LANCE ARMSTRONG Contemplates Retirement! But He's Still Not Telling!
Peeter
buying into Lance's concocted-by-an-agent-for-a-heartening-money-
making-miraculous "cancer cure"story.
"CANCER"+STEROIDS = $
Look you sports dupes. It doesn't take the brains of an ashtray to
deduce that if Armstrong's stage 4 bodywide cancer recovery was free
of fiction, his every physiological and cellular aspect would have
been studied and scrutinized by researchers to the Nth-degree to
determine if his recovery path could be replicated in/by other
seriously ill patients.
Of course, THAT route would have required long-term, in-depth BLOOD
exams and analyses, wouldn't it?
============
"Lance Armstrong still a contender entering his final Tour de France"
By Jon Brand
Saturday, July 3, 2010;
PARIS -- Lance Armstrong won't let anyone forget: 38 years old is
ancient in the cycling world.
Over the last few weeks, the seven-time Tour de France champion has
been trying to soften up rivals with comments through the media about
his elderly status, going as far to say in mid-June that this year's
Tour, set to start Saturday in Rotterdam, "will be very hard with my
age."
And on Monday the Twitter-obsessed Texan used his favorite medium to
announce that this Tour de France, his 13th, would be his last.
"It's been a great ride," he tweeted. "Looking forward to a great 3
weeks."
This will be no sentimental victory lap for Armstrong, who un-retired
in 2009 after a three-and-a-half year absence from the sport, then
rode to third place at the Tour last July. His recent podium finishes
at the Tours of Switzerland and Luxembourg have shown him to be in top
form heading into this year's Grand Boucle, and he is again favored to
be wearing the yellow jersey in Paris three weeks from now.
But Armstrong does have ample reason to want out of the saddle for
good.
Physical injuries have interrupted his comeback numerous times. Last
year, he suffered a broken collarbone at the Vuelta Castilla y León
and missed most of May's Giro d'Italia. This season, his woes
continued in April, when he contracted a stomach virus during the
Circuit de la Sarthe in France's Loire Valley. In May's Tour of
California, he crashed out of the race in the fifth stage.
The Tour of California also brought off-bike headaches when former
U.S. Postal teammate Floyd Landis accused Armstrong, along with other
top American riders, of having used performance-enhancing drugs.
Landis, stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for a positive
doping result, also admitted to doping during his career in a series
of emails to cycling officials. Though Armstrong said "he had nothing
to hide" and questioned Landis' credibility in a news conference
following the accusations, his career is once again under scrutiny.
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Food and Drug
Administration agent Jeff Novitzky, the lead investigator in the BALCO
steroids case, has started a federal investigation into the matter.
Nothing will be resolved by the end of the Tour de France, though,
when Armstrong's new RadioShack team hopes to have delivered him to a
record-setting eighth career victory.
After relinquishing the spotlight last season on Team Astana to
eventual Tour winner Spaniard Alberto Contador, Armstrong is the
undisputed lead rider on a team comprised mostly of experienced
veterans, including American Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas
Klöden.
"We have one of the strongest, one of the best teams," Armstrong said
during the Tour of Switzerland. "I don't think any of us go in as a
favorite for the Tour, but between the three of us, you never know."
The favorite, like last year, is the two-time winner Contador. He had
a strong spring, with significant wins at Paris-Nice and the Vuelta
Castilla y León. Supported by an Astana squad that includes Kazakh
Alexander Vinokourov, back from of a two-year doping suspension, the
27-year old Contador is ready to conquer a Pyrénées-heavy course
tailor-made to his climbing abilities.
"There are more mountains than last year, and that's something that
really pleases me," Contador told the French newspaper L'Équipe
Wednesday.
There are others who have the skill to take control of the race,
including Team BMC's Cadel Evans, the defending world champion, Saxo
Bank's Andy Schleck and American Christian Vande Velde, a veteran
rider for Garmin-Transitions who is on the mend after a crash in May's
Giro d'Italia.Because there are so many challengers this year,
Contador, like Armstrong, is playing down expectations.
"I understand that I am the big favorite," he told Dutch newspaper De
Telegraaf this week. "But realistically it is more likely that I will
lose than win."
As is the case each July, all of the on-bike intrigue could be for
naught if there's a doping scandal. To that end, Tour organizers and
the Union Cycliste International, cycling's governing body, have
enlisted the help of the World Anti-Doping Agency to oversee drug
controls this year.
They'll also be wary of mechanical tampering after a bizarre
allegation that Swiss star Fabian Cancellara used a small internal
motor on his bike to power away from the competition in two spring
races. No investigation was undertaken, though Tour organizers are
certain that motorized bikes exist.
"What matters is [they] can't be used tomorrow," Tour director
Christian Prudhomme told AFP. "We will verify anytime, anywhere on the
course . . . to see if these bikes are really just bikes."
With these measures in place, organizers hope the only attraction this
month is a tightly-contested race throughout the 2,263-mile course.
