Official Lance Armstrong Thread: Part 4 (Post-Settlement)

[Sciatic]

Lance's Podcast is a sponsor on George Hincapie's new team. There's nothing illegal about it in any jurisdiction including UCI rules so it is fine if that's George's direction for America's new pro team.
Hopefully we won't need to endure any history-washing in the process but there's not enough detergent to accomplish that, I hope. It'll make for some theater, for sure when Lance is first in line to interview successful team members. Hopefully he doesn't ask: "who was the most inspirational figure in American cycling in your opinion?"

😆 Ha!

 

[Rob5091]

Lance & George back together again and with Vino running the show at Astana, it's like Make Cycling Great Again! Hurrah!

 

[Ulle97]

What are your thoughts on Lance using a motor during his heyday? 99-05.

Rumours of a motor being developed in 98 and it being kept a secret for 10 years?

 

[Lequack]

He's still putting in those miles, as Froome would say

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBSUc6yV-rA

 

[red_flanders]

What are your thoughts on Lance using a motor during his heyday? 99-05.

Rumours of a motor being developed in 98 and it being kept a secret for 10 years?

Personally never bought it. The doping all tracked, always was obvious.

Feels odd to say it, but to be honest, I think he would have found it...unethical. According to his sense of ethics. He respected the sport and the history on some level.

 

[Unchained]

I don't know if it will ever be public but I would think that Armstrong the bike racer made and lost lots of money, but I think as an investor he is doing quite well. Lance likely to keep his post settlement wealth accumulation a bit more discreet.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

Personally never bought it. The doping all tracked, always was obvious.

Feels odd to say it, but to be honest, I think he would have found it...unethical. According to his sense of ethics. He respected the sport and the history on some level.

I mentioned several years ago in this very thread (part 3) that Pharmstrong is cycling's Bogeyman. Virtually any accusation is plausible because he's never come comprehensively clean. And even were he to try, it would never be entirely credible because he has such an extensive history of lying.

It was inevitable that in time people would start attributing miscarriages and solar eclipses to his magical powers.

Then there's the matter of his personal assistant and bike mechanic, Mike Anderson, who would have told us by now.

Anderson was working for the Posties at their Gerona hide-out in 2004. While unpacking Pharmstrong's luggage for him, he discovered several vials of androstenedione, an anabolic steroid, in the medicine cabinet. Anderson was shocked but Pharmstrong talked him down from that ledge by convincing him "everybody else is doing it," and Anderson became part of the Postie's cabal. At least until that autumn, when Pharmstrong employed Anderson as a handy man over the off-season at his gated Texas estate.

While Pharmstrong was taking a trip without advising USADA of his change in whereabouts, he became aware the "Vampires" were at his home, looking for him but the gates were locked (of course). He telephoned Anderson and instructed him to get into his (Phamrstrong's) tinted window truck and drive nonchalantly around the estate, making sure he could be seen from the front gate.

When USADA approached him later with the "whereabouts" violation, Pharmstrong claimed it was he in the tinted window truck, that he was out checking his property and wasn't aware his mobile had lost its charge. Which satisfied the USADA folks.

When Anderson found out he had been used in the deception, he resigned. And anyone who resigns from the employ Lance Pharmstrong without his consent suffers the consequences (just ask FLandis, Tyler Hamilton and Alberto Contador). Pharmstrong sued Anderson for theft of property (a claim settled out of court) and had him blackballed. In time, Anderson moved to New Zealand (no, I'm not making this up) to escape the argy-bargy.

So to say there is no love lost between those two would be an huge understatement. And there is zero chance Anderson would not have shouted it from the rooftops if Pharmstrong had used an electrified bicycle.

All this was run to ground years ago in this thread (or its earlier incarnations), but it would be difficult to locate, even if you knew what to look for.