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The Good that Lance has done.

Page 7 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Barrus

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Cobblestoned said:
Someones world can be constructed very simple.
Good that you are not a representive for Europe, of course neither am I.

And cycling is not about love - it's about performance, speed and style.

Real cyclingfans love that and don't care if someone is an ars*****.
Look, Cav is an ars*****, but he is great and the best sprinter in the world.

Actually not, cycling is about love, it is about passion and it is about persona. It is this that makes the great legends and the great riders. It is not all about performance speed and style, it is also about how a person handles himself and how he is perceived
 
Mar 8, 2010
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Barrus said:
Actually not, cycling is about love, it is about passion and it is about persona. It is this that makes the great legends and the great riders. It is not all about performance speed and style, it is also about how a person handles himself and how he is perceived

It's just a bonus if a great rider has great character and is without failures in his life.
In the end that doesn't help anyone.
Especially today you won't make it if you are nice.

You need ellbows and its a failure to be too nice. Sooner or later people will take advantage of that.
 

Barrus

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Cobblestoned said:
It's just a bonus if a great rider has great character and is without failures in his life.
In the end that doesn't help anyone.
Especially today you won't make it if you are nice.

You need ellbows and its a failure to be too nice. Sooner or later people will take advantage of that.

The difference is that a rider becomes great due to his failures in most cases
 
Mar 8, 2010
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Barrus said:
The difference is that a rider becomes great due to his failures in most cases

great - failures
Do you notice something ? A contradiction ?

Many people love great giants falling to satisfy themselfes. Perhaps that is what you mean.
No one will ever notice a rider who never won anything and just remember him because he is so nice.
They don't even know him and so they will also never know that he is nice.
This is what logic tells me.
If you have other logics, I won't take them away from you, but at least I can try to. :D

It's a bikerace not a competition about who is the nicest.

Ok, I'm off to the Tivoli now for a nice cupmatch. :)
 
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Barrus said:
The difference is that a rider becomes great due to his failures in most cases

I Agree. For me, Merckx and Indurain were great champions because of how they conducted themselves after their defeats in the Tour de France, in 1975 and 1996 respectively. How they handled their defeats in those races revealed a lot about what sort of men they are. Similarly, Lance Armstrong's defeat in the Tour of 2009 revealed a lot about what sort of man he is.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Dr. Maserati said:
.....and you are confusing what this thread and subsequent posts are about.

Someone earlier said that Lance had done a lot to "promote cycling".
What you are talking about is 'celebrity', that is not "promoting cycling" that is promoting oneself, and Lance is very very good at that.


No, someone above us, said Lance was the biggest cycling celebrity there was. Someone said they were ignorant for saying that. I decided to prove, which I did, that Lance was the biggest celebrity in cycling. Not greatest cyclist of course, but celebrity. Some people seem to think these older(and current..Boonen) cyclist they bring up, while greatly known in our cycling world, are not known by the general public who know nothing of cycling. Lance bridges these gaps and is the best known/celebrity cyclist.

I decided to take a poll at work yesterday. I asked 5 doctors, 5 nurses, 3 physician assistants, 2 security guards and 1 IT guy. edit forgot the 2 dietitians and 2 physical therapists

People that knew of Eddie...0
People that knew of Pantani..0
People that knew of Boonen...0
People that knew of Coppi...0
People that knew of Contador..1.. the IT guy
People that knew Lance...20

edit forgot the 2 dietitians and 2 physical therapists



/thread
 
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mikeNphilly said:
No, someone above us, said Lance was the biggest cycling celebrity there was. Someone said they were ignorant for saying that. I decided to prove, which I did, that Lance was the biggest celebrity in cycling. Not greatest cyclist of course, but celebrity. Some people seem to think these older(and current..Boonen) cyclist they bring up, while greatly known in our cycling world, are not known by the general public who know nothing of cycling. Lance bridges these gaps and is the best known/celebrity cyclist.

I decided to take a poll at work yesterday. I asked 5 doctors, 5 nurses, 3 physician assistants, 2 security guards and 1 IT guy.

People that knew of Eddie...0
People that knew of Pantani..0
People that knew of Boonen...0
People that knew of Coppi...0
People that knew of Contador..1.. the IT guy
People that knew Lance...20


/thread

20 people out of 16? That's pretty awesome, I must say.
 

flicker

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mikeNphilly said:
No, someone above us, said Lance was the biggest cycling celebrity there was. Someone said they were ignorant for saying that. I decided to prove, which I did, that Lance was the biggest celebrity in cycling. Not greatest cyclist of course, but celebrity. Some people seem to think these older(and current..Boonen) cyclist they bring up, while greatly known in our cycling world, are not known by the general public who know nothing of cycling. Lance bridges these gaps and is the best known/celebrity cyclist.

