Is this the last Tour for Lance?

[dd74]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/more/04/07/armstrong.retire.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
Maybe it's time for some new (American) blood.

[JavaBrewer]

Ok, how many people think that Lance is doping? How about the peleton en mass? Me, yes x2. Nobody can compete at that level, day in day out, and not be ingesting drugs.

Yes it's time for new blood. Short of some sort of catastrophy, sickness, crash, Lance should win his 7th tour. I still think that Miquel Indurain was the best ever and with both at their peak would have smashed Lance.

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally posted by dd74
[url]
Maybe it's time for some new (American) blood.

I think Lance gets new blood every month via genetically modified transfusions! Then it is upgraded with micro-bots that scavenge weak cells and draft for the red cells to bring O2 to the front...

Actually, he may get the 7th more from his team working for him. This is not the case with ther teams.

[dd74]

Hmmm...I agree with you Dave and Mike - something's awfully fishy about the guy - and it ain't Sheryl Crow, either.
But seriously, I've always wondered about whatever drugs he could be ingesting in the form of cancer treatments. I don't want to speculate, but is it unfair to speculate that cancer-fighting medicines might have some sort of steroidal (?) property in them? If so, I can't see people turning blind eyes to Armstrong; not after winning six T de Fs.

[air-cool-me]

well... he was able to rebuild he body from basicly nothing...
so he built it the way he wanted it to be...
no extra mass to haul around....

plus... without that nut he is aerodynamicly superior!
(bad taste i know)

[tabs]

Lance Armstrong was thrown off a cliff into the abyss...you have no idea the will and determination it takes to claw your way back out....everything thereafter is childs play...You've been to the bottom, with despair as your friend...and in a contest of wills on that bicycle you've been to the bottom before and it holds no mystery to you...so your able to focus and put it out when you need to..

[cegerer]

Maybe I'm biased from reading Lance's books, but I just don't believe he's doping. He is subject to random - totally random - drug tests. He has been for years. He describes them in his books. These people literally show up at his doorstep in Texas, completely unannounced, several times per year and demand testing on the spot. How could he continually pass these tests if he were doping? Another thing to consider: how many other cyclists train the way Lance does specifically for the Tour. He knows the course ahead of time and trains on it for months. He knows exactly where he can make his move on each stage months in advance. He replicates race conditions time after time during training to a point where some of these steep ascents become mere child's play for him.

When you're competing at this level, you've got a bunch of guys who are all elite athletes - they're all relatively equal physically. It boils down to the will-to-win, strategy and the team you build around you.

This whole doping thing can be blamed squarely on the French. They resent America and they resent an American dominating 'their' race for so long. They've been alleging Lance's dope use for, what? 8 years now. Yet, all the evidence proves he doesn't.

[Willem Fick]

The simple answer regarding doping, is that no-one other than Lance will ever know. Doping has become such a sophisticated affair, that those with enough money can afford new, and custom drugs, for which there are no tests available.

As for the tour;

He'll probably win the 7th too, but in my eyes that will still not make him into a legend. He is good, but not in the same league as the likes of Mercx, Indurain, or any of the other Tour greats. They all contested full race seasons, including the classics, which made winning the Tour a far greater achievement (they didn't call Mercx "the Cannibal" for nothing!).

Over the last couple of years Lance has focussed only on the Tour, and my belief is that, under similiar circumstances any one of the previous greats could have won 6 or more.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
I still think that Miquel Indurain was the best ever and with both at their peak would have smashed Lance.

Eddy Merckx would have spanked either one of them.

[cegerer]

I guess an argument could be made that Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, etc. were all competing before drug testing became a regular thing - how do we know they weren't doping?

On 2nd thought, we know Merckx was doping - he was a friggin' chain smoker! Nicotine lift ya know ....

[dd74]

I never really liked Hinault. Not after what he did to LeMond the year LeMond was destined to win Le Tour. But then LeMond ended up being a whiner himself.

[JavaBrewer]

For years I really liked Greg. Once he started losing to big Mig he turned into a cry baby like Fignon. I remember reading an article about Greg and his comeback following his hunting accident. I believe it was during the Tour of Spain, or Italy, where he nearly DNFd a stage. I remember him quoting that his personal masseuse/trainer said he "looked pale, and needed vitamins", and then wipped out the syringe. Greg felt better immediately and went on that year to win the TdF. Hummm.....

[ckissick]

After reading both his books, I'm convinced Lance isn't doping. He could never pass so many years of random testing. He works much harder than anyone else. Like Jerry Rice. Also, he weighs 10 to 20 pounds less now than he did before the cancer. The cancer made him thinner, and the lower weight is what gets him up the mountains. As I recall, steroids do not make one thinner.

[Overpaid Slacker]

I think it'll be his last TdF. His contract states he only has to race once more, so why blow off this year and race next? Unless he gets injured between now and the 2005 Tour, it makes no sense. He'll have to maintain his fitness, and he'll be a year older if he waits.

If he wins, it's 7; a good time to step down. If he loses, the streak's over; a good time to step down.

I'm not a cycling historian as some of the guys on here seem to be, but it's next to impossible for me to imagine any rider whupping Lance in the Tour. There have been so many moments where he's done something amazing, dug down into reserves of strength and conviction that most mortals probably don't have.

My favorite moment, though, is "The Look". I stood up and cheered, literally.

[tabs]

Six in a ROW....pbbbt.....NObody has breathed that air before and it will be a loooong time before ANYBODY can match Lance...

When a man faces his own mortality, and has to face his own doubts and despair....and overcomes them...any doping would be a betrayal of himself...

[Scooter]

I for one don't think Lance is doping. Once in a great while, there comes along an incredible individual in a sport (i.e., Michael Jordon, Tiger Woods, etc.). I think Lance is just that, the incredible individual in bicycling. Do I think he is the best of all time? I am not presumptuous to think that I can identify the best, but I do believe he is in the top 5. I say top 5, because the previous best riders were at different times, under different circumstances. You would have to put them all together, under identical conditions (i.e., training, age, bike, etc.), then see who would win on a particular given day. Then that wouldn't even tell you who the best of all time is. Therefore, I believe it is imposible to say who the best is.

[tabs]

What is a Tour D France compared to facing your own death, and tfacing the doubt and despair of coming back from such an illness..

When you bin on the bottom everything else in comparison is easy...ands what gives Lance the edge...What other competitor can say same thing...when that competitior is pushing up that hill, there is a shadow of doubt about just how much he can give, but for Lance it's OK I just need to turn up the crank a notch and I can beat him...I've been here before and even worse places...so lets go....

[M.D. Holloway]

I'm not sure he is a man. Best guess, it will be found out that he is actually a cyborg created by a joint venture between Honda, Shimano and Microsoft. They are looking to pitch to concept to the Army as a future weapon, able to run circles around the insurgents...

[Drago]

Originally posted by Overpaid Slacker
My favorite moment, though, is "The Look". I stood up and cheered, literally.

That was awesome! See ya, I'm gone!

[tabs]

It's the will over the physical