Armstrong is the perfect subject for a biography. There is virtually nothing about him that’s ordinary, from the athletic talent to the lack of social skills. JM did an excellent job of revealing Armstrong’s character by presenting a lot of childhood scenes. Someone who knew him said that without the athletic talent he probably would have been a juvenile delinquent. Actually, he
was a juvenile delinquent, there are several escapades recounted that make that clear—e.g., he was chased by police one night, and abandoned the car in an intersection and ran away on foot. But he would have ended up far worse if he hadn’t been able to focus all that rage and hostility on bike racing, and I give him some credit for doing that. He did learn to channel a lot of his anger.
Armstrong did push everyone away. He treated Neal awfully, ignoring him at the end. He did attend his funeral, but told his sister “I don’t do funerals”. When Terry attended a Ride for the Roses and tried to reach out to Armstrong, the latter told the police to take him away.
But to me, DZ’s childhood is far more frightening. At least Armstrong had a father, Terry, who paid attention to him and tried to make something out of him, even if it was tough love overdone. DZ’s father sounds like a nightmare. That he came out of that with nothing more than appearing weird to others is a tribute to him, I’d say. And I can see how he and Floyd hit it off.
On the HT issue, JM says it was 42-43, but clearly he got a huge advantage:
Swart saw that most of his teammates had hematocrits of more than 50. His, he recalled, was the lowest of everyone’s, at 47 percent. He remembered the others’ numbers: Andreu’s was at about 50. Andrea Peron, an Italian, had the highest, at 56. (There have been no conclusive findings that Peron ever doped.) Armstrong’s was either 52 or 54, at least ten percentage points above his norm. Even with that edge, Armstrong, the strong one-day racer, would go on to finish 36th in that Tour, nearly an hour and a half slower than Miguel Indurain, the winner.
This was pre-cancer, so again, despite using EPO apparently effectively, he couldn’t climb then. Post-cancer, though, JV is quoted as saying that USPS had a tremendous advantage in having the doping organized, that that was the big difference in success--Motoman, and also being set up to do transfusions anywhere. GH is quoted at one point saying that once the team transfused on the bus
while parked at the end of a freaking TDF stage!. When JV joined another team, he was shocked to learn that they didn’t inject themselves with “twenty five different substances” every day.
RR, wrt the six months ban, she says this:
After a multitude of phone calls back and forth between Hincapie’s lawyer and USADA’s lawyers, USADA decided to back down and dole out penalties that were equal.
After the Tour, Tygart contacted Vaughters with bad news: The immunity deal was off. His riders would be suspended for six months, starting at the end of that season. Tygart said he and his colleagues had discussed it, and they were taking too much of a chance by granting immunity to some riders but not others. Bending the World Anti-Doping Code like that would require the blessing of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and also the UCI, an institution that seemed to be allied with Armstrong.
IOW, Tygart rationalized that he had no choice, but it seems GH pressured him, too.
JM says the london times received "about $1.56 million" in the settlement. I hadn't heard a figure before. Sounds like they got back considerably more than just what they originally paid Armstrong.
I had known the feds turned down a $5 million settlement offer. JM says he upped it to $13.5 million, and they refused that. But amazingly, JM says they would have settled for $18.5 million, plus testimony vs. Bruyneel and the doctors. Armstrong refused that. He may regret that almost as much as not giving Floyd a job. If he had done that, with the SCA settlement, he would have been finished with all the lawsuits of any consequence for maybe $40 million, including legal fees. Not chump change, but probably low enough for him to have a lot left over. JM says that during the fed investigation, Armstrong told someone he had $100 million in the bank. If that is true, why would he not part with about $20 million to avoid risking losing the whole ball of wax?
Some of the people I interviewed did not want to have their names used for fear of retribution from Armstrong, who they believe continues to wield power in the sport of cycling, and/ or in the community because of the work he has done for cancer awareness.
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