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Armstrong may attend Tour de France after all

Associated Press

Latest comment posted at 8:06 PM EST 24/07/07

Seven-time Tour de France champion is reconsidering due to the strong performance of the Discovery Channel team ...Read the full article

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  1. Independent Conservative from Your town, Canada writes: I think Armstrong doth protest too much.
  2. G. Veneta from Calgary, Canada writes: Rumor has it that Armstrong is paying for Landis's defense so I tend to agree with the first poster. I suspect most are doped actually and don't get to the tour without help along the way by miracle substances. There are many young cyclists in Europe that die of heart attacks in their 20's from EPO so naive to think the tour is clean.
  3. Glenn Finockio from Winnipeg, writes: The heights of hypocrisy - Armstrong was himself taking performance-enhancing drugs, but unfortunately for the sport he was years ahead of what their testing could detect, and because of his current fame he can easily dismiss any allegations with a cry of "media frenzy" and a team of lawyers. Disgusting.
  4. Murray Braithwaite from Canada writes: Doesn't the Globe have libel editors? Where is the proof Armstrong took performance-enhancing drugs to back the assertions in the posts above? I would not be surprised should such proof be eventually revealed, but until then, such claims are mere speculation based on unsubstantiated hearsay.

    In the expression "doth protest to much" Hamlet's mother uses "protest" in the sense of giving testimony (-test) in favour of something (pro-). I don't see how this expression applies to Armstrong here, in either the correct sense of the typically reversed incorrect sense of the expression. Armstrong says Rasmussen should stay available for daily contact with officials and that this is not difficult with contemporary communications. Hardly earth-shaken observations. Armstrong did not say he thought Rasmussen was cheating or using performance-enhancing drugs.
  5. N N from Toronto, Canada writes: The three comments before are the height of stupidity and ignorance. Lance Armstrong was, far and away, the most frequently tested athlete in the history of sports and he never, not even once, tested positive for any banned substances. He was tested by the most sophisticated tests available, by the way.

    The fact is that he was simply much better than the other riders, in the same way that Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan were head and shoulders above their competitors and teammates. To say that he doped without a shred of proof is pathetic.
  6. Rick C from Canada writes: Some imbeciles in some sports used drugs and now every champion in every sport is suspect. Sad but true. Realy sad if you are a "clean" suspect!
  7. Plain Jane from Toronto, Canada writes: It's a shame they never caught Armstrong. His suspicious series of victories established a nasty precedent: do whatever it takes to win, as long as you don't get caught. (Only Armstrong's fans think that he managed to take the TdeF seven times drug-free.) The TdeF needs to wipe away its history and start fresh, with a new award and strict drug testing to make sure that it's legitimate.
  8. robert derry from Doyles, Canada writes: Plain Jane; where did you find the information to back up your claim that (only Armstrong's fans think that he managed to take the TdeF seven times drug free)? As some commenters pointed out above Lance armstrong was one of the most heavily tested athletes in the history of sport. He never tested positive once! It's grossly unfair to infer otherwise. When he tests positive we can talk about it again.
  9. Chad Noor from Montreal, Canada writes: Armstrong won the Tour 7 times because he had a team that not only supported and were dedicated to him 100%, but also had the abilities to match Armstrong's needs. Armstrong didn't win the tour, US Postal and then Discovery won the tour. Armstrong made it clear who was in charge of his team, unlike many other teams that have 2 guys trying to battle each other (just think of Vino and Ulrich a few years ago). Due to this team mentality, the other teams couldn't do much to counter. Armstrong was known as the BOSS of the pelaton for a reason, it was very rare that an escape happened that he didn't allow. In short, Armstrong's 7 wins were more about strategy and teamwork than his own individual accomplishments.
  10. Margot Glover from Port Hope, Canada writes: Way to support the team he partly owns...he's maybe only going to go see some final stages now that his team is fairing quite well.
  11. Paul Bognar from Canada writes: Oh, please, don't compare Lance with Gretzky (or Jordan for that matter). Compare the complete professional records of Lance and Eddy Merckx, then you will see who the 'Great One' of cycling really is. Yeah, Lance won the TdF seven times. The Giro? the Vuelta? In the same year as the TdF? Nope. Check out the Cannibal, please.
  12. Jim Summers from Waterloo, Canada writes: Paul Bognar, I have to agree with you that Eddy Merckx has a much more impressive record. But, Lance Armstrong followed a different strategy than Merckx by focusing only on the Tour de France, rather than a full season of races. I think Armstrong could have beat Merckx in the Tour de France, but only that one race.
  13. John Breslin from Nanaimo, Canada writes: Whether or not a cyclist has been caught doing drugs is not indicative of whether or not he has benefited from performance enhancing drugs. As a matter of fact, most of the athletes recently barred from tours where never caught actively benefiting. Ivan Basso and Jan Ulrich come to mind. Neither were ever caught while racing but were both implicated in ways that led to their being dissallowed.

    Logic says that if they were guilty and not caught then being guilty and not being caught (as long as your friends keep their mouths shut and your partners in crime aren't caught) is the rule, not the exception.

    Even Ben Johnson won the Gold at the world's in Rome and WAS TESTED and found to be clean before ultimately getting caught later and to admitting he was dirty in Rome too. Technology has only gotten better and we are certainly looking harder then ever before.

    To assume that the cyclists Lance competed against were taking drugs and losing - and continueing to take drugs shows they felt this was what they needed to do to win. Heck, even Lance's teammate and last years disputed winner took drugs. I doubt Lance is an innocent as he pleads.

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