Well i know this is an old debate and discussion but seen that Oprah met Lance and i have just finished watching part two ,i need a couple of opinions
Was he guilty of doping ? he sure was
Did he lie sue bully anyone who threatened his space , yes he did
He conned multi nationals around the globe into sponsorship deals
He won the biggest race in the cycling world 7 times in row.
His doping His success His Salary His fame snowballed and he became an icon for alot of us.
He got sucked in and didnt want it to stop
Here's where i get confused . What i took from it is that he heard of his son defending him against the doping to school friends![his son is lying in his dads defence].This made him come clean and the end of the road was in site.....is this where it came home roost or was it USADA?
Can he now be accepted in society again now that he has come clean?
He is a unbelievable bike rider and there is a movie in there somewhere!!
And what about all the other pro riders that he raced with that doped!
well I'm fed up hearing about it to be honest..I do not believe for one minute however that it is humanly possible to race the Tour De France at all without assistance, I saw a tv Documentary somewhere that convinced me of this, I wish I could remember what it was.
His biggest enemy is himself, he completely lacks charisma. He comes across as a robot. If he had cried tears and blamed his childhood or something when it all came out , he would be a massive hero..
I personally always felt that every elite world athlete at the top of his game is on something..they are superhumans without any magic powers that are only in it for themselves and karma is a bitch. Fool you once shame on me, fool you twice shame on you..or something like that. I think to redeem cycling he should have to spend the rest of his life actually working to improve peoples lives. I think he was on one gigantic ego road trip , which is not a criticism, somewhere along the way somebody handed him something and said , take this and you will win and he did. I know I would . Then he did and kept winning until the whole Lance thing turned him from a mortal to a fallen angel. If I had the chance to win the Tour de France , I doubt I would turn it down. None of us are squeaky clean , its all a matter of perspective
Personally, I think too many people spend too much time watching and talking about sport and sports people (even if they are great). To me, it is a bit of a waste of time, better to get out there and try to do something, ride your bike, run a marathon, waddle the mini marathon, play with any type of ball, just do something or at least, "try" ......it all beats sitting in front of the TV watching it or worse, going to the bookies and hoping to get it right.
So, as for Lance, I am not going to watch Oprah or any film about him, as it doesn't really matter. Once upon a time, Nike got it right ...... "just do it", (then they spent millions on golf, god save us) .......... "just do it" is a great motto .... don't bother watching, it takes away from doing time
as kimmage said he came clean because he got caught. as for being an unbelievable bike rider what about the time he was in cork he saw st patricks hill and he ran away !!
yeah..I have to say I am amazed at the coverage its getting..there are things happening in the World that I can't believe are allowed to happen, especially to children and old people and all thats in the media is that one man made millions out of winning and big companies felt like they got conned.
One thing though and maybe the end does not justify the means , he did raise awareness about Cancer. I wouldn't pass him in the street , I'd shake his hand , he was a great product and I bet for every person that demonises him now, one person earlier was inspired by him.
he was inspirational and he was great to watch in his prime but he was a text book example of what i call the santa syndrome - we believed because we wanted to. i lost a lot of respect for him when he called emme o'reilly an alcoholic prostitute , all irish people like drinking and riding , that was just a bit sh1t .
Let's not be naive Steve, he came clean because he had to not because he was sorry. The story about his son... please...interviewed by Oprah.... it's a joke and a staged show which is there solely for one purpose, make more money. Just imagine the $$$ cashed in just from commercial breaks. It's all a farce, I didn't watch it and I'm sick hearing about it, feel sorry for those who looked up to him, especially kids and teenagers.
It's amazing how public believes in what's said on the telly, that's why I don't even have one at home, complete waste of time.
I am with Max. I did watch and support him, bought livestrong products for cancer support, but always believed where there was smoke there was fire, nobody can do what he did unaided as Richie says.....however he beat cancer, raised awareness and brought cycling to the masses in terms of his "holywoodesquesness" ( made that up feel free to use )and for that he deserves credit.
I am in no doubt his choice to come clean has alterior motives, a movie deal is a certainty ( Jake Gillanhall was touted as Lance) but there was no way they would release it during a case. Harpo would have paid millions for the exclusivity and the advertising/ media bandwagon is stirring up huge attention.
He protested his innocence for over a decade he would not turn tail unless he saw an angle in it I am convinced.
All that being said I could never have done anything close to what he achieved no matter how much I doped, and he only has 1 ball!
I give him credit, but this is about as much time as I have spent thinking about him since his "comeback"
I wasn't going to watch the oprah thing, sick of hearing about lance too. I ended up watching it anyway.
If you missed it, you missed some seriously great tv
Gobsmacked at what a total nut job he is. My favorite part was when he apologised for calling Betsy Andreu a crazy b*tch, "hey but I never called her fat". Nice
sorry but I absolutely cannot stand Oprah Winfrey..she could do a huge amount of good with her money and influence , instead she interviews a disgraced cyclist, when I have that kind of money and power , i'll be doing some serious amount of making up for all the bad things I did !! I still believe he was part of a community of liars and and cheats but he was the best of them, he won 7 TDFs, even on drugs , thats some achievment..I mean he didn't eat any babies, commit rape ( though I believe he had a good go at it , from a source close to the intended victim ) . kill anybody . Mind you I was going to say and he gave hope to millions..then I realised all those people have now had their hopes dashed.
Burn him hes a bad guy !
Max I don't think Steve is being naive about LA, I think like most of us,he is frickin dissapointed by the whole sorry affair, we all love cycling and its a horrible realization that its as bad as mainstream sport and crooked. What he has done is cast doubt on every winner of a major bike race for the last 2 decades.
I'm pretty sure Dons wife could explain to us all whats going on..everybody has an opinion on it and has taken a side..
I think I'll go with my whole loss of innocence theory..
Wouldnt it be amazing if a human bean could have done what he did completely clean..
Hold on, somebody check EOin Keiths blood , though I think all he got for coming 2nd in that 72 hour race in America was apocalyptic chafing !
