Berzin said:
This is what I'm saying. He WON'T be on equal footing to the other riders who've won five Tours.
You know when they have presentations with the five Tour winners present? Armstrong won't be able to stand with those cats. Not after it comes out that he was blood doping and taking all those drugs.
To win those tours he HAD to take doping to such unprecedented lengths, and that won't wash with the general cycling public. Not when all the details become public knowledge.
all the greats are listed here . Coppi and Merckx both dopers. Both fantastic sportsman and guys responsible for legendary rides that got the public's attention and grew the sport. Indurain and Hinault both super skilled both w unique styles that everybody from the start to the end of their cycling career tried to imitate at the time.
Strange to imagine that all the legends can be equally compared. Some in a modern caravan w outside support while another guy is riding a fixed gear and providing self support down to getting bikes welded after they fail.
In some people's imaginations all the names are equal. Coppi, Indurain, Hinault and Merckx are household names worldwide. Kids in Africa and America are running around with Molteni shirts on. Bernard is stopped in LA getting a cup of coffee. Indurain unable to walk down a street in Sydney because of autograph hounds.
Coppi and Armstrong have some things in common. Both guilty of infidelity. Coppi's disgraced him, the tour, and his family. He dissed the Pope and their little feud about keeping a woman outside of wedlock and the churches graces, helped destroy his career.
I wonder how many line inches were dedicated to any of the mentioned previous champions in newspapers and magazines outside their home countries. Armstrong's every move has been out for public critique and it hasn't always gone his way, as can be expected from a mortal.
It's impossible to know how the public or the athletes would have reacted if their scandals were exposed to 100's of millions daily rather than than the small world that used to exist when they established their records and retorted their misdeeds.
You can look high and low,print ,video , whatever the number of Banesto t-shirts or LaVieClaire jerseys compared to yellow wrist rubbers or yellow swooshes are far less worldwide. If all things are equal I wonder what Eddie would have said to the press or what Coppi what have written in his blog when asked about the major F-ups they committed. Time won't tell. I hope people except the records as they are rather than try and invent a history of what ifs .
Your hand puppeting of the tour organizers and the "general public" are weak. Time will tell what they do, but if things continue as normal Pharmstrong will probably shaking some hands in the near future
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