Why is Lance Armstrong so Hated?

[Libertine Seguros]

Armstrong as a rider was a boring, dominant automaton with a dominant team around him. That's fine in and of itself - but I get bored by domination quite quickly. This can't be helped.

The problem I have with Armstrong is more as a person. If I had been watching back then I'm sure I'd have got bored of Miguel Indurain's domination too, but Miguelón didn't have to crush people and destroy careers to satisfy himself. Armstrong's treatment of Bassons and Simeoni is plain loathsome, but there are plenty of other examples, such as the crass disrespect of Sastre and Vande Velde Hitch alluded to (the whole "I'm coming back because if guys like that are coming top 5 the Tour is easy" kind of attitude), Cunego (the "I will crush you Little Prince" stuff), the 2009 Tour (seriously, some of the stuff is so petty and pathetic - like barging between José Iván Gutiérrez and Contador to steal Guti's water bottle when he offered it to Contador - though Contador then refused it after Lance drank from it, so doesn't exactly cover himself with glory. Guti had to demand his bottle back because Lance tried to keep it).

But another thing has been the attitudes of many of his fans, which is of course something Lance himself can't help.

 

[Caruut]

In short, people dislike those who cheat, those who are cruel and those who are dishonest. 2 out of three, they like you even less. The full house and they like you less still.

Now when you do all those things, get away with it, and act like other people are the bad ones for calling you on it, then it really starts to get annoying.

 

[mewmewmew13]

Armstrong as a rider was a boring, dominant automaton with a dominant team around him. That's fine in and of itself - but I get bored by domination quite quickly. This can't be helped.

The problem I have with Armstrong is more as a person. If I had been watching back then I'm sure I'd have got bored of Miguel Indurain's domination too, but Miguelón didn't have to crush people and destroy careers to satisfy himself. Armstrong's treatment of Bassons and Simeoni is plain loathsome, but there are plenty of other examples, such as the crass disrespect of Sastre and Vande Velde Hitch alluded to (the whole "I'm coming back because if guys like that are coming top 5 the Tour is easy" kind of attitude), Cunego (the "I will crush you Little Prince" stuff), the 2009 Tour (seriously, some of the stuff is so petty and pathetic - like barging between José Iván Gutiérrez and Contador to steal Guti's water bottle when he offered it to Contador - though Contador then refused it after Lance drank from it, so doesn't exactly cover himself with glory. Guti had to demand his bottle back because Lance tried to keep it).

But another thing has been the attitudes of many of his fans, which is of course something Lance himself can't help.

Nice summary---my thoughts are similar LS

 

[131313]

When you look at the body of evidence of LA's career and life in general, I'm pretty much amazed that this question is framed in this manner so often? The real question is "why does LA have any fans any longer?". It's certainly a much more interesting question.

There are some who've bought off on the spin he's tried to put forward, "Champion, cancer survivor, humanitarian, victim of French hate, etc", but for the most part even the most casual of fans have seen through the facade, in large part because of the Fed investigation and concomitant fallout. The folks who buy the fairy tail are fewer in number by the day.

Then there are the folks who admire him for winning, no matter what. I'd say this is a decidedly "American" attitude, but we're a big country with varied ideals. I certainly don't admire the "win at all costs" mentality, but some do.

Lastly, there are those whose own fortunes are tied to his. This is a bigger group than you'd think. Almost everyone with a job in cycling feels either indebted or afraid of LA, or at least that used to be the case. His arm still reaches long, though. If you have any questions about that, take a look at the ATOC start list. Big surprise, Kenda's out, Livestrong's junior team is in. It's interesting to watch him now do to triathlon what he did and tried to do in cycling, basically making sure the fortune of the sport is tied to his own in order to make himself untouchable (like when he tried to buy the sport's biggest bike race). Though now, he's done it in an even smarter way, using the LAF to partner with WTC; now it's not even on his own dime!

