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Am I the only one not that impressed with Lance Armstrong?
- Thread starter Cloudy
- Start date
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Instigator
Banned
He's just like Michael Schumacher. It's probable he'll consider retirement once the top spot is out of his reach. 
Instigator
Banned
Gek54 said:
You'd be surprise to find out what some athletes are willing to sacrifice in order to win.
Manics said:
There have been plenty of accusations of Armstrong using steroids, but in his defense I don't think he has ever failed a drug test. These days things are so bad that a lot of people just presume certain types of athletes to be doping anyways, not necessarily with steroids but taking some sort of performance enhancer. No one is really surprised if a weight lifter, sprinter, baseball player, cyclist, etc. is found to be using performance enhancers, it is almost a shock when they aren't using them.
I wouldn't be surprised if Lance uses something to give him a boost, but I wouldn't consider him getting an unfair advantage because all the other riders are probably using the same thing.
Edit: This thread is starting to inspire me to start a similar Tom Brady thread, but the amount of idiocy that I would inject in that thread would probably crash GAF.
Aruarian Reflection
Chauffeur de la gdlk
Way to display your complete and utter ignorance, Cloudy. Maybe you should actually watch some of the stages and you'll see that Lance dominates the field, with or without his teammates.
Cloudy said:
It seems like a select few because Lance and his team are just that good. Believe me, EVERYBODY in the Tour de France would love to win, and will contest it to the utmost of their abilities. It's only the first time that they lose 35 minutes going up Alpe d'Huez that they start thinking, well, maybe I can't win the Tour de France...
Everybody in the top 20 - hell, maybe the top 50 - wanted to win.
Cloudy said:
If they were, nobody from the team would win. That's why Jan Ullrich hasn't won since 1997 - he's got Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Kloden also trying to win and taking support away from him. The reason why Lance has won 7, and everyone else has failed, is because the team is focused around him. One leader, no questions. But his dominating performance in the individual time trial is a testament to the fact that he's the best athlete in the pack, too.
Cloudy said:
I can think of several things wrong with that sentence.
a) He isn't dominating the sport, just the Tour de France. He hasn't participated in either the Giro d'Italia or the Vuelta a Espana since 1998, when he took 4th place in the latter race. If anything, you're ragging on him for the wrong reasons.
The dominant riders this season have been Tom Boonen (winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix plus two stages of the Tour de France) and Danilo Di Luca (winner of the Tour of the Basque Country, Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallonne plus 4th place in the Giro d'Italia).
b) Cycling isn't a niche sport, and it's not even a single sport. There's road, mountain biking, cyclo-cross, track, downhill, BMX, within each of which there are several niches that athletes may choose to specialize in. There could never be all of this in a "niche sport."
c) Overhyped? Maybe. I'm sick of the publicity he gets, too. But he's not overrated. He has dominated the Tour de France in an era of deep talent, high technology and eager sponsorship. This Tour was run at the fastest average speed ever. Enough said.
Cloudy said:
Domestiques (team members supporting the team leader) do not have the skill or talent to win it all. They are role players -- climbers, pace setters, sprinters.
If you want to see what happens when a team has too many members trying to win, just look at T-Mobile with Vinokourov and Jan Ullrich. They both mounted attacks but got burned out because their domestiques were split across two riders. I dont even know if the team knows who its leader is.
Gek54 said:
Actually he had to use something to recover from the effects. I think he had to use something to get his body back to normal. He lost a lot fat weight and muscle mass from the cancer treatment. Essentially he got to scuplt his body from scratch. A very risky procedure gave him very good results.
As for his current drug use rumors. He says keep a urine sample and test it in the future. Those are some pretty strong words. I don't know if they take blood or DNA samples but eitherway he already got paid.
Teknopathetic
Member
I have *no* idea why you guys are responding to him, anyone who's visited GAF for any number of months knows how dumb Cloudy is.
Sonny wins.
And I think hating Lance for being popular is stupid since he's obviously one of the best athletes in the world. If he was shit and placed 60th in the tour and was just as popular, sure, rag on him a little. It's like people who hate a movie or a book just because it's popular... It's stupid.
And I think hating Lance for being popular is stupid since he's obviously one of the best athletes in the world. If he was shit and placed 60th in the tour and was just as popular, sure, rag on him a little. It's like people who hate a movie or a book just because it's popular... It's stupid.
Cloudy said:
These are the people who expressed desire pre-race to finish at least in the top-10, and were considered potential strong contenders:
Lance Armstrong (Discovery, USA)
Ivan Basso (CSC, Italy)
Carlos Sastre (CSC, Spain)
Francisco Mancebo (Illes Balears, Spain)
Alejandro Valverde (Illes Balears, Spain)
Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank, Denmark)
Denis Menchov (Rabobank, Russia)
Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile, Germany)
Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile, Kazakhstan)
Andreas Kloden (T-Mobile, Germany)
Chrisophe Moreau (Credit Agricole, France)
Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis, France)
Iban Mayo (Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain)
Haimar Zubeldia (Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain)
Roberto Heras (Liberty Seguros, Spain)
Santiago Botero (Phonak, Colombia)
Floyd Landis (Phonak, USA)
Oscar Pereiro (Phonak, Spain)
Chris Horner (Saunier Duval, Spain)
Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval, Italy)
Michael Rogers (Quick Step, Australia)
Cadel Evans (Davitamon-Lotto, Australia)
Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner, USA)
Georg Totschnig (Gerolsteiner, Austria)
ALL of these riders have shown strong potential in either the Tour de France or another comparable three-week stage race. And I might even be forgetting a few...
LoGradeChili
Member
Cloudy said:
I don't know where you're at, but here at Florida State University there's actually a lot of student cyclist. I forget what the name of the meeting is, but once a week all the cyclists (which is at least a hundred kids) get together and ride their bikes very slowly down Tennessee street for political reasons. But they're all sport cyclists, not just hippies.
I'm sure Lance would think to himself, "Wow, that kid beat Battletoads legitly. Am I the only one not impressed with that?" or "He beat Metal Slug 5 w/o dying once. Am I the only one not impressed with that?" :lol
Teknopathetic
Member
"I bet I'm smarter than anyone in your family"
This thread's definitely helping your case.
This thread's definitely helping your case.
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