mwbyrd said:
Guys,
Remember, LA wasn't the only doper. He unfortunately is the only major player being attacked by his own Anti-doping Association. I'm sure if the Spanish/Italian/Russian ADAs went after their top riders of the same era, they would be reporting similar stories.
You guys wanted Lance to go down. He has now. But don't keep acting and believing he brought the sport down by himself.
I'm shocked by the outrage some of the posters have. It's almost like LA stole your wife or girlfriend, kept you from getting a job, and kept you from personally being a professional cyclist.
Let's try to keep all of this in perspective of 'Real Life' please. Does any of this really affect your day to day lives?
The "Why is everybody only focusing on Lance?" line is one of the big fallback lines for the Lance apologists now. Well, could it be he cheated to win the TdF seven times, masterminded a doping ring, crushed and humiliated those who spoke out to tell the truth, and built a massive empire based on lies? Is there anybody else even close?
The outrage people have here is from the years of Lance supporters smugly going off about "500 tests, never failed!", it's about suckers buying yellow bracelets supporting a fraud - and those pointing out he was almost certainly a fraud getting ostracized. Most cycling fans, if they tried to tell non-cycling friends that Lance was a cheat would get attacked. We learned just to keep out mouth shut, the Lance myth was so big and so powerful. People wanted so badly to have a hero, somebody great, somebody pure - and Lance put himself in that role - when he knew that his image was a complete fabrication. It was absolutely disgusting. Most of the other cheaters had some degree of humility. The arrogance and out of control ego for Lance to market himself the way he did is off-the-charts. Could you sleep at night selling yourself as a hero when you know you're cheating like crazy? Cheating and keeping your mouth shut is one thing. Cheating like Lance and gloating to the world - that is a special kind of sociopath.
There are still people buying into his lie - "Lance helped raise so much money for cancer research"- when Livestrong doesn't actually fund any cancer research at all. Even his foundation is a testimony to his ego, used to boost his public persona, and now a shield which he lamely tries to hide behind.
So yes, there may be some gloating, which appears to some as being unseemly, but this was a long, long time in coming. Lance is not close to getting what he deserves.
The other Lance supporter line - not used here but probably coming up soon - is "They shouldn't focus on the past but look at the present. Young cyclists don't care about Lance" is equally abhorrent. Busting Armstrong sends a huge message to everybody that no matter how big and powerful you are, the truth can catch up with you. One's teammates and those surrounding one know the truth about dopers, and that truth may eventually come out. Every cyclist who has doped is now probably wondering about who may eventually turn on him. Lance being absolutely ruined would be one of the best anti-doping messages there is. It's not going to happen - he'll ride off with his tens of millions of dollars - unfortunately.
As for the perspective and "Real life" shot - what do you think people are going to talk about, not only on a cycling message board but a forum dedicated to doping? This is one place we can get together with other cycling fans who know what happened and applaud the work of Tygart. Yes, we're critical of Lance but we're happy that a small dose of justice has finally been served. The sun has started to peak out from behind the clouds.
This is Lance after winning his seventh tour:
Finally, the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics: I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. But this is one hell of a race. This is a great sporting event and you should stand around and believe it. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets — this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. So Vive le Tour forever!
He deserves all the vilification he gets.
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