After LA has used the sport of triathlon as a shield for his various misdeeds, he'll be done with it, and the tri folks will realize what most in cycling already know: Lance Armstrong really doesn't help your sport very much! He'll bring a lot of attention to his own brand, but that attention runs with the man, not the sport. Cycling in the US is certainly no better off because of Armstrong. Any and all of the growth in the US is largely due to a lot of work at the grass roots level by people who go largely unknown. If anything, the sport has been left with a net negative from his involvement with it, since as soon as people hear what I do for a living they assume I'm on drugs!

So, I guess I'd like to rephrase the question: Why is there still any love for Lance Armstrong?

 

[Nederick]

I go with LS's summation.
Out of which to me, the Simeoni thing was the pinnacle. That single event really got my hackles up.
This would probably be better run as a poll with no comments. As others say, there's been so much written now already.

 

[thehog]

I go with LS's summation.
Out of which to me, the Simeoni thing was the pinnacle. That single event really got my hackles up.
This would probably be better run as a poll with no comments. As others say, there's been so much written now already.

For me its the sheer and utter mockery of the anti-doping process. More so in the '09 Comeback 2.0 than prior. Pretending to use Catlin, posting blood values online and having Taylor Phinney sit aside him as he announced the personal anti-doping program all whilst shifting large sums of money to Ferrari.

Sure go ahead and dope but don't take your fans for a bunch of fools and sell ice to the eskimos.

That I had a hard time stomaching.

The cancer shield to defend doping question is another area which I find personally troubling.

Chasing down and beating up on clean guys is another reason to dislike him. Pretending to be clean is one thing but beating up on anyone who was actually clean really stinks.

The entire Contador saga and the way he was prepared to demean him in the press I found on a sporting level disgraceful.

Pretending to ride for free whilst excepting personal large sums to ride and behaving somewhat nefariously if it was for Livestrong or himself.

Probably most what I find so horrid is he appears to enjoy scouting the laws on doping and beating up on everyone. Like a pyromanic who is excited by watching a house burn down he appears to enjoy dismantling people and seeing them suffer.

 

[Digger]

For me its the sheer and utter mockery of the anti-doping process. More so in the '09 Comeback 2.0 than prior. Pretending to use Catlin, posting blood values online and having Taylor Phinney sit aside him as he announced the personal anti-doping program all whilst shifting large sums of money to Ferrari.

Sure go ahead and dope but don't take your fans for a bunch of fools and sell ice to the eskimos.

That I had a hard time stomaching.

The cancer shield to defend doping question is another area which I find personally troubling.

Chasing down and beating up on clean guys is another reason to dislike him. Pretending to be clean is one thing but beating up on anyone who was actually clean really stinks.

The entire Contador saga and the way he was prepared to demean him in the press I found on a sporting level disgraceful.

Pretending to ride for free whilst excepting personal large sums to ride and behaving somewhat nefariously if it was for Livestrong or himself.

Probably most what I find so horrid is he appears to enjoy scouting the laws on doping and beating up on everyone. Like a pyromanic who is excited by watching a house burn down he appears to enjoy dismantling people and seeing them suffer.

All of that post...
Hiding behind cancer. Telling people this was on the house, then accepting millions in personal appearance fees. Got a huge appearance fee to race the Tour of Ireland and then hopped off his bike at the start of the criterium on the final stage. Thousands had come out in the rain, he jsut got off, couldn't be bothered. He complained all week.
I am fighting cancer so your kids don't have to is disgusting.
Saying he keeps winning these libel cases when they are usually withdrawn before court.
His behaviour in the toilets with Tyler at that resturant.
Using Catlin but then dumping him quietly a few months later.
Calling someone like Betsy 'fat and ugly.'
His absolute disdain and chubris as regards the Feds (remember that tweet in Spanish from Juan Pelota to Jeff)
When Bassons poke out he said maybe you should f*** off out of cycling.
Simeoni, the day he was chased down by Lance, went back to the back of the peleton with spit rolling down his legs.
Lance was apparently the guy who tipped off the UCI about Mayo.
His sheer audacity to take everyone for fools when it comes to his doping and Ferrari.
His villification and demonisation of anyone who gets in his way, Floyd, Tyler, Frankie, Betsy, Emma O'Reilly (was called a sl**), Lemond.
Bribing the UCI.
Anyone who has read the full details of the Mike Anderson lawsuit would be very disturbed at the person Lance is. I am just glad Mike got out the other side.
Lance's treatment of the person who started up cyclingnews years ago, which forced him to sell.
Taylor phinney was due to sign for Vaughters. Kimmage ran a story on Garmin where he mentioned all the things he found out about Lance from the Garmin guys...Livestrong end up signing Phinney. Many say this was purely out of spite to get back at Vaughters.

