Wiggins, a man in love!

[Winterfold]

I'm only calling it how I see it. Others are free to disagree.

The Armstrong narrative transcends cycling like eg the Beckham one does football - I agree with the posters who took issue with my first comment that this will not see more Cat 4s doing crits or people being marshalls at TTs - but it does see more people riding a Trek to work.

And that means the sport is/was more healthy.

Of course it remains to be seen if it doesnt come crashing down if the investigations uncover the 'truth' (as I imagine it to be)...

My best guess is, LA gets nailed by the Feds, I will be spat at and insulted a lot more than currently. That's the best case.

That's what I think Wiggo was saying.

Next year I hope he says I did hill repeats on the Madeleine until I was sick, three times a day, for two weeks.

 

[RhodriM]

His little tiffs with cycling weekly on twitter were a bit odd too. I seem to remember him having a right go at them for speculating that he'd move to team sky... ho ho.

 

[RhodriM]

Armstrong has 'increased awareness'. Mostly of himself. Now, when people find out I like cycling the next line is usually "Isn't that Armstrong wonderful, he's so old and he's still coming 3rd, and the cancer and...". Their knowledge of cycling is mainly limited to Armstrong's books, and the myths that have been created around him. The rest of cycling is the bitter French.

Then there's cycling as the new golf. Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Nike... what shiny-American-dream loving corporate *****s could resist it? And those jumping on the bandwagon seem so kit obsessed... OK every rider I know loves shiny new parts - or old ones, but for some people it seems to be their main reason.

I love the romantic old stories of riders launching mad solo attacks from miles out, almost being sold for a wheel of cheese, the yellow jersey sprinting on the Champs Elysees...

If cycling was in the dark ages before... can we have them back?

 

[FactChecker]

bringing in more American viewership and more sponsors.

Almost every professional sport has exploded with money over the last couple of decades.

Football is now not just a big money sport, but a BIG money sport. Rugby now deals with money unimaginable a short while ago. Cricket has the IPL, which is transforming in a money sense. Basketball likewise.

Cycling has not seen the same explosion. It fell behind the competition during the Armstrong era.

(From my personal point of view he made the TdF boring. After the first two years the result was not in enough doubt from the moment he won the first TT or big mountain stage. For excitement you need competition, not 7 consecutive wins.)

 

[The Hitch]

For 2 reasons this quote seems particularly interesting today, 2 years down the line


"

I love him," Wiggins said. "I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense. Even his strongest critics have benefitted from him. I don't think this sport will ever realise what he's brought it or how big he's made it.

 

[zigmeister]

Don't forget that USA Cycling has for whatever reason raised annual license fees at a rate far above that of inflation in order to use all that money to seemingly not promote or grow the sport in any way whatsoever.

Not to mention they gobbled up NORBA and domestic mountain biking has probably 1/2 the number of participants than it did 10 years ago.

Yeah that "Lance Factor" has been pretty good for Trek and Nike and I think that's about it.

You mean like health care and college tuition?

Lets get a grip here, joining usa cycling is part of a sport, way of life and luxury. It isnt your water, power or food bills to live.

It is a membership organization you can freely choose NOT to pay and be part of. I would recommend you do such to make a point to them.

 

[Katy in the Keys]

I think this article sums up the reason why Lance is so loved and respected by those who know best. Wiggins understands the work Lance put in to become the best and the article shows what he came from and worked hard to overcome. I am now a Wiggins fan and he will carry the torch that Lance passed for English speaking racers.

 

[Cycle Chic]

On the podium of Paris-Nice Wiggins thanked Armstrong....now that was odd ! talk about 'in the Armstrong brigade.'

 

[ianfra]

On the podium of Paris-Nice Wiggins thanked Armstrong....now that was odd ! talk about 'in the Armstrong brigade.'

Off course there is no question that Wiggins is clean. Sky, Garmin and the new teams really have to keep their noses real clean.
But I read his comments about Armstrong as slightly tongue-in-cheek. That is Wiggins' usual style. I agree that Armstrong did a huge amount for the sport and heighten awareness globally. If it is found that he cheated in order to achieve this then that would be very sad but it will not decrease the awareness already created. What it will result in is more people accusing cyclists of being dopers when in fact there is probably more dopers in professional soccer than in cycling. All indications are however that we are creating a cleaner professional sport and I would suggest that you'd find more cheaters amongst amateurs, club riders and the like.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Off course there is no question that Wiggins is clean.

I would like to think he is clean but given the history of the sport I think very, very few people are beyond question. While I am not of the group 'He wins therefore he is doping' it makes sense to question performances that seem out of the ordinary.

 

[The Hitch]

Its not so much he wins therefore he dopes as, he behaves like Armstrong, has come out of absolutely nowhere, has odd and flawed explanations for his sudden performance explosions and looks up to dopers, therefore, he is not beyond question.

 

[oldcrank]

I think, as usual, Wiggins is joking around

Many posters on this forum don't seem to get
Wiggo's humour. Many here are still outraged
at his "Wigans" remark which was just a wee
poke at his father-in-law who supports the
Wigans football side yet some posters are
still indignant. Sad really.

