Media amnesia and reactions

[Mrs John Murphy]

OK, so what happens if White is replaced by Jonker, who supported Armstrong and denied any doping at USP or Neil Stephens formerly of Festina?

The point is that getting rid of White but keeping Jonker and Stephens around is just moving the deck chairs on the Titanic

 

[sairyder]

Rob Arnold llve on Abc24 right now saying other Australian riders could be involved..... (dam breaker ).. saying there is an opportunity for people to come forward now - heavens talking about Matt White in Cofidis now..

 

[sairyder]

OK, so what happens if White is replaced by Jonker, who supported Armstrong and denied any doping at USP or Neil Stephens formerly of Festina?

The point is that getting rid of White but keeping Jonker and Stephens around is just moving the deck chairs on the Titanic

That won't be enough -

that interview i just heard is an example - nobody will be protected too much honour to recoup at every level and here

in Australia too much resentment that these guys (national bodies, management in teams, journalists etc) have knowingly whitewashed for their own benefit. Arnold just referred to Cycling Australias weak enquiry into Whites past live on the national broadcaster,

Too many people digging now -

 

[sairyder]

"Cycling body in disgrace after Tour Down Under stage winner exposed as drug cheat"

love it - todays Herald Sun headline (frontpage)

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/na...ed-as-drug-cheat/story-fndo471r-1226495035747

"Mr Turtur said he wasn't sure if Caruso was the only rider to test positive for drugs or be banned for doping while competing at the Tour Down Under since its inception in 1999."

You couldn't make it up could you.

 

[PCutter]

Given Piers Morgan/The Observer etc. are unlikely to get an interview with LA, people should tweet them to dig into the UCI connections (like the Lord of the Rings book on the IOC).

Whilst its great all this coverage about Lance's cheating, unless the journo's from the mainstream start focusing on the UCI, the donation, the cover-ups, it will all just be another episode in the list of cycling scandals.

 

[thehog]

"Cycling body in disgrace after Tour Down Under stage winner exposed as drug cheat"

love it - todays Herald Sun headline (frontpage)

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/na...ed-as-drug-cheat/story-fndo471r-1226495035747

"Mr Turtur said he wasn't sure if Caruso was the only rider to test positive for drugs or be banned for doping while competing at the Tour Down Under since its inception in 1999."

You couldn't make it up could you.

How funny is that. You see you can't have these "new" events having positives to ruin global cycling productions.

I'm also surprised that somebody would actually need to dope at an event like the TDU! Its not that hard!

 

[stefank]

I just caught the end of Tyler Hamilton doing a "tell all" (well, maybe selected bits) interview on Australian morning television. I doubt that would have happened a week ago.

 

[thehog]

Make a great T-shirt

Now you're on to something!

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

According to the Guardian Sky's success is down to the budget. Nothing to do with those dodgy guys

Team Sky currently has one of the biggest budgets in pro cycling: that pays for the best riders, the best equipment, coaching, nutrition and so on. And all that undoubtedly helped Bradley Wiggins win the 2012 Tour de France.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/13/doping-cycling-level-playing-field-fallacy

The Guardian maybe needs to be reminded of some of their previous efforts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/nov/18/cycling-lance-armstrong-drugs

 

[the delgados]

According to the Guardian Sky's success is down to the budget. Nothing to do with those dodgy guys



http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/13/doping-cycling-level-playing-field-fallacy

The Guardian maybe needs to be reminded of some of their previous efforts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/nov/18/cycling-lance-armstrong-drugs

Perhaps you should expose the dodgy practices at Sky and sell the story to the Guardian, complete with sources and facts. I have no doubt they'd publish your story.

 

[JRanton]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-a-coverup--and-i-was-part-of-it-8209762.html

The former editor of Cycling Weekly has spoken of his shame at not doing more to expose the culture of doping at Lance Armstrong's US Postal team, which he described as an "open secret" in the sport.

 

[thehog]

The Observer are going big on all this tomorrow. Not just with the Bassons interview and the picture on the front cover of their sports section.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/14/editorial-lance-armstrong-drugs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/oct/13/peter-keen-lance-armstrong-truth-commission?intcmp=239

Impressive. It's good they're asking questions of the UCI as well. Not that they care.

Why was the UCI so useless? As one cycling journalist observed last week, the governing body "consistently, either through naivety, incompetence or complicity, concealed the worst excesses of a decade of doping". Which was it – naivety, incompetence or complicity? This is the same body that accepted $125,000 from Armstrong to help fund the UCI's anti-doping research. How he must have laughed. You couldn't make it up. Only Armstrong did – and the UCI bought it every time.

 

[JRanton]

I never knew Kim Andersen tested positive SEVEN times during his career.

And he's the guy in line to replace Bruyneel! Good grief!

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Perhaps you should expose the dodgy practices at Sky and sell the story to the Guardian, complete with sources and facts. I have no doubt they'd publish your story.

I'm not really sure what your point is, or are you just trolling again?

The information about Sky is in the public domain and while others are questioning Sky and whether they are all they seem the Guardian is not.

The Guardian don't need me to do their research for them and find their sources, all they need is a computer, an internet connection, the ability to use google.

The next step is to then work out how to formulate questions like: 'Why have you employed so many people implicated in doping practices?'

They won't because they're just upholding omerta. What used to be omerta about USP is now omerta about Sky.