I decided to take a poll at work yesterday. I asked 5 doctors, 5 nurses, 3 physician assistants, 2 security guards and 1 IT guy.

People that knew of Eddie...0
People that knew of Pantani..0
People that knew of Boonen...0
People that knew of Coppi...0
People that knew of Contador..1.. the IT guy
People that knew Lance...20


/thread

Lance is a great promoter. Just give him credit, he has credit due. He has helped put cycling on the map in the US, Greg LeMond same thing.
 
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mikeNphilly said:
No, someone above us, said Lance was the biggest cycling celebrity there was. Someone said they were ignorant for saying that. I decided to prove, which I did, that Lance was the biggest celebrity in cycling. Not greatest cyclist of course, but celebrity. Some people seem to think these older(and current..Boonen) cyclist they bring up, while greatly known in our cycling world, are not known by the general public who know nothing of cycling. Lance bridges these gaps and is the best known/celebrity cyclist.

I decided to take a poll at work yesterday. I asked 5 doctors, 5 nurses, 3 physician assistants, 2 security guards and 1 IT guy.

People that knew of Eddie...0
People that knew of Pantani..0
People that knew of Boonen...0
People that knew of Coppi...0
People that knew of Contador..1.. the IT guy
People that knew Lance...20


/thread

How very scientific. I took a poll once, drunk, at a bar in Brugge. Lance wasn't even in the top 10 cyclists of all time.

The final tally of my poll were 7 Belgians, 2 Frenchmen and an Italian. Go figure.
 

flicker

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Scott SoCal said:
How very scientific. I took a poll once, drunk, at a bar in Brugge. Lance wasn't even in the top 10 cyclists of all time.

The final tally of my poll were 7 Belgians, 2 Frenchmen and an Italian. Go figure.

10 lying fureners, you are lucky you escaped that Euro nightmare.
 
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flicker said:
10 lying fureners, you are lucky you escaped that Euro nightmare.


Naw. Actual knowledgeable cycling fans. Euro nightmare? I'll take more please.
 
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mikeNphilly said:
No, someone above us, said Lance was the biggest cycling celebrity there was. Someone said they were ignorant for saying that. I decided to prove, which I did, that Lance was the biggest celebrity in cycling. Not greatest cyclist of course, but celebrity. Some people seem to think these older(and current..Boonen) cyclist they bring up, while greatly known in our cycling world, are not known by the general public who know nothing of cycling. Lance bridges these gaps and is the best known/celebrity cyclist.

I decided to take a poll at work yesterday. I asked 5 doctors, 5 nurses, 3 physician assistants, 2 security guards and 1 IT guy.

People that knew of Eddie...0
People that knew of Pantani..0
People that knew of Boonen...0
People that knew of Coppi...0
People that knew of Contador..1.. the IT guy
People that knew Lance...20


/thread

Are you sure they were not just trying to get you to stop bugging them with silly questions?
 

flicker

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Scott SoCal said:
Naw. Actual knowledgeable cycling fans. Euro nightmare? I'll take more please.

You are so lucky to get to visit Brugge, I would love to go there. All Americans need to go abroad. I am sure your friends in Europe know much of cycling.

I would be afraid to get a conversation going with rabid European cycling fans.
Very few in the US know much about cycling except what they are fed by paul, phil and bob.
 
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flicker said:
You are so lucky to get to visit Brugge, I would love to go there. All Americans need to go abroad. I am sure your friends in Europe know much of cycling.

I would be afraid to get a conversation going with rabid European cycling fans.
Very few in the US know much about cycling except what they are fed by paul, phil and bob.


As long as you keep it to cycling, you are cool. Just don't let it get into politics....
 
Jul 19, 2010
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Oldman said:
My wife was a private chef/nutritionist for several NBA, NFL starters. The NFL guy was a franchise player, devout Christian and still got popped for 'roids. He served his hand slap suspension and claimed to be all clean. He didn't lose a pound of weight and went to an East Coast team on another fat contract. While she never saw any of it she wasn't totally surprised.

The NBA guy was fat and slow. Most of them can run all day and do it again and again and again. If they're injured and have to sit there is a young turk ready to steal his spot so the money and motivation to use PEDs models anything cycling could imagine. I've watched the NBA ever since it was televised and player performance progress also shames cycling.

Just to add to this - the level of doping/steroids/hormones/etc used in the NFL and NBA makes anything done by cyclists look trivial.

In the US many top tier high school (!) football programs have serious problems with these things.
 
