Lance Armstrong, 7 time players’ Champion and still a hero

courtesy of Bing image

This month held the greatest cycling event in the word, aka Tour de France, and it was intense. I am completely sapped and I haven’t even ridden a bicycle all month! I’ve been doing minimal work and rushing home to watch about 4.5hours of Tour de France every day. It’s actually very difficult to keep this routine up for the entire month, minus the two rest days.

This particular topic on Lance is something I’ve been meaning to vent on numerous occasion, but I seem to do it more in restaurants and sport bars than anywhere else .lol. It’s amazing how much hatred there is for this man, and I think it is overblown.

It is no argument UCI’s Anti-doping program is probably the strictest in the world. You can be involved in a car crash with a broken collar bone and blood everywhere, but you are not allowed to take any banned substance such as aspirin/Tylenol as long as you want to stay in the race.  These guys can come after your urine/blood samples while you are having Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner with your family, and they will preserve your samples so they can screen it through any future drug testing method that is yet to be developed. They are relentless.

Ethic of the bust

As you may already know, Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete ever by multiple anti-doping agencies. For 20+ years Lance has passed every test imaginable using latest/greatest testing methods and equipment, this guy was clean in terms drug test results. The way Lance got busted in 2012 was absolutely disgusting in the type of tactic these agencies used. USADA knew they couldn’t bust Lance using any of their testing tools anymore, so they resorted to threats and persecution on former team members who are not as financially fortunate as Lance. Most pro cyclists only make an average living and they don’t have the money to fend off federal agencies like Lance can. USADA made lives of these former members and their family a living hell, and coerced these close friends to point their fingers at Lance.

It’s like a schoolyard bully trying to kick my ass, but because I kicked his ass, he has to go beat up my sister and my pet turtle instead.

Is Lance a hero?

I’ve been once called a hero for participating in one of those Walk-a-thons and various other charitable activities, I think most I ever raised was about $500. Firefighters are heroes for savings lives, Police officers are heroes for saving lives, and the U.S. military would be considered heroes for saving all of our lives. You think there are drug users among these undeniable heroes? Does it make them any less of a hero if they did?

Lance raised over $500million for cancer research. If my math is correct that’s about $500million more than the most I ever raised for charity. Through his work, I’m pretty sure he helped countless amount of loved ones make it through one more birthday, one more anniversary, watch his/her child get married, etc…

You can take away his Tour de France titles, but let’s not take away what he accomplished in the cancer community. The dude is a hero, no argument here.

Does U.S.Postal have anything to get upset over?

I think Lance did more for the U.SPostal than USPS did for Lance. Lance made USPS a cool icon, a really cool icon. I bought stamps, jerseys, and other misc. USPS trinkets because of Lance. Without Lance, the USPS is just another bloated government organization that is bleeding taxpayer money and misrouting my mail. Currently the USPS is asking for their money back from Lance. By similar logic, can we get our money back on all the GM stock that we purchased during the bailout? Yes, I would like to get $95/share for the current $36/share stock… just want to break even please. Or can I get my money back on my Pentium 2 desktop computer that I spent $1000 about 10years ago? I really thought I was buying the fastest machine on the planet, but I just realized it’s actually not that fast.

I think USPS should just focus on delivering my mail instead of wasting more money and resource on this lawsuit. If the lawsuit is for $14million, I guarantee the USPS will spend over $20million to get the $14million from Lance. Yeah, that will show’em who is the boss.

Lance and me

I didn’t start cycling back in year 2000 by some random chance. I was inspired by his cancer story and the amazing matchup between Lance and Ullrich. Cycling has done wonders for my health, cardio, and saving money at the gas station. Lance has inspired many people around the world to just grab a bike and go. Even when Lance admitted to doping, it never crossed my mind, I should stop riding because I feel so cheated.

Is Lance the 7time Tour de France champion?

Riding bicycle through multiple countries, through the massive French Alps, through the daunting peaks of the Pyrenees, riding 23 consecutive days till you reach 2000+ miles, traveling at 50+km/hr wearing nothing but thin fabric and a bicycle helmet, etc… Is it even possible to complete this race without doping?

As a recreational cyclist, I actually attempted climbing the Alpe d’huez on one of those fancy simulator trainers. I only made it 1/2 way up the mountain traveling at 2mph before I had to stop. Ladies and gents, it’s absolutely insane that anybody can do this 2000+ mile bike race through Europe.

There is almost no wrong answer to the question of Lance’s championships. I can fully understand why some would say he is or isn’t a champion. My answer to this question is in a form of a question, did the guys who finished 2nd and 3rd also “cheat”? The Tour de France organization already answered this for me by declaring Lance’s 7 Tour de France wins to be left vacant, because the next guy also admitted to “cheating” and/or there is no proof he did not “cheat”. Even Jan Ullrich came out and admitted to doping soon after Lance was busted.

What if we were playing a game of Monopoly and ALL the players decided to start with $2000 instead of the usual $1500 while the banker was away. It’s as if the players formed a union and decided to play by their slightly tweaked rules. Is there a winner in the end?

Come to think of it shouldn’t Gatorade, Powerade, and Powerbar  be considered performance enhancing substance?

Although Lance has been stripped of his official 7 time Tour de France championship, I believe he is still the 7time champion among the other Yellow Jersey contenders that were competing at the time. I firmly believe ALL the contenders were doping.  Ones that over-doped got busted and the ones that under-doped made it through.   Lance is still the champion among the contenders.

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Addendum A

Here is a short top 5 list of characters that seems to be doing good job of flying under the radar who, in my opinion, are bigger frauds than Lance Armstrong.  If you use these names as a comparison point, Lance isn’t so bad after all.

1.  The politicians:  Some of the real crooks seem to get re-elected every election cycle.  How ironic Lance and some other athletes have to appear before a Congressional committee over cheating.

2.  Steven Seagal: One of my favorite blogging friends, call him ‘Cook’M to cover his identity, is convinced Mr. Seagal and his TV show ‘Lawman’ is a fraud.  Cook’M comment sums it up, “He is a commissioned JP officer for political reasons only. He is a huge financial contributor and they gave him an honorary commission. He is such a joke. I don’t know any real police officers who like him. Well at least not here anyway”…mmmm…mmm.mmm.  That’s a sure sign of a fraud if I ever saw one.

3.  Owners of various drug/alcohol recovery clinics: CNN broke this last week and these frauds pay few bucks to random people off the street to get signatures, so they can bill the taxpayers for the recovery service they provided.

4.   CEOs and directors for Toyota Camry hybrid: This thing gets same gas mileage as a Toyota Corolla and many other fuel efficient gas cars.

5.  Directors at Fannie Mae: For misleading investors about their holdings on all the toxic mortgages leading up to the big housing crisis.

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Addendum B

Confession…I’m guilty of cheating under the UCI rules.  My bike weighs less than 14.99lb and I take Advil before every bike ride…I’m a doper 😦

Luckily I’m riding with other people in my category and we are all middle-aged, have nice bikes, and rely on Advil, so its okay.lol