This list took about five minutes and is off the top of my head.
Doping is one thing. Nice people dope too. But Lance is just a bully. A nasty, vindictive piece of sh** who i would give my right arm to meet.
A small example of the sad person Lance is. Remember when he accidentally let out his own email address. One guy emailed a couple of times calling him a doper. Lance then sent out a message on the internet with this guys email address. Lance mentioned and spelled this address three times. This is how sad and petty he is.

And Lance I know reads this stuff, which is ironic considering what he says about Betsy, he would never ever have won the Tour even once if it wasn't for preferential treatment as regards drug testing, and for his team. He sat on their wheels every day for three weeks and then rode away on the final two Kms. Those guys never got the credit they deserved. And all for a relative pittance. Heaven forbid they steal the limelight from Lance.

 

[usedtobefast]

All of that post...
Hiding behind cancer. Telling people this was on the house, then accepting millions in personal appearance fees. Got a huge appearance fee to race the Tour of Ireland and then hopped off his bike at the start of the criterium on the final stage. Thousands had come out in the rain, he jsut got off, couldn't be bothered. He complained all week.
I am fighting cancer so your kids don't have to is disgusting.
Saying he keeps winning these libel cases when they are usually withdrawn before court.
His behaviour in the toilets with Tyler at that resturant.
Using Catlin but then dumping him quietly a few months later.
Calling someone like Betsy 'fat and ugly.'
His absolute disdain and chubris as regards the Feds (remember that tweet in Spanish from Juan Pelota to Jeff)
When Bassons poke out he said maybe you should f*** off out of cycling.
Simeoni, the day he was chased down by Lance, went back to the back of the peleton with spit rolling down his legs.
Lance was apparently the guy who tipped off the UCI about Mayo.
His sheer audacity to take everyone for fools when it comes to his doping and Ferrari.
His villification and demonisation of anyone who gets in his way, Floyd, Tyler, Frankie, Betsy, Emma O'Reilly (was called a sl**), Lemond.
Bribing the UCI.
Anyone who has read the full details of the Mike Anderson lawsuit would be very disturbed at the person Lance is. I am just glad Mike got out the other side.
Lance's treatment of the person who started up cyclingnews years ago, which forced him to sell.
Taylor phinney was due to sign for Vaughters. Kimmage ran a story on Garmin where he mentioned all the things he found out about Lance from the Garmin guys...Livestrong end up signing Phinney. Many say this was purely out of spite to get back at Vaughters.

This list took about five minutes and is off the top of my head.
Doping is one thing. Nice people dope too. But Lance is just a bully. A nasty, vindictive piece of sh** who i would give my right arm to meet.
A small example of the sad person Lance is. Remember when he accidentally let out his own email address. One guy emailed a couple of times calling him a doper. Lance then sent out a message on the internet with this guys email address. Lance mentioned and spelled this address three times. This is how sad and petty he is.

And Lance I know reads this stuff, which is ironic considering what he says about Betsy, he would never ever have won the Tour even once if it wasn't for preferential treatment as regards drug testing, and for his team. He sat on their wheels every day for three weeks and then rode away on the final two Kms. Those guys never got the credit they deserved. And all for a relative pittance. Heaven forbid they steal the limelight from Lance.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Self-portrait?

 

[patricknd]

some people just hate greatness

 

[Caruut]

But we all hate trolls.

 

[Pazuzu]

some people just hate greatness

Using banned substances to get an edge may be your idea of 'greatness'. But for the rest us? Not so much.

 

[Zweistein]

I wish you guys believed in miracles...



OF




EPO

 

[Maxiton]

I wish you guys believed in miracles...