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flicker said:
Lance is a great promoter. Just give him credit, he has credit due. He has helped put cycling on the map in the US, Greg LeMond same thing.

here in Amsterdam I could reel off a list of moderate professional US political broadcasters and noone would have heard of them. They would all have heard of Glenn Beck though.

Glenn Beck has put paranoid ignorant extremism on the world media map, and inspired millions to believe in utter nonsense, while laughing all the way to the bank.

However this doesn't make him any less vile. Ditto our favourite Sociopathic cyclist.
 
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http://abduzeedo.com/new-lance-armstrong-foundation-office

in case you wonder what liestrong spends money on in addition to paying millions per annum on jet fuel, lobbying and lance awareness...

lance-armstrong-foundation-9.jpeg


yeah, it's a charity, no joke!

btw, just read that Nike's Livestrong line reached $50m in sales last year. Talking about what this "noble cause" is about. A shield to divert and distract and a racket to profiteer. Don't forget On Demand IPO...

Definitely not about the bike (re-posted):
dL4KFc
 
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Elagabalus said:
Oh, come now!!!

Give Lance a little sugah!! More people are aware of the sport of cycling now than before he became such a huge star.

He also made road bikes cool again. Which is always good!!

See! Now, that didn't hurt a bit!!

Yes! And don't forget beer. I'm drinking Michelob Ultras because of LA. Seriously. It's not about the bike. It's about the beer.

It's good beer and it's Lance's beer. When I drink a boatload of Ultra, I fantasize about riding like Lance and being Lance in those commercials.

And...I have less carbs after 27 beers than Jan or Boonen or Schleck or Cadel.
 
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TeamSkyFans said:
When you say he has promoted cycling outside of europe do you mean?

a) he has promoted cycling in the United States of America
or
b) he has promoted cycling outside of europe.

actually, as much as it pains me to say this - Phil Ligget and Mike Tomalaris have done WAAAAAAYYYY more for cycling in Australia than Lance ever did. Even more than the Australian riders...
 
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Paco_P said:
As a little boy growing up in suburban USA, the first professional cyclists I ever heard of were Greg Lemond and Laurent Fignon. On the other hand, I started biking seriously because I had no car and there was no public transport, and not because of some famous professional cyclist.

I started cycling because I was bored and had too much spare time. In terms of professional cyclists, I had heard of Robbie McEwen and Stuart O'Grady, before I had heard of LA.
 
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Dr. Maserati said:
Spectators are spectators - they are not cyclists.

I am not suprised that Mike Ranns figures increased - I like the way the crowd only come in 500's.
If you really want me to nit-pick then its the biggest percentage increase you missed from 2007 (357,000) to 2008 (548,000).

In fact if you really want to be picky on those stats you would say that the race was rapidly gaining popularity with spectators every year but when Lance started coming fewer new people were interested enough to turn up.
 
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thehog said:
I have to agree with you. The Tour really took off around 83-89. That’s when it went from French/European event to world event. I remember it well. The water bottles all went to "red coca cola" ones as team issued bidons where thrown out in favour of the major sponsor - an American sponsor no less. Television rights were packaged and sold around the world. One might remember that CBS started showing highlights to the music of John Tesh. Channel 4 in the UK begin showing the race live with English commentary - the birth of Phil Liggert the voice if cycling. Australia received the American highlights reel but presented in Australian by Wide World of Sports - Mike Gibson. This was the beginning of cycling on a global level. Not Lance Armstrong.

Valid point! - I was thinking more of bringing live tv to the country when I mentioned the SBS coverage above. Where would we be without chubby little Gibbo'? :)
 
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mad black said:
What has LA personally done to any of you to deserve that kind of hate?

You can argue all you want but that LA increased the popularity of cycling worldwide is an undisputeable fact. He certainly encouraged thousands of people to get on a bike, the very least of whom bought Treks as I may add.

How else do you explain the spectator numbers skyrocketing at the TDU over the past 3 years of Lance's participation? Friends of mine who are recreational cyclists and don't understand much about pro cycling at all went to Adelaide just to see him. He's a bloody celebrity, if you like it or not!

As a matter of fact he's the only celebrity cycling ever had! Understandably this makes him the prime target of envy, hate and mistrust (founded and unfounded).

As I see it LA finds himself in the same predicament as Tiger, all everyone wants is to see the perfect image crumble and eventually being shattered. So that everyone has an excuse to say "See, I'm (morally) bettter than that guy with his millions!". - Get a life and get over it! Or even better have the tenacity to earn your own millions.


AGREE ... like it or not he's successful, like it or not, he had cancer and survived. Move on people ....
 

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