As many of you have already heard, the French are again pursuing Lance Armstrong for use of performance enhancing drugs. He supposedly has tested positive for EPO, a drug used to increase red blood cells (endurance), but the results were from one of his coded frozen samples from 1999. I think it's another conspiracy and another chance for this French sports newspaper (L'Equipe) to sell more papers.

I am not a huge fan of Lance Armstrong and I could honestly care less about bicycle racing, but he is an icon/legend to many in the US for his struggles with cancer. What is everyone's thoughts on this whole issue?

http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/index.html (in French, sorry)

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?i...TC-DT9705204233

Hmm.....a 6 year old frozen sample that's identified by only a number that may or may not be Armstrong that was tested with questionable methods that can't be reproduced because the sample was used up.

To top it off, the story is being reported by a French newspaper with a history of axe-grinding on Armstrong. The same people that own that paper own the Tour De France.

I'm not saying that someday Armstrong won't be found to have cheated in some way by using performance enhancing drugs, but this is not the smoking gun.




Dear France,

Get over the fact that an American owns your bike race and be thankful he retired.

Sincerely,

SMan

The French have been harrassing Lance all along. This year he was subjected to more testing, more often than anyone else. Long before this came up the media reported this. He has been consistently targeted by French officials because they just can't stand the fact that he beats the pants off of everyone else, time and time again. They assume that he MUST be cheating to be so successful, and therefore he has actually been subjected to a degree of testing that nobody else has, and some would call that unfair (and have, even before this).

When it comes to testing athletes for illegal substances, the French have in fact NOT maintained the kind of "level playing field" most normally expect - they continually have harassed our guy, Lance Armstrong, to an unprecendented degree- and still he wins!

Now they come up with this. All I can say is that the Tour director is, I believe, one person who has come out and clearly stated that these test results have absolutely no legal standing. If the sore loser French wusses want to whine an complain, let them do so. But let's not pretend that it wasn't THEY who have continued to cheat in the first place, by subjecting Lance to unfair harrassment for a long time.

Indeed. I read that for the past several tours, Lance was giving samples everyday, not just when he won the stage or was leading, which are apparently the criteria for mandatory testing for everybody else.

By far the most tested athlete in pro sports, ever.

I *believe* that Lance admitted to using EPO before his first Tour de France victory solely because it was a drug that he needed to use for his chemo therapy. He still claims that he never used it after his chemo therapy was finished.

I believe him and I honestly believe that the French are VERY angry that an American can beat them at their national sport in the biggest bicycle race in the world for 7 years straight, when 98% of Americans could care less about competitive bicycle racing. In my book, bicycling to Americans is like baseball to the French.

So I wonder what will happen when an American wins the Tour de France next year. What will their excuse be?

Lance Armstrong amazes me.


Personally, I have always believed that he is actually an alien.

I was wondering who would be the first to work the alien smiley into a post.

So, the silly French just couldn't let it go and now Lance is considering coming back to own them one more time and shove it in the French media's face.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2154059

-The part in bold cracks me up. As if the man is not fit already!