OF




EPO

OMG

That's clever dude.

 

[Maxiton]

Armstrong as a rider was a boring, dominant automaton with a dominant team around him. That's fine in and of itself - but I get bored by domination quite quickly. This can't be helped.

The problem I have with Armstrong is more as a person. If I had been watching back then I'm sure I'd have got bored of Miguel Indurain's domination too, but Miguelón didn't have to crush people and destroy careers to satisfy himself. Armstrong's treatment of Bassons and Simeoni is plain loathsome, but there are plenty of other examples, such as the crass disrespect of Sastre and Vande Velde Hitch alluded to (the whole "I'm coming back because if guys like that are coming top 5 the Tour is easy" kind of attitude), Cunego (the "I will crush you Little Prince" stuff), the 2009 Tour (seriously, some of the stuff is so petty and pathetic - like barging between José Iván Gutiérrez and Contador to steal Guti's water bottle when he offered it to Contador - though Contador then refused it after Lance drank from it, so doesn't exactly cover himself with glory. Guti had to demand his bottle back because Lance tried to keep it).

But another thing has been the attitudes of many of his fans, which is of course something Lance himself can't help.

For me its the sheer and utter mockery of the anti-doping process. More so in the '09 Comeback 2.0 than prior. Pretending to use Catlin, posting blood values online and having Taylor Phinney sit aside him as he announced the personal anti-doping program all whilst shifting large sums of money to Ferrari.

Sure go ahead and dope but don't take your fans for a bunch of fools and sell ice to the eskimos.

That I had a hard time stomaching.

The cancer shield to defend doping question is another area which I find personally troubling.

Chasing down and beating up on clean guys is another reason to dislike him. Pretending to be clean is one thing but beating up on anyone who was actually clean really stinks.

The entire Contador saga and the way he was prepared to demean him in the press I found on a sporting level disgraceful.

Pretending to ride for free whilst excepting personal large sums to ride and behaving somewhat nefariously if it was for Livestrong or himself.

Probably most what I find so horrid is he appears to enjoy scouting the laws on doping and beating up on everyone. Like a pyromanic who is excited by watching a house burn down he appears to enjoy dismantling people and seeing them suffer.

All of that post...
Hiding behind cancer. Telling people this was on the house, then accepting millions in personal appearance fees. Got a huge appearance fee to race the Tour of Ireland and then hopped off his bike at the start of the criterium on the final stage. Thousands had come out in the rain, he jsut got off, couldn't be bothered. He complained all week.
I am fighting cancer so your kids don't have to is disgusting.
Saying he keeps winning these libel cases when they are usually withdrawn before court.
His behaviour in the toilets with Tyler at that resturant.
Using Catlin but then dumping him quietly a few months later.
Calling someone like Betsy 'fat and ugly.'
His absolute disdain and chubris as regards the Feds (remember that tweet in Spanish from Juan Pelota to Jeff)
When Bassons poke out he said maybe you should f*** off out of cycling.
Simeoni, the day he was chased down by Lance, went back to the back of the peleton with spit rolling down his legs.
Lance was apparently the guy who tipped off the UCI about Mayo.
His sheer audacity to take everyone for fools when it comes to his doping and Ferrari.
His villification and demonisation of anyone who gets in his way, Floyd, Tyler, Frankie, Betsy, Emma O'Reilly (was called a sl**), Lemond.
Bribing the UCI.
Anyone who has read the full details of the Mike Anderson lawsuit would be very disturbed at the person Lance is. I am just glad Mike got out the other side.
Lance's treatment of the person who started up cyclingnews years ago, which forced him to sell.
Taylor phinney was due to sign for Vaughters. Kimmage ran a story on Garmin where he mentioned all the things he found out about Lance from the Garmin guys...Livestrong end up signing Phinney. Many say this was purely out of spite to get back at Vaughters.

This list took about five minutes and is off the top of my head.
Doping is one thing. Nice people dope too. But Lance is just a bully. A nasty, vindictive piece of sh** who i would give my right arm to meet.
A small example of the sad person Lance is. Remember when he accidentally let out his own email address. One guy emailed a couple of times calling him a doper. Lance then sent out a message on the internet with this guys email address. Lance mentioned and spelled this address three times. This is how sad and petty he is.

