Will Armstrong ride the Tour de France?

[rattler]

i hope LA fades out of the international cycling scene for good.
Cancer foundations should blacklist him.
wtf is he still doing around anyway? he's late for his time, the early 90's.

he has totally diluted the value of a TDF win.
if ASO and the other GT firms weren't such circuses for $$, it might be different.

 

[Wallace]

A lot of people here seem to think that with this latest round of accusations Lance is just going to wither up like a salted slug and disappear. As much as I'd like that to happen, I expect him to fight his way through these troubles. He won't win the Tour (too old, too fat, too slow), but he'll be there, unfortunately.

Remember Claus Von Bulow, R. Kelly and O.J. Simpson. Not to say Lance's (alleged) crimes are on the level of theirs, but if you're a celebrity with a mountain of cash and great lawyers, you can get away with pretty much anything. Lance has been pretty quiet of late. You can bet he's somewhere surrounded by a posse of excellent legal minds, mapping out a strategy and scripting everything he's going to say and do in the coming weeks/months. Anyone who thinks the fight against Armstrong has already been won hasn't paid attention to how long he's managed to avoid any penalties for his transgressions, and how he's done it.

Personally, I think Armstrong's un-retirement/return to the scene of the crime was a monumental act of hubris, and might be enough to ultimately cause his downfall, but it'll be a long, hard fight before that finally happens.

 

[SpartacusRox]

But how can Prudhomme publicly justify uninviting RS without appearing to agree with FL?
The silence on the subject here in France is deafening (but I don't have a TV).

Maybe ASO could exclude Lance "for his safety"?

The ASO despise Landis. He totally ruined their race, caused them untold embarassment and basically called them liars and cheats for four years.

Landis, arrest warrant and all, is totally persona non-gratia in the eyes of ASO. It is more likely they would have Lance in the race just to spit in Landis's face.

Also you have to realise that for the overwhelmingly vast majority of joe public Lance is Mr cycling, his presence = big money for ASO and the vast majority of casual TDF watchers want to see him race.

 

[Oldman]

The ASO despise Landis. He totally ruined their race, caused them untold embarassment and basically called them liars and cheats for four years.

Landis, arrest warrant and all, is totally persona non-gratia in the eyes of ASO. It is more likely they would have Lance in the race just to spit in Landis's face.

Also you have to realise that for the overwhelmingly vast majority of joe public Lance is Mr cycling, his presence = big money for ASO and the vast majority of casual TDF watchers want to see him race.

While they hate Floyd, Lance is hardly their media darling. He ruined their race for 7 years.

 

[Barrus]

.

Also you have to realise that for the overwhelmingly vast majority of joe public Lance is Mr cycling, his presence = big money for ASO and the vast majority of casual TDF watchers want to see him race.

That's probably the biggest problem I have with the Tour, it is too much constricted due to economic considerations. This is off course understandable, but still it ensures that the tour for me quickly looses quite a lot of its charm

 

[Condorman]

Also you have to realise that for the overwhelmingly vast majority of joe public Lance is Mr cycling, his presence = big money for ASO and the vast majority of casual TDF watchers want to see him race.

Mais je suis Jacques Publique. You have to realise that the overwhelmingly vast majority of us watching the TdF is French. The vast majority of casual TdF watchers, the families at the side of the road couldn't give a toss about LA. They are there to see the publicity caravan and les gars.

You are talking about USA TV watchers and rights income perhaps?

 

[SpartacusRox]

While they hate Floyd, Lance is hardly their media darling. He ruined their race for 7 years.

Agreed , he is not their media darling but they did not have to strip him of his title making the race a total shambles and then have him drag their names through the courts for 3 years. I think they will choose Lance over Landis any day.

 

[SpartacusRox]

Mais je suis Jacques Publique. You have to realise that the overwhelmingly vast majority of us watching the TdF is French. The vast majority of casual TdF watchers, the families at the side of the road couldn't give a toss about LA. They are there to see the publicity caravan and les gars.

You are talking about USA TV watchers and rights income perhaps?

Actually no, Condor. While I respect the fact that the TDF is personal to the French, the TV audience worldwide is many times greater than just the French public. It is that to which I was referring.

 

[La Fringale]

Since the change of leadership at the head of ASO, no more ethics, it's all about the $$$. By the way, ASO owns l'Équipe which explains why their journalists have been so quite about the whole story. If they run stories about doping, they might lose their jobs. Pathetic.

