Why is Lance Armstrong so Hated?

[dlwssonic]

Before you guys accuse me, Im not a fan of lance armstrong, never was.
I am pretty new to cycling, only started watching in 2009. However after being in the forum for the past few years. I have realised that 99% of the posters hate lance armstrong greatly. Is it because of the accusations against him of doping?? Or is it people don't like his personality??
Because other accused dopers are not hated as much around here such as Ricco, Rasmussen, Vino.

 

[Race Radio]

Most roadies hate Triathletes.

 

[andy1234]

Before you guys accuse me, Im not a fan of lance armstrong, never was.
I am pretty new to cycling, only started watching in 2009. However after being in the forum for the past few years. I have realised that 99% of the posters hate lance armstrong greatly. Is it because of the accusations against him of doping?? Or is it people don't like his personality??
Because other accused dopers are not hated as much around here such as Ricco, Rasmussen, Vino.

Expect to be flamed for even asking the question.....

By the way, nobody seems to "hate" him, they have a thousand other ways of describing their disgust for him, but they don't "hate" him.

The clinic disgust seems to apply to almost anyone who wins a professional race these days though.

 

[Cloxxki]

I used to be a fan myself, wanted to make business with the guy, channel millions to his so called charity, the works. The animosity ont his particular forum intrigued me. I set to reading what people had to say. The yellow faded to the bad poo kind.
I think, at least in The Clinic, those who express themselves negatively about the guy, could write a pretty well founded essay on the reasons why. Heck, the essay would need an index. My semi-objective impression is that other riders just don't offer cycling fans these reasons. Lance is unique in many respects, and has taken fair reasons to dislike a racer to the next level.

Which factors are most crucial? Frauding yourself to 7 TdF wins in a row is very impressive. Other frauds recognize this, and team up with him in other endeavours.
For me, the charity seems to be of great importance. There are so many who lie about PEDs. He uses the lie holding up his whole career, to give the most desperate of patience false hope. And just that, but to enrich himself, and gain political leverage to further defend his lie and ugly truths.
This I think is more important than the general personality traits he displays. Or the superiority complex as a rider/manager.

It's starting to sound like a long list already huh?

When it comes to Lance, the world is divided in few categories: those who did reading on him which he didn't co-author, and those who use the man himself as a source. A small group of (un)lucky few know the dark truths, yet find themselves in positions where the need to work with him. I can imagine they need to be paid top dollar to put up with Lance. Even when running such a wonderful charity.
In the future, many socialogical and psychological books will be based just on this phenomenon. The hero that shouldn't have been. Who chose himself.
Only in America, these things happen. Will 50 years from now, the yellow movement be filed as a cult or even sect? Just might.

 

[Dallas_]

Is it because of the accusations against him of doping?? Or is it people don't like his personality?

Well accusations is not the word I would use...

Hells bells, where does one start!

Betsy, WSJ and SI would all be able to get the ball rolling

I can hear Tyler in the background "Wait for me"

entertainment++
.

 

[RownhamHill]

Why is Lance Armstrong so hated?

Because he's a ****.

 

[spalco]

Ricco, Rasmussen, Vino.

Ricco is immensely hated too.

The reason for the Armstrong hating as far as I'm concerned is, that
1) he's a huge fraud
2) he got away with it
3) the whole cult around him ****es me off
4) he's exploiting cancer for his personal gain, even financially
5) he's just an all-around ******bag
6) he was a boring rider

 

[Avoriaz]

The chasing down of Filipo Simeoni

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

I must say I don't hate the guy, dislike is a better description. I dislike him for:

* cheating
* lying
* commenting on Sastres' Tour Win as being the worst winner of the Tour ever
* coming back to the peloton making a mockery of other riders
* harrassing other riders
* being the ultimate omertaist
* commercialising his cancer survival

In retrospect, seeing him sprinting uphill, come on, guys like Bahamontes would be ashamed.

 

[Ferminal]

The clinic disgust seems to apply to almost anyone who wins a professional race these days though.

Being suspicious doesn't equate to hate, does it?

 

[Swifty's Cakes]

The chasing down of Filipo Simeoni

Aye, bully boy tactics not worthy of a champion.

 

[Martin318is]

Pretty sure this question has been asked and answered hundreds of times on this forum alone...

 

[pmcg76]

I am not sure we need yet another new thread on this subject, there are already countless threads on Lance that only require a quick thread search to find the answers. We already have too many at the moment.

Beaten to it by Martin.

 

[Ferminal]

Pretty sure this question has been asked and answered hundreds of times on this forum alone...

Yes, many similar topics

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/search.php?searchid=2077166

 

[MrRoboto]

I believe many of the people here went through the Armstrong era listening to Phil and Paul's constant rambling about weight loss and high cadence (interspersed with some random Armstrong interview talking about how much talent Ullrich have) -- That is something that could make anyone hate the guy.