And Lance I know reads this stuff, which is ironic considering what he says about Betsy, he would never ever have won the Tour even once if it wasn't for preferential treatment as regards drug testing, and for his team. He sat on their wheels every day for three weeks and then rode away on the final two Kms. Those guys never got the credit they deserved. And all for a relative pittance. Heaven forbid they steal the limelight from Lance.

"Poor Jonathan and his stupid little team. What the f*** are you like? If you were on my team this would have been taken care of, but now you are not going to finish the Tour de France because of a wasp sting."

· Arranging to have Simeoni, Italian national road champion, kept out of the Giro.

· Possible complicity in Zomegan's firing.

· Buying his rivals, or else having them eliminated by whatever means.

· General degradation of the sport for personal gain.

The list goes on. Somebody could write a book. Entitled, Lance Armstrong, its subtitle would be Gratuitous Asshattery in the Extreme.

 

[2008885]

Never mind all this doping stuff, what about the god awful black socks??

 

[Martin318is]

Oh god yes. And promoting the idea of long knee length knicks and socks - just to cover up the fact that he has pins for legs. bleargh!

 

[dlwssonic]

thanks for all the detailed info, appreciate it
Kinda understand why you all have this intense hatred towards lance.
Personally I still don't feel much against him, probably because I didn't watch cycling in his era and didn't see all that he did. I also don't know much about all of the doping talk involving him.
However I think he did bring a positive to the cycling world. It was because of him and the publicity he created that a lot of people around the world knew more about cycling and the tdf especially outside of europe, in america and asia.

 

[Digger]

thanks for all the detailed info, appreciate it
Kinda understand why you all have this intense hatred towards lance.
Personally I still don't feel much against him, probably because I didn't watch cycling in his era and didn't see all that he did. I also don't know much about all of the doping talk involving him.
However I think he did bring a positive to the cycling world. It was because of him and the publicity he created that a lot of people around the world knew more about cycling and the tdf especially outside of europe, in america and asia.

Oh jesus....

 

[Martin318is]

Look, he is a bit like Michael Shumacher. he is still in the public eye but as far as many fans of F1 go (bearing in mind that most have only gotten into the sport in the last 4 or 5 years) he is a great champion and all around pretty nice and friendly guy. All they generally see are the interviews, the smiling and the history of being a winner.

They have no idea what a dangerous cheating scumbag he was in his efforts to win all those world titles.

To take this analogy to its logical conclusion - why would anyone hate Michael? Just ask Damon Hill - amongst others...

 

[dlwssonic]

How did michael schumacher cheat?

 

[Christian]

He cheats on his taxes (Schumacher that is, Lance I don't know)

Never mind all this doping stuff, what about the god awful black socks??

+100000

And you know who has brought them back? Wigans and his Brailsford bunch....

 

[Benotti69]

However I think he did bring a positive to the cycling world. It was because of him and the publicity he created that a lot of people around the world knew more about cycling and the tdf especially outside of europe, in america and asia.

Myth and not true. This has been disproven in here.

Dont believe that all in here hate Armstrong. That is his trolls are calling everyone who posts about what Armstrong is really like, a hater, does not make it so.

He has done nothing positive for the sport. He has done nothing positive for charity. He has done nothing positive for curing cancer etc etc....

All these realities pointed out do not make me a hater. It makes me a realist with open eyes and mind.

Those who call me a hater are similar to zealots.

 

[Kiara is a rational girl]

Lance is a proper psychopath, huh? He cracks me up.

 

[Parrulo]

He rammed Hill off the road intentionally to win his first world title at the last race of the season when both of them were still going for the title. I remember watching that race live as I used to be a big Formula 1 fan growing up. Also he got disqualified from the 1997 championship when he intentionally try to ram Villeneuve off the road as well. He wanted to win at all costs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmKbGW7OmVg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ULoz10XJUU

not the biggest schumacher fan here, but senna did exactly the same thing to prost and people still praise him to this day.