Several articles, including the WSJ I think. And yes, I meant team mgmt and organizers, not the cyclists themselves
Seems very odd that Johan Bruyneel is not getting more mention in the media. With Armstrong’s confession (and high likelihood that he’ll offer up evidence on the team managers etc), there isn’t one iota of plausible deniability for Bruneel.
Bruyneel is a dead man walking amongst cycling aficionados. However outside of the cycling media, there is only Lance Armstrong and, uh, some other guys I guess… Media attention is applied accordingly.
Yeah, the Bruyneel case isn’t even interesting at this point. What is interesting is if Armstrong knows things that can touch people like Verbruggen (former head of UCI).
How could anyone think steroids are common in bike racers?
What, you don’t think cycling a couple of hundred kilometers a day would give you huge leg muscles? Steroid use is not the issue here NurseCarmen, the issue is blood doping.
The guys in the picture are sprinters, though. On the left is Greipel, who’s a sprint specialist on a grand tour team. So he does ride a couple hundred km per day. On the right is a German track sprinter - 500m in the velodrome. He’s not riding long distances that much. Possible they’re using steroids, though hardly necessarily the case.
The picture was circulated because it makes Greipel, who’s a huge over-muscled hulk of a man compared to the GC contenders in the grand tours, look like he’s puny.
Is using steroids viable? I know that there are a lot of doping methods that are hard to detect but my impression was that using steroids to bulk up wasn’t so easy to get away with. Don’t know much about it though so I could be entirely wrong.
My guess is he can.
TdF or any Tour riders typically do not want bulk. Steroids are not a problem in road racing. They might be in track sprinting, but not in road racing.
In road cycling power-to-weight ratio is king.
One of the enduring alarm bells which never EVER stopped ringing with regards to Armstrong was the extraordinary body shape change he went through before and after his cancer problems. To this day there are still defenders crying “It was the cancer! The cancer changed him into a Grand Tour winner! The cancer did it!”
But not people in the know. People in the and around the sport, the journalists, the mechanics, the promoters, the fans - they all knew there was something unbelievable about the transformation. There are shots of Armstrong in the ITT at the Atlanta Olympics and he was built, quite frankly, like a rugby player. He was a full on roids man. He was never in with a shot of winning a Grand Tour. Not even Top 40.
Then, post cancer, he turned into a scrawny chook who could maintain 500+ watts on every climb at 110 cadence. All of a sudden he was now an EPO man.
Yes, it’s true that steroids and testosterone will help your muscles and ligaments repair themselves after maximum exertion and slight tears. However, EPO and a high hematocrit will help your overnight recovery far more, with regards to daily endurance. That’s what Armstrong discovered during his cancer scare. He was being given EPO as part of his chemo. By his own admission, he lost heaps of weight during the chemo (because he was no longer on the gear) and then he discovered an ability to climb and recover overnight, due to the EPO, that he had never known before.
I have not read every preceding post, so excuse me if the following point has already been made.
How many times has Armstrong lied under oath?- Dozens? He is a serial perjurer.
Google reveals that the maximum federal penalty for perjury is five years, and in Texas the max
for “aggravated” perjury is 10 years, so if he is convicted for every crime by every jurisdiction where
he faces exposure he could be looking at over 100 years.
It would serve the cheating, lying bastard right.
I think the advantage is retained for two or more weeks after dosing is discontinued-
long enough for for the system to eliminate all detectable trace.
He’s only been under oath once, iirc, in the SCA case. He most definitely perjured himself, but what’s the statute of limitations?
According to the following USA Today (10-30-12) cite SCR’s lawyer seems to agree with you,
but at the same time says SA may face some other form of liability.
Dallas firm wants Lance Armstrong punished for perjury
(from link, emphasis added):
I had assumed he at least gave depositions relating to other pending court cases and investigations.
So, the interview was today, right? Enough with the speculations, leaks, and rumors: What did he actually say?
It was taped Monday, but airs tonight at 9 PM. On that OWN channel, or I think at Oprah’s website.
Yup, link here for the live stream.
It’s on now, actually.
She asked why he admits it now.
His answer is that, “It’s too late now. I view this situation as one big lie, that I repeated many times.”