Its interesting the posts above which try and belittle anyone who tries to understand as a fanboi of Lance - I'd put it to markL and placebo that they hate Lance so much because they were naive to the goings on of drugs in sport.
Why is that cricketers, footballers etc all cheat on our television everyday, its so common its accepted and even called gamesmanship, we apply a different test to cheating thats hidden do we?
It's not any sort of naivety to reject the reluctant apologies of dopers who've spent their careers robbing clean athletes, actively fighting against those who wanted clean cycling, and slandering and suing those who told the truth. Cricketers such as Warne, and league players like Maitua have been busted for doping, so why should tour riders get a free pass? An example of gamesmanship is the mental stuff done by Steve Waugh when playing cricket for Australia, not paying some dude on a motorbike to deliver blood bags to the team hotel so you can infuse, microdosing epo, or taking testosterone so you can recover quicker, while paying an Italian doctor convicted of doping half a million euros a year for the program on how to do so.
I can understand that. My apologies.
Just one thing. Why is Lance not in Jail for fraud, deception etc? Not being a smart arse, and sorry if it's been raised. But for such corruption of what for all accounts is actually business as well as sport, why are heavier criminal charges not laid?
The grand jury investigation, much like the one which eventually led to Marion Jones being convicted and losing her five olympic medals was terminated for some reason that has never been disclosed. Some people put it down to Armstrong's political connections, others to the inability of the grand jury to get enough riders and others to testify against him.
Is that not why Tyler Hamilton dobbed in Lance? To get of his own supply drug charge? Everyone thinks Tyler did it for for the good of the sport hahahahaha what a laugh
Nine other riders who rode with Lance gave sworn testimony to USADA, and some of those gave sworn testimony to the grand jury investigation. Add that to the sworn testimony given by the Andreus and others during the insurance case, and the evidence from Walsh and other journalists spanning over a decade, and it's pretty hard to make that case against Hamilton. Really, if you're going for that self interest/profit angle you might make a similar accusation against Landis. He's up for 30% of the US federal government whistle blower case against Armstrong because of the US Postal sponsorship. It was 30 million dollars, penalty provisions can multipy the liability by three, and Landis is in line for 30 percent of that if the case were to succeed. Things I've read suggest Landis was broke and looking for any sort of help he could get, asked Armstrong for some help and was brushed instead of being given any sort of consideration. Landis lodged the whistle blower claim, and thing spiralled from there. Apparently, if Armstrong had enough compassion or foresight to get Landis a basic job somewhere with one of the companies that sponsored him, the Landis claim, and one of the most significant triggers for this whole thing would not have happened.
Armstrong is a self confessed cheat now, regardless of USADA, Hamilton, Landis, or anything that is able to be extracted from Bruyneel or Ferrari. It's not a witch-hunt, or a speculative investigation. He's a cheat. He has said he has cheated for almost twenty years, and all his tour victories were the result of cheating. He didn't say this under any sort of duress, he said it during an interview with Oprah. No agency could previously get him to admit this, not USADA, not the UCI, not the grand jury, it was his choice to confess on that show. What did Armstrong do for cycling in the bigger picture? Fuck all. Seven tours now without a winner, and a sport that sponsors can't get out of fast enough. If he'd stayed in triathlon, cycling would be in much better shape today.
Another stupid query.
Why don't they just put the onus on the teams as they are failing to police it well enough. Give the teams massive fines if their riders are caught cheating.
Teams only exist because of sponsors. If companies don't want to sponsor top level cycling, they leave and may not be replaced. Especially if the team they sponsor is busted for doping.
