The mother of all apology speeches

[mountainrman]

No way he could have won clean. He couldn't even climb before he hired Ferrari. Highly unlikely he would have made a podium in those years. That is why he doped to the maximum.

Notice what I said. I said: "his faith in his ability to win clean": I did not say that he would have won clean. Guys like lance have an inherent belief in their own invincibility.

Sadly we will never know how good he really was.

 

[irongrl]

Well, I won't believe it until I see it. But now that his income is down serveral mils per year he has to find a way to replace it. Hey, he could write a book. But phase one is public admission... not a real apology... just admission. Then he can write a book like Tyler did.

Either that or he's still squirming on the beach tanking a brew.

Does he have any actual income at all now?

 

[Bratam]

Does he have any actual income at all now?

Not sure, he will probably get another day or two of pay from Oakley. Thats about it from the sponsors. But his net worth would be shrinking from $125m (as reported). Unfortunately still a long way to go until he is bankrupt. We can live in hope ....

 

[veganrob]

If he does apologize it will be the most phony, self serving admission. No, just no. I wouldn't even read it. Unless he apologized to Betsy, Greg, Emma and all the other people whose lives he tried to ruin and paid restitution to them. I don't see it happening though.

Although it would be kinda funny if it was like Jimmy Swaggart confession. Then maybe I would watch

 

[mountainrman]

Does he have any actual income at all now?

He has a lot of business interests, fingers in a lot of pies.

As I said in my first big post, I do not think paying back SCA, Sunday Times, Law suits from others libelled such as LeMond adding up to (say) $15m would be a mortal bow to him. He has a jet and several houses worth up to $10m each.

What would really kill him is a claim back from such as Nike for all sponsorship to date - $5m a year for 10 years - if their contract has a "clean" clause.

As I said above, I suspect his lawyers are calculating the liability of "coming clean" with a view to apology and possibly to the best seller I mentioned dishing the dirt on all sorts of people including UCI ( which could earn him a much shorter ban at USADA) - and highlighting self serving twists of truth by such as Landis and Floyd = and others.

I am not a lawyer, but I believe By and large civil actions can only take you to bankruptcy - and cannot extend back to assets in other peoples names predating the action.. Only criminal actions have the power to sequester access of all proceeds: so fraud would have to be proven. I have no doubt that lance helped Nike sell a lot of stuff for his ill gotten gains, so it is hard to know ho value "damage" arsing from breach of contract, if liquidated damages are not defined in the contracts with sponsors.

I am sure such a book would be a world best seller. "it is about the bike!" to go on the fact not fiction section this time. And it would be one chance to apologise to all, and start to build a road back.

Lance has charisma going for him.. His detractors by and large have had charisma bypass operations.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

lance will definitely not admitt. he rather commits suicide. well hopes springs eternal

Interesting comments. Not sure how this falls within the rules but hey fHuckit right?

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Yeah, including the ignorant that keep forgetting that an admission will likely reopen the Federal case.

If he admits, it should coincide with some type of plea deal.

Indeed. If he admits, he's essentially handed SCA their case. Not to mention that he will face perjury charges.

Any admission will have to include a plea deal for the Federal case plus perjury in the SCA case in addition to a settlement with the latter.

Not to mention the fact that he will likely be asked everything about Bruyneel, the UCI, Ferrari, everyone, as part of that plea deal.

 

[Deagol]

It should not matter that he does not confess. His words have already been proven to be nothing but lies.

Talk is cheap, his actions have spoken volumes. No matter what he says- confession or not- there should be no forgiveness, not for what he has done (doping only being a small part).

 

[mountainrman]

Indeed. If he admits, he's essentially handed SCA their case. Not to mention that he will face perjury charges.

Any admission will have to include a plea deal for the Federal case plus perjury in the SCA case in addition to a settlement with the latter.

Not to mention the fact that he will likely be asked everything about Bruyneel, the UCI, Ferrari, everyone, as part of that plea deal.

The SCA he can afford to pay off.

I think the statute of limitations is out on perjury, depedning on whether federal or state.

It is reasonable to suppose the feds had all that tygart has now, to be frank none of it is new. Doping is not illegal in US, only fraud, and the other witnesses have probably been given immunity and sweetheart deals at USADA which hurts the prosecution case.

Also - the standards of proof needed for federal justice are way higher than Tygarts kangaroo court, which regardless of guilt or innocence is not justice in any recognisable sense, it goes against the grain, regardless of how guilty (as hell) lance actually is.

His problem financially will be if the likes of Nike ask for repayment of all sponsorship on the grounds of a "clean" clause. which could be tens of millions, but I suspect lance is clever enough never to have signed such a clause. On general damages for breach outside a liquidation clause , he has sold them a lot of kit, so I doubt if they can win on that basis.