That -- and the chance to see Armstrong competing at the highest level
of the sport one last time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070202165.html
B. Lafferty
> and missed most of May's Giro d'Italia. This season, his woes
> continued in April, when he contracted a stomach virus during the
> Circuit de la Sarthe in France's Loire Valley. In May's Tour of
> California, he crashed out of the race in the fifth stage.
>
> The Tour of California also brought off-bike headaches when former
> U.S. Postal teammate Floyd Landis accused Armstrong, along with other
> top American riders, of having used performance-enhancing drugs.
>
> Landis, stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for a positive
> doping result, also admitted to doping during his career in a series
> of emails to cycling officials. Though Armstrong said "he had nothing
> to hide" and questioned Landis' credibility in a news conference
> following the accusations, his career is once again under scrutiny.
>
> Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Food and Drug
> Administration agent Jeff Novitzky, the lead investigator in the BALCO
> steroids case, has started a federal investigation into the matter.
> Nothing will be resolved by the end of the Tour de France, though,
> when Armstrong's new RadioShack team hopes to have delivered him to a
> record-setting eighth career victory.
>
> After relinquishing the spotlight last season on Team Astana to
> eventual Tour winner Spaniard Alberto Contador, Armstrong is the
> undisputed lead rider on a team comprised mostly of experienced
> veterans, including American Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas
>
> "We have one of the strongest, one of the best teams," Armstrong said
> during the Tour of Switzerland. "I don't think any of us go in as a
> favorite for the Tour, but between the three of us, you never know."
>
> The favorite, like last year, is the two-time winner Contador. He had
> a strong spring, with significant wins at Paris-Nice and the Vuelta
> Alexander Vinokourov, back from of a two-year doping suspension, the
> tailor-made to his climbing abilities.
>
> "There are more mountains than last year, and that's something that
IIRC, in the Texas arbitration between Armstrong and SCA Promotion, SCA
attempted to obtain all of Armstrong's medical records. I don't recall
if they got them or not.
raamman
> As he nears the end, maybe a lot of reflective people have stopped
> buying into Lance's concocted-by-an-agent-for-a-heartening-money-
> making-miraculous "cancer cure"story.
>
> "CANCER"+STEROIDS = $
>
> Look you sports dupes. It doesn't take the brains of an ashtray to
> deduce that if Armstrong's stage 4 bodywide cancer recovery was free
> of fiction, his every physiological and cellular aspect would have
> been studied and scrutinized by researchers to the Nth-degree to
> determine if his recovery path could be replicated in/by other
> seriously ill patients.
>
> Of course, THAT route would have required long-term, in-depth BLOOD
> exams and analyses, wouldn't it?
>
> ============
>
you are pretending to be in medical research ?
Elfin Tyusis
so educated.
Elfin Tyusis
"Armstrong: Payoff claim 'nonsense' "
Updated Jul 18, 2010 1:46 PM ET
AX-3 DOMAINES, France (AP)
LANCE ARMSTRONG dismissed as "nonsense" a reported claim by Greg
LeMond that the seven-time Tour de France champion tried to pay
someone $300,000 to say LeMond used a banned drug.
2010 Tour de France
LeMond, a three-time Tour de France champion, told the German
newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung's weekend issue that Armstrong tried to
implicate him "by all means" in a scandal involving EPO, a performance
enhancer.
LeMond refused to reveal the identity of the person who was allegedly
offered money by Armstrong, saying he still works in cycling.
Armstrong dismissed the accusation after Sunday's 14th stage of the
Tour.
"That's absolutely nonsense — $300,000?" Armstrong said, when asked by
The Associated Press about the allegations. "Come on. I know (about
the report). But he says a lot."
"That's just another thing," he said, alluding to years of antagonism
between the two American Tour champions.
According to a report Friday in the Daily News of New York, LeMond has
been served with a grand jury subpoena as part of a federal
investigation of possible fraud and doping charges against Armstrong
and his associates.
The federal investigation was spurred by accusations by Floyd Landis,
a former teammate of Armstrong's on the US Postal team, in a series of
emails sent to cycling and doping officials this spring.
Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for doping, said the
use of banned substances was common on the team. Armstrong has denied
those allegations and has questioned Landis' credibility.
http://msn.foxsports.com/cycling/story/Armstrong-LeMond-claim-about-payoff-is-nonsense-23739943
thirty-six
You obviously dont get the joke, 'Lance Armstrong' was a fictional
cartoon character which went bad. The original description involved a
knight in shining armour being being molested by a voluptuous young
maiden, but the character was trashed as perusal of the story boards
made it obvious that censoship would mean that national broadcast
coverage would be nigh impossible. So rather than rather wholesome
stories originally intended, the character, without the creators
permission, decided to take his superhero powers and create his own
story. His designation as a superhero meant he was able to do this
should he become abandoned by the storyteller. Superheros are
obsessed with finding fame, and this one was quick to learn that sport
(of which was blessed through design) could bring him this fame which
all superheros crave.
There are some basic books giving an outline of the superhero, but
be creful with the salt, you'll need a couple of gallons a day to wash
it all through.