No, seriously. He's big, made a huge impact in the sport. Cheating of course. But he seems to get away with it. And still have a huge following. Of course people who'd like to see a clean sport dislike the guy. That he seems to be a huge *** just adds to that.

 

[goggalor]

The chasing down of Filipo Simeoni

Yup, this event sums up his whole personality. Of course at the moment it's exposed on Twitter for all to see.

Wikipedia sums it up nicely, also check the references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Simeoni#Feud_with_Lance_Armstrong

Beware though, you may be disgusted with pro cycling after reading this. Also remember that when certain forum members say they miss cycling's EPO (test) era of the late 90s/early 2000s, this is what they want to go back to.

 

[Cloxxki]

I think the questions does deserve it's own thread, or a cluster of threads. For newbies is can be easy to not get the big picture.

Let's compare Indurain, the closest thing to Lance in terms of career perhaps.

Lance gives the world new reasons to dislike him on new levels on a frequent basis. Just read the news on him for the past year, and the way he wears his cancer shield even in the tri swims.
Indurain is different. Chooses silence over lies. Modesty over blatant self-promotion. Quiet life versus a brand named after oneself, without a real product. No intimidations, large federal fraud, no lawyers chasing anyone who can be chased.

I am greatly disappointed in my recent realizations of Indurain's moral career, but it doesn't necessarily place him near the top of a hate-list. His doping and not being open about it (keeping omerta) are my sole grapes with the guy. That goes for thousands of pro cyclists. They know who they are. Most of them don't give us more reasons to dislike them. Just start an LBS or become a sports products rep. Coming clean can confirm a suspicion with initial response of anger, but also makes me dislike them less than those who keep the lie a-lie-ve strongly.

To contrast the responses by me and others, it would be interesting to make a list of reasons why we should like Lance. Stuff we can agree about. Like no-one will argue that he's a friendly guy to adversaries, what positive trait can we all agree on? Here's one, he did, like the other thousands, train hard, and innovated every way he could in order to win. And he's quite a ladies man, who can get such women to go to a public diner with them, let alone have babies with?
Help me out here, I'm running dry on positive things to say.
OK, his young worlds win indicates that his crazy solo training paid off. He's got a quite classics final in the legs.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

The chasing down of Filipo Simeoni

that showed his true colours - not a nice human being.

 

[meat puppet]

Plutocracy sucks.

 

[happychappy]

The clinic disgust seems to apply to almost anyone who wins a professional race these days though.

Exactly this. I'm not sure how these people can enjoy spending every day for years working themselves up into these little "hater" frenzies they all have.
It always just boils down to bickering between themselves like schoolchildren in the end.

 

[MrRoboto]

Exactly this. I'm not sure how these people can enjoy spending every day for years working themselves up into these little "hater" frenzies they all have.
It always just boils down to bickering between themselves like schoolchildren in the end.

Like you obviously get worked up by the people posting here?

 

[The Hitch]

To be brief. because he bullied simeoni and he ridiculed sastre and cvv. I don't care that much for cases from years gone by but Those acts are unforgivable.

Imagine what Christian Vandevelde feels after that effort only for lance Armstrong to come out and say he isn't worthy of a top 5.

You can't treat your coriders that way .

You can't treat people that way.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

I must say I liked him in his early carreer, his cancer came as a big shock back then. When he would have sticked to his Vuelta 1998 kinda rides I guess he would have had much more pro's as to contra's in my opinion. The guy had flair, was always on the attack, even before the Motorola's went on the juice as we are led to believe. Hell, he even could challenge the powered up Ukranian Oetsjakov of Polti.

I forgot one of his dislike arguments earlier; the capture of Roberto Heras who he saw as a big threat in the mountains. Or he just wanted the acces to Heras' network at Kelme of course: thats me being cynical

 

[hrotha]

The consensus is that, while Motorola only got on a team-wide EPO program in 1995, they weren't necessarily clean before, and Armstrong in particular certainly wasn't. And apparently Armstrong never made use of the Motorola program, since by then he was already working with Ferrari.

 

[Caruut]

I must say I liked him in his early carreer, his cancer came as a big shock back then. When he would have sticked to his Vuelta 1998 kinda rides I guess he would have had much more pro's as to contra's in my opinion. The guy had flair, was always on the attack, even before the Motorola's went on the juice as we are led to believe. Hell, he even could challenge the powered up Ukranian Oetsjakov of Polti.

I forgot one of his dislike arguments earlier; the capture of Roberto Heras who he saw as a big threat in the mountains. Or he just wanted the acces to Heras' network at Kelme of course: thats me being cynical

Yeah, the whole hiring rivals as super-doms kinda feels not in the spirit of things.