for personal reasons and returned to live in Australia. She defends much of the work done by the UCI but is critical of current UCI President Pat McQuaid.

''The UCI may have failed to take some actions that we should have taken at the time, but since 2006 we have been really committed to this issue,'' Gripper told the Australian Age newspaper.

Asked about McQuaid's tenure as president, Gripper said: "I know his commitment to this was very strong while I was there. It may have wavered a bit."

''I heard Pat say the other night, 'We test and test and test as much as we can and send all the samples to the labs and that's all we can do'.

''Well, it's not, Pat, there's lots more that can be done."

''It's not just about testing because we know in many ways testing is the most ineffective way of eliminating doping… There are so many more things… the UCI can do. The issue for the UCI is communication. It is time to stand up and acknowledge some of the past.''

Lance and the 2009 Tour Down Under

Gripper talked about Lance Armstrong and specifically about how the UCI bent the rules to allow him to return to competition at the 2009 Tour Down Under.

She said the US Anti-Doping Agency investigation and subsequent report documents showed that ''not so much that he (Armstrong) was a doping cheat - I think everybody accepts that just about all cyclists were doing it - but the way he orchestrated that program and, more importantly, the bullying [and] the tactics used to influence the behaviour and choices of young impressionable riders'."

She said continued: ''Two things have really come out - that approach he took to perpetuating the issue and aggravating and influencing; [and] the hypocrisy of the continual denial. It's that leadership role in a practice that was clearly completely unethical and against the spirit of sport.''

Gripper said she regrets that the UCI allowed Armstrong to race in Australia even though he had not completed the full six-month testing period before his comeback.

''I have always said that Armstrong's influence was a danger in the sport. He was allowed to ride in the 2009 Tour Down Under. He shouldn't have been," she said.

"Once again, for Lance, special consideration was provided. The justification was that [former South Australia premier] Mike Rann and [race director] Mike Turtur had announced to the whole people of South Australia that Lance was going to be there."

''For the UCI to say, 'Sorry, he can't', would have appeared churlish and mean-spirited and really what difference do 13 days make?
''For me, it was a case of, 'Well, sure 13 days may not make a lot of practical difference' but the perception of once again rules being different for Lance than other riders shows his influence was so great, he basically told the sport how to administer its rules.'

As strange as it may seem, to me Armstrong is still an amazing person.  He's an athlete who became extremely famous and did great things with that.  He's raised an incredible amount of money for cancer research (including donating millions of his own money) and he's made a really positive difference for a lot of people.  I somewhat doubt all 7 of his titles were won because of doping, not that it really matters.

He could keep fighting this, and they wouldn't be able to take his titles for years, but like he said he's done.  He doesn't care about the titles anymore, he wants to focus on his work fighting cancer.

I don't know much about cycling, but it seems like it's extremely corrupt and disorganized.  Different countries have different organizations with different standards. It seems like every person who wins would test positive from one of those organizations, but some are tested as much as others.

Floyd Landis won a while back and tested positive.  He actually is from my city and my family's business has done some work for his bike team, so obviously we were really excited for him.  Then he's stripped and there goes the excitement.  It seems to be a sport where nobody ever wins because they all eventually get caught.

ethanr » Fri Oct 26, 2012 3:07 pm wrote:As strange as it may seem, to me Armstrong is still an amazing person.  He's an athlete who became extremely famous and did great things with that.  He's raised an incredible amount of money for cancer research (including donating millions of his own money) and he's made a really positive difference for a lot of people.  I somewhat doubt all 7 of his titles were won because of doping, not that it really matters.

He could keep fighting this, and they wouldn't be able to take his titles for years, but like he said he's done.  He doesn't care about the titles anymore, he wants to focus on his work fighting cancer.

I don't know much about cycling, but it seems like it's extremely corrupt and disorganized.  Different countries have different organizations with different standards. It seems like every person who wins would test positive from one of those organizations, but some are tested as much as others.

Floyd Landis won a while back and tested positive.  He actually is from my city and my family's business has done some work for his bike team, so obviously we were really excited for him.  Then he's stripped and there goes the excitement.  It seems to be a sport where nobody ever wins because they all eventually get caught.

I know what you mean Ethan, thats what makes his story so interesting - he's a great athlete, leader and fund-raiser. But he's also a cheat, a control-freak, a liar and he's ruined peoples lives in the pursuit of his own success. He's ruthless. I've no doubt he was doped for all seven Tours. He couldn't even finish 3 of the 4 he did before that. He stopped fighting the allegations because the evidence is insurmountable - basically, all his best mates squealed like pigs - Landis was the first. He cares about his titles.

It'll be interesting to see where he goes from here.

part 1 of oprah interview from last night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 3EE9I8ZMFc

stmichael » Fri Jan 18, 2013 2:00 pm wrote:part 1 of oprah interview from last night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 3EE9I8ZMFc

Removed, anyone got a linkie?

Arsed

fivecups » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:55 pm wrote:

stmichael » Fri Jan 18, 2013 2:00 pm wrote:part 1 of oprah interview from last night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 3EE9I8ZMFc

Removed, anyone got a linkie?

this is the the bbc's transcript of it
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21033130

here is the video
http://adf.ly/HUIc0   PT,1
http://adf.ly/HUN8H   PT,2

anyway good enough for him to be stripped of his titles and he should be erased from the sports history but unfortunately he isnt the only one, the first one and he wont be the last one either.
hope you enjoy it fivecups

red till i die!! » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:35 pm wrote:

fivecups » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:55 pm wrote:

stmichael » Fri Jan 18, 2013 2:00 pm wrote:part 1 of oprah interview from last night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 3EE9I8ZMFc

Removed, anyone got a linkie?

this is the the bbc's transcript of it
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21033130

here is the video
http://adf.ly/HUIc0   PT,1
http://adf.ly/HUN8H   PT,2


anyway good enough for him to be stripped of his titles and he should be erased from the sports history but unfortunately he isnt the only one, the first one and he wont be the last one either.
hope you enjoy it fivecups

Thanks very much for this Red!