 

[Yingge]

Still waiting to see what Phil Liggett has to say.

Or is he allergic to Humble Pie?

 

[Bratam]

Great to see the Australian media finally coming to accept reality.

Armstrong a fraud and frauds can't be heroes. Not now, not ever

"LANCE Armstrong is a creep. A liar, cheat and a bully. So awful is Armstrong, you are right to question whether all his work for cancer patients is not just calculated camouflage to protect his abuse of drugs, his competitors, teammates and supporters.

He is not just part of the drug regime that saturated cycling when he was at his peak, but he has been that culture's bodyguard. Its enforcer. And he remains so today, arrogantly dismissing the US Anti-Doping Agency findings by telling the world through Twitter that he was "unaffected" by the release of the 1000-page investigation findings. No one in sport has lived a bigger lie. Tiger Woods led two lives, one in public and one in bedrooms other than his own. But he did not cheat his sport as an athlete. Woods is flawed. Armstrong, who used his bedroom as a blood bank, is a crook."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...not-now-not-ever/story-e6frg7uo-1226494717419

 

[cineteq]

America refuses to accept a Armstrong's downfall

"The following day Hollywood will pay its respects, in the form of a gala featuring Sean Penn, Ben Stiller and Robin Williams."

Donald Trump observed: "I guess they [USADA] have Lance Armstrong cold. A waste of taxpayer money to take down an American hero."

Very powerful closing.
"The real victims are those cancer sufferers, who invested in the mirage of his magnificence. Perhaps, instead of concentrating on the Livestrong celebrations, they should listen to the authentic voice of Lance Armstrong, as expressed the USADA report: "I can destroy you… We are going to ****ing tear you apart… I am going to make your life a living ****ing hell."

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...fuses-to-accept-a-heros-downfall-8210381.html

 

[ggusta]

Impressive. It's good they're asking questions of the UCI as well. Not that they care.

You skipped over the paragraphs above that that caught my eye !!

[emphasis added ]

Armstrong, like most bullies, is also a coward. Which is why he has chosen not to contest any of the evidence piled high and mighty in the Usada report. If the US attorney's office comes calling, that will not be an option open to him.
But there are also questions for others. Not least for cycling's world governing body, the UCI. Under their watch, Armstrong and his cohorts corrupted and defiled the sport that they were supposedly overseeing. Except that they weren't. Their oversight was abject, abysmal, appalling.
In 2005, when the L'Équipe newspaper leaked the details of Armstrong's 1999 positive drug test, the UCI conducted an "investigation" in which Armstrong was cleared. **** Pound, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said the UCI report was "so lacking in professionalism and objectivity that it borders on farcical".

everyone is running for cover.

 

[mewmewmew13]

I was starting to get depressed reading all the pro lance pr spin but toward the end the snowball kept rolling...and that last paragraph left me feeling good about the future...

 

[Tinman]

Outstanding summary of where we are now in the LA/UCI saga, in UK Independent by Michael Calvin. Compulsory reading. Covers the upcoming Livestrong "Lance celebration", the shifting of focus onto his cancer "legacy" and UCI complicity. The top 10 questions at the end sum up the current status.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...fuses-to-accept-a-heros-downfall-8210381.html

PS. Cineteq just saw your post / double up.

 

[frenchfry]

Love the front page of The Observer sports section in the UK tomorrow.

Interesting that the first 2 adjectives are bully and liar, not doper.

Many could have forgiven him for being a doper, bully and liar not so much.

 

[bianchigirl]

Interesting piece - Peter Keen calling for a truth & recon process
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/201...ance-armstrong-truth-commission?newsfeed=true

Particularly of interest is the fact that he had a strict no needles policy at BC - this is no longer the case

 

[Dear Wiggo]

Interesting piece - Peter Keen calling for a truth & recon process
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/201...ance-armstrong-truth-commission?newsfeed=true

Particularly of interest is the fact that he had a strict no needles policy at BC - this is no longer the case

Do you have a link to the no needle policy and its revocation?

Rob Hayles: 50.3% Hct 2008 WChamps. 45% 2 weeks of suspension later. Not. Normal.

I have a hunch, but The Clear points to a pattern of sophistication that is nigh on impossible to beat. Why worry if you have access to undetectable stuff that is not on WADA's banned list, and therefore not doping per se?

 

[Benotti69]

Do you have a link to the no needle policy and its revocation?

Rob Hayles: 50.3% Hct 2008 WChamps. 45% 2 weeks of suspension later. Not. Normal.

I have a hunch, but The Clear points to a pattern of sophistication that is nigh on impossible to beat. Why worry if you have access to undetectable stuff that is not on WADA's banned list, and therefore not doping per se?

Worry because future testing might detect it. But maybe they have a deal with UCI to destroy all their samples after testing!

 

[MAVerick]

Reporters and Journalists

Perhaps this is semantics, but it seems to me that the role of a reporter is to report events as they occur. Thus we have the majority of stories on CN and other cycling websites and magazines which report on the activities of a race and the riders in it. On the other hand, a journalist's responsibility is to dig beyond the surface reportage. In the same way that those of us who live in a democracy rely on the media to hold politicians to account, we deserve the same from journalists in cycling. It seems that over the past couple of decades we have had few, if any, journalists in cycling, and only reporters.

Mike Verstappen