 

[issoisso]

I very much hope he does ride.

It's going to be fun seeing him come up with excuses for being *****slapped into oblivion by better riders.

 

[RTMcFadden]

US federal authorities are reported to be considering expanding their investigation into doping allegations laid against Lance Armstrong and other leading riders to include possible fraud and conspiracy charges. According to the New York Times, investigators looking into allegations of doping made by Floyd Landis during the recent Amgen Tour of California are attempting to establish whether Armstrong and the managers of his former teams conspired to defraud sponsors by doping to boost their performance.

This is the end, my friend.

 

[Roland Rat]

I very much hope he does ride.

It's going to be fun seeing him come up with excuses for being *****slapped into oblivion by better riders.

Followed by live coverage of the gendarmerie taking him away on the Champs Elysee.

 

[Condorman]

Followed by live coverage of the gendarmerie taking him away on the Champs Elysee.

It will hopefully be done by the CRS - they are more brutal.

 

[HL2037]

Like Jesus dragging his cross up the Golgatha headed for crucifiction.

I'm sure the broad public would find this very entertaining.

 

[Oldman]

Followed by live coverage of the gendarmerie taking him away on the Champs Elysee.

They won't wait that long. Remember the parade of Festina guys with their wrists zip-tied? That's a big media event and the gendamarie will not want to share it with the Tour finish. Very bad PR timing.
ASO, on the other hand is about money as Spartacus pointed out. They may want him in for TV ratings.

 

[Fourier]

Remember the Ricco walk of shame? priceless

 

[blackcat]

StrongArm will have to perfect his perp walk

 

[Condorman]

Since the change of leadership at the head of ASO, no more ethics, it's all about the $$$. By the way, ASO owns l'Équipe which explains why their journalists have been so quite about the whole story. If they run stories about doping, they might lose their jobs. Pathetic.

I just had a look at the Equipe website. Nothing about the current big story but a new puff
about LA riding the Tour of Luxembourg. There are 4 comments

Loosely translated ....

Beautiful victory of Damien! It is a pleasure to see a Frenchman so opportunistic and strong on this stage! Well played COFIDIS! That is promising for the Tour with this new generation of French riders who seem to be entrepreneurs and ride to win! Bring on July!

Where is Luxembourg?

4 days to do the tour of Luxembourg? Proportionally that means the Tour de France will take 844 days.

 

[La Fringale]

French newspapers are very quite about it, same with Vélo 101 (http://www.velo101.com/). Cycling is not on the map right now as Roland-Garros has just started and the soccer World Cup is about to start. No doubt France is a better place than the US for Armstrong at the moment. Things could change quickly though. Hopefully, the AFLD will stay quite, they made so many mistakes in the past. Let the events unfold in the US first. The tide is changing. Patience.

 

[afpm90]

Cyclismag isn't quiet about this.

 

[poupou]

French has not interest to take position now.
We are waiting McQuaid banning RadioSnack of TDF because of the bad publicity for cycling. So ASO would not have to repaid some TV who just follow the cancer of cycling.

 

[La Fringale]

I think the media have a huge responsibility in the state of things. How is it possible that a guy like Virenque is commenting cycling events? That's a joke.

 

[Hmmmmm]

I don't think he will but I hope he does because it will be good news fodder. I would really like to see him humbled in more ways than one. I'm a cancer survivor and can identify with him in that regard but that dude needs a healthy dose of humility.

 

[Benotti69]

I can't see LA riding or even his team being there...i imagine he is in europe shoring up his escape route, sorting swiss a/c's, visiting ioc lackeys, uci agents, giving them the evil eye, telling people if he is going down, they're all coming with him, or maybe making a few bob for agreeing keep to quiet when he gets done etc....

 

[Kamikaze]

He will race TDF. I am pretty sure of that.
I seriously think most of you guys are just delusional. Reading too many forum posts and hoping something drastically is going to happen. US Feds and all other international organizations are just going thru their procedures and investigations. They will come up with reports and findings to finalize their work. And then call it a day, since there will be no concrete proofs, even though they know Landis is telling the truth. They won’t ask for Lance's head, but instead for better testing machines. And the case will be closed.
Hopefully this will mark the end of this and we can move on to racing. But reading thru these pages, I know you both LA haters/lovers will still be posting another 1000 more pages of why he got off or how clean he is or calling each other trolls.