My first post - so be gentle with me!
Does anyone recognise Lance from
THIS?
As to a way back:
He could produce the definitive book, which unlike Tyler Hamilton's the proceeds are given to Livestrong, and a portion to the rest of his PR victims, so it is seen as less of "yet another earner", than actually trying to clean up his act.
. It would become a major best seller regardless of his present situation. And that would give him the chance to carefully craft a PR defence message - and write those apologies.
That speech could announce his intention.
He still has a massive weapon to use, which is dishing the dirt on UCI, who I think may well become the focus of just as big a storm, which could lead to corruption proceedings. Omerta is still live and well in UCI until someone like lance tells the truth. And Travis Tygart may use some discretion in reducing Lance's penalties.
Which brings to the crux of the problem if he owns up.
Lawsuits.
He clearly faces claims he would have to settle from The Sunday times $1m - SCA $7m LeMond and various other libel actions - probably out of court a few $mil. Even $10m-$20m is still small beer for a man who was earning $20M a year
Also potentially a Perjury prosecutin - but It seems to me the SOL has already run out on that, so may not? cannot? happen
The one that could actually sink him, and this is where his problem is - is if Nike want their career sponsorship back, if the contracts have the kind of clause SCA missed out, which makes all money conditional on being clean.
My guess is his lawyers are calculating his actual liability if he "comes clean"
In anticipation of such an owning up.
I have to say that one of the reasons I gave benefit of the doubt to Lance was I found Landis and Hamilton to be self serving worms, who whilst basically telling the truth would stitch lance up in the detail regardless, to use the "nazi" defence - "the team forced me!" so it is hard to prove whether their detail is fact.
I wonder how many others also feel that way, so an "alternative version" of the truth, that does not deny the basisc principle but rewrites the details may work for Lance. He cannot escape the "I doped" any more. But I suspect his role forcing others can be questioned.
Lance also has charisma. And - underneath it all I think he actually cares about Livestrong. When in the SCA trial videos, he says he was fully aware of the damage perjury could do to his charity , he was actually thinking "So owning up is a guaranteed killer, perjury has a percentage! of success"
So I expect an announcement - but an announcement of something that will happen, not the "message" itself. His Lawyers are probably working out how to stay solvent if he owns up to it all. I do not know this for a fact, but I suspect some assets have long since been put in the names of children and wives to protect them from this happening.
The lasting disappointment to me in Lance's career is in 2000 he had the presence in the peloton (without owning up to his own past) to say "this year the peloton rides clean" And for him as the boss to demand it - here is what we are all going to do to ensure it stays clean...and announce measures which would make cheating at best impractical. He had the presence to dictate such terms, and also the faith in his own ability to know he would probably win clean too, if on a level playing field. I think his own force of persnality could have been used for good back then.