 

[Boeing]

If he does apologize it will be the most phony, self serving admission. No, just no. I wouldn't even read it. Unless he apologized to Betsy, Greg, Emma and all the other people whose lives he tried to ruin and paid restitution to them. I don't see it happening though.

Although it would be kinda funny if it was like Jimmy Swaggart confession. Then maybe I would watch

My thought exactly. He needs to try to make amends for all the carnage he created in other peoples lives. But alas this will only make him a little less worthless

 

[Boeing]

lance will definitely not admitt. he rather commits suicide. well hopes springs eternal

are you actually suggesting you hope he commits suicide? this makes you as pathetic a person as he is.

 

[mikkemus23]

Will his former sponsors and USP have å legal case of getting back their money? He has å family so I think talk about suicide is a bit unfair.

 

[VeloCity]

Will his former sponsors and USP have å legal case of getting back their money? He has å family so I think talk about suicide is a bit unfair.

They made so much money off his name I doubt they'd bother. If anything, it should be Nike and Oakley etc paying what they earned off of Armstrong's name back into cycling somehow. They've known for years that Armstrong wasn't clean, just as well as we did, yet they still kept promoting him because he was making them millions.

 

[Aleajactaest]

He will never admit any guilt. He may say something about regretting the impacts of what happened but nothing more. There is no legal or financial motive to do otherwise.

Additionally, aside from saying he was sorry he was born, nothing will satisfy the clinic mafioso...

 

[mewmewmew13]

Notice what I said. I said: "his faith in his ability to win clean": I did not say that he would have won clean. Guys like lance have an inherent belief in their own invincibility.

Sadly we will never know how good he really was.

There is plenty of evidence out there that he was nothing special...
this has been pointed out over and over.

 

[Microchip]

There is plenty of evidence out there that he was nothing special...
this has been pointed out over and over.

He knew others were/are better than him. Christian Van de Velde and Tyler recorded better times than he did, but Bruyneel didn't let Van de Velde know and Tyler he chastised, just to appease Armstrong's mood when he learned his time had been beaten.

 

[mewmewmew13]

lance will definitely not admitt. he rather commits suicide. well hopes springs eternal

There are some pretty inappropriate posts here...

and some 'new' posters with quite a lot to say....

 

[thehog]

There is plenty of evidence out there that he was nothing special...
this has been pointed out over and over.

He was a very good liar…

 

[broken chain]

Stop giving L.A. hints at how he should behave,he's monitoring this website.

 

[howsteepisit]

My suspision is that this "Mother of all Apologies" will be similar in in magnitude to the "Mother of all Battles" promised by Sadam.

 

[Richeypen]

My suspision is that this "Mother of all Apologies" will be similar in in magnitude to the "Mother of all Battles" promised by Sadam.

Lances new PR representative

 

[hrotha]

Stop giving L.A. hints at how he should behave,he's monitoring this website.

Look, if he rips off his apology speech from the Clinic instead of listening to his overpaid lawyers, it would be hilarious. I'm all for it.

 

[ebandit]

wow!

wow! the last couple of days events have really moved things along but i can't see any chance of an apology soon

another poster asked what it would be like to be a fly on lance's wall
.............i see an angry lance................someone wanting to get even
not say..........sorry!

best is.............all his expensive lawyers and what have they managed to
achieve.............................?

if only lance had sense to donate those $'s to livestrong..............but who would be stoopid enough to donate to ones own charity?

 

[The_Z_man]

Confessions always include saying sorry to all those who they have hurt in the process.

What they say is they're sorry if anyone felt hurt by what they did. That's how sports apologies go. They never say they're sorry for what they did, but they're sorry if someone felt bad about what they did. It sounds like an apology, but it's really not.

I was shocked he stepped down as chairman of Livestrong. That might mean an apology is coming. He is still on LS's board, however.

 

[nighttrain]

Office chatter

This morning I was pulled into a watercooler convo about LA. In the sports crazy office where I work they consider me the "cyclist dude who rides a lot". After giving a cliff notes version, without any personal commentary, of the LA/PED bust the below were the responses:
* "What a shame, he did a lot for the cancer community but was living a lie"
* "Almost all pro athletes dope"
* "His 15 minutes of fame are over"
* "Do you think Sheryl Crowe left him when she found out he was a druggie?"
* "Euro soccer players use the same stuff. He was just better at it than others"
* (from a tri-athlete) "He's a narcissistic sociopath. No way his former teammates would stay quiet when they were under oath."

Collectively, they all agreed he should have come clean early, with sincere regrets (impossible for LA, in my opinion), and focused on Livestrong. But it's too late for that now and he'll go down in flames was the collective prediction.

It's simply a huge blight on cycling which is only a fringe sport here. The office sports chatter will return to college football, NFL, the World Series, plus all the individual sports that my co-workers participate.