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How did Lance get caught, btw?


Randomguy

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I wonder if a Frenchman had done the same as Lance and won as much as Lance, would any of the cheating stuff have ever come out.

 

If he was dumb enough to make as many enemies as Lance did, probably.

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the thing about it was that Lance was held above the law because of the HUGE money at stake with America getting interested in bike racing for a change. Not to mention the huge amount of money at stake for the manufacturers with a new "Lance Mania" driving bike sales

 

So they were throwing some guys to the wolves and basically letting Lance use EPO to keep winning

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Yes, this is true, but that isn't evidence of anything other than prickishness.

 

No, but it means a lot of people who knew and had information are not going to be willing to stand up to protect you either.

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the thing about it was that Lance was held above the law because of the HUGE money at stake with America getting interested in bike racing for a change. Not to mention the huge amount of money at stake for the manufacturers with a new "Lance Mania" driving bike sales

 

So they were throwing some guys to the wolves and basically letting Lance use EPO to keep winning

ding, ding, ding! 

We have a winnah!

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it just about kills me that there was a witch hunt at the Tour AFTER Lance won his 7 tours. They threw out so many winners from 2006 to 2012 I'm not even sure who actually won the damn race anymore

 

 

having AMGEN sponsoring races here in America is comedy at the highest levels. Those drug making bastards have been bringing us professional bike racing since the mid 90s, why not have their name on a few races?

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 Once Lance won the third Tour and was the "Cancer Survivor" and household name here in the states, they had to keep Lance winning

 

Had Lance got busted then, in 2001 or 2002, cycling in America would not have taken off and bike racing would have never broke through

 

I honestly thought that after Lance retired there would be no more TdF TV coverage, much less TV coverage of any other races

 

Hells Bells, Greg Lemond won the Tour 3 times, including the closest and most dramatic finish EVER...and still we didn't even know the race existed here in the States.

 

Trust me, back before Lance this was a "mad monk" sport. It was far from the main stream, for sure

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do you notice that everybody out on a bike is so damned serious these days? Seems like everybody is "training " for something and nobody is just riding for the hell of it

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Strava's only partially to blame. I put the rest on Facebook. Back when I first started riding in '04, club rides would at best perhaps average around 18-19mph for the 'fast' ride, and now, it's rare for us to average less than 21mph, and we often do 19-20 on even the 'hilly' rides. Facebook has helped this along by making everyone in the community patently aware of everyone else they know and their fitness levels, and not just by following them on Strava. The constant egging on via FB posts, ride invites, small elite groups of Cat3-ish riders and other neo-pro types who like to decimate slower riders to feel good about themselves. 5 years ago there was really just bike club rides, and now there are large amounts of various training rides and groups each week putting in some serious riding.

 

 

And that being said..... Bike clubs are falling apart, because people aren't showing up to the rides anymore. It's like this; "Hey man I see the club ride has a hilly 50miler tomorrow". "Nah dude, come to my house in the morning. Gonna be a bunch of racers there, and we're gonna drive an hour down to the mountains and put in a 70miler hammerfest over Mount St Helens and then go drink beer after". "Sweet! I'm in. I wouldn't want to ride with those slow club fuckers anyway". For this reason, I too also don't tend to show up to the club rides. Nobody's there anymore. Used to be, there's a huge variety of riders present, some fast, some slow, some new guys who get introduced to the faster dudes, and now there's none of that. New riders are often scared off by the uber-fast pace of the faster group, so they don't even try. The few I see show up on the scene now that survive are ones who are often friends of a faster dude.

 

What makes matters worse on FB too, there's always that gaggle of guys you know who either don't work, or don't seem to have jobs that tick you off. They think nothing about taking 2-3 days off and doing some mountain tour bike riding, or racing back to back weekends out of state, or just putting in a 90 mile solo ride on a Tuesday, well on their way to a 400 mile week of riding. Ugh. And they post this stuff all over FB...

 

Seems also like everybody, as Nate has said, has to be racing or training for one to be considered acceptable in the community. The pressure I get (as a faster rider) to enter crits, road races, etc, and just show up for some massive hammerfests is immense, and I very often just don't have the stomach for it. I rarely encounter guys who are somewhere in the middle on fitness or who don't race. Seems like it's always a bunch of either complete newbies (who will be a Cat3 in 6 months), or guys who are.... Cat3s. I shit you not though, there's this one group of riders near me who would each be a very strong Cat3 rider....but they don't even race!! It's like, dude, WTF are you pushing this pace so hard...

 

I am convinced that more than a few of these people are taking various doping products btw.

 

Ever since I've taken up cycling, I've liked to ride fast, but as far as 'training' for something, I might devote about a month or two towards it. I just lose interest after that time, as the constant bike riding, prep and other things just start to bore me. I LOVE cycling, but if I make it all I'm about, period, then I would lose interest. Cycling has to have an appeal to me (something I'm not doing but might want to do) for me to keep the interest, so I have natural highs and lows that I go through with regard to riding and doing events or races. This time last year I was perhaps to be considered a 'fast' Cat3 in fitness, and things were looking strong, but I just got tired of constantly heading out for a ride. Loved the fitness level I had, and how lean I was, but it's a serious amount of work, and the last thing I want is a 2nd job.

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do you notice that everybody out on a bike is so damned serious these days? Seems like everybody is "training " for something and nobody is just riding for the hell of it

I have been doing exactly the opposite on my rides lately.  No computer, just going out for fun. 

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