 

[roundabout]

I don't think it's particularly humorous to make references that only a few people understand.

 

[oldcrank]

I'm not trying to be nasty, or start an argument,
but the people that matter to Wiggo understood
and I'm sure his employer liked the reference, so
I kinda think he's not too bothered with what guys
like you and I think.

 

[hrotha]

I was never bothered by the Wigans reference, although knowing the proper context makes me appreciate it more. It's pretty funny.

I'm not sure the Armstrong thing is the same, though. If it's a joke, it so happens that he's never set the record straight on him either, so it's one of those "I'm being ironic so it doesn't count, except the effects are exactly the same as if I were being serious, and only I know I'm not being serious, so I get to keep my faux personal dignity while still reaping the benefits of having the opinion I disagree with, haha"

 

[richtea]

You've clearly not spent much time in Shoreditch.

 

[Dr.Sahl]

I think you will find mate olympic champions get tested. Thats why I hate it when people say Wiggins has cheated to 4th in last year TDF when he is 100% clean.

When Wiggins fall away from the favourite group in the MTS, people will see you are right and that he is not doped this year either..

He will do great, but I doubt he will win... I also think he peaked to early, but lets wait and see.

As for his comment, I hope it was a joke aswell... if not it might be ok aswell.. the riders are trying to protect themselves from more scandals, that will take the talk away from what they do, to what some inject/take/etc

 

[Marlene]

The first quote in this thread about Armstrong does not look like it is a joke.


Loved him saying, LA reads the paper so he is not saying anything though.

 

[thingswelike]

The first quote in this thread about Armstrong does not look like it is a joke.


Loved him saying, LA reads the paper so he is not saying anything though.

Hopefully everyone is noticing that this thread is from 2010

 

[Muriel]

No but I noticed the linked article was!

 

[Marlene]

Hopefully everyone is noticing that this thread is from 2010

Yes I did but 2 years ago Armstrong was just an **** as he is now.

 

[thehog]

The journalists that spoke with Evans in a phone interview last week were anxious to hear how he plans to deal with Sky in the Tour.

“In the mountains in the Dauphiné, Sky showed how much depth they have. To go over the Joux Plane with nine riders, and four of them are Sky — that was something we haven’t seen for a long time in pro racing,” he said. “If they hold that level, they’ll have the numbers. However, we’ll have to see when it’s down to five or 10 guys, how many riders they have then.”

 

[badboygolf16v]

Many posters on this forum don't seem to get
Wiggo's humour. Many here are still outraged
at his "Wigans" remark which was just a wee
poke at his father-in-law who supports the
Wigans football side yet some posters are
still indignant. Sad really.

Didn't seem very funny to me.

Here's another example of Wiggins' humour..

“All the other stuff that’s come on with Landis and things like that is one for the courts and whether the truth will ever come out is down to this investigation. I think time will tell with that. As it stands today, with the time I’ve raced with him – and I’ve never raced with him in his era of winning seven Tours – but in his comeback, he’s probably been the most tested athlete and never failed a drugs test.”

“I think you have to question Landis’ credibility because he lied under oath before and the stories that you hear about him drinking and things like that and you know, [making] telephone calls to people I know, threatening them with things, you just think that the guy appears to not all be there. So when you see these kinds of claims in the press you have to question his credibility because it’s almost like it’s coming from a mad man, but at the same time maybe that’s all borne out of frustration and things.

“You just never know but you just look at the way his life has gone over the last five years and you think there’s one person who it would have been so easy to have just admitted it when it happened in 2006, come clean if he did do it and he would have been back racing in a professional team making pretty good money. It’s quite sad how his life has gone away, just dwindled away and now there’s all these claims and counter claims and it’s quite a sad story for him.”

 

[Digger]

Didn't seem very funny to me.

Here's another example of Wiggins' humour..

“All the other stuff that’s come on with Landis and things like that is one for the courts and whether the truth will ever come out is down to this investigation. I think time will tell with that. As it stands today, with the time I’ve raced with him – and I’ve never raced with him in his era of winning seven Tours – but in his comeback, he’s probably been the most tested athlete and never failed a drugs test.”

“I think you have to question Landis’ credibility because he lied under oath before and the stories that you hear about him drinking and things like that and you know, [making] telephone calls to people I know, threatening them with things, you just think that the guy appears to not all be there. So when you see these kinds of claims in the press you have to question his credibility because it’s almost like it’s coming from a mad man, but at the same time maybe that’s all borne out of frustration and things.

“You just never know but you just look at the way his life has gone over the last five years and you think there’s one person who it would have been so easy to have just admitted it when it happened in 2006, come clean if he did do it and he would have been back racing in a professional team making pretty good money. It’s quite sad how his life has gone away, just dwindled away and now there’s all these claims and counter claims and it’s quite a sad story for him.”

That quote there summed up for me what an absolute d*** Wiggins is.

 

[Maxiton]

That quote there summed up for me what an absolute d*** Wiggins is.

C*** is more like it. I wonder who Wiggo's OB/GYN man is.