Say it ain't so....LANCE!

[i am gay and i like cats]

Walkie - No offense mate but you obviously know nothing about cycling. It's one of the ultimate team sports.

My wife had the same opinion as yourself until she forced herself to watch a couple of stages of the TDF and I explained what was going on. She is not exactly an addict, but has a great appreciation of the sport.

The fact that a whole team of highly trained and competive professional athletes would put themselves through so much punishment and effort simply for the glory of one is nothing short of amazing.

I lost interest during the height of the doping scandals but they have really begun to clean it up.

no offense mate . . . but you are yelling at me for something i said two years ago. 

it's a bike.  aka, a toy for kids that adults turn into something way more serious than it should be.   

[Frank Gallagher]

Not yelling, just defending a sport I really enjoy.

On the surface I can see how it just looks like a bunch of skinny blokes riding bicycles. In reality though, there's plenty of strategy and mind games happening within the Peleton, even between competing teams. (Let's work together and put team ***** out of contention so it's just down to our two teams) It's not just that last 1km sprint finish up for grabs.

Aren't balls of all shapes and sizes just childrens toys?

[hutch]

Not yelling, just defending a sport I really enjoy.

On the surface I can see how it just looks like a bunch of skinny blokes riding bicycles. In reality though, there's plenty of strategy and mind games happening within the Peleton, even between competing teams. (Let's work together and put team ***** out of contention so it's just down to our two teams) It's not just that last 1km sprint finish up for grabs.

Aren't balls of all shapes and sizes just childrens toys?

peloton pelotudo.

[chaz]

My guess is most of the top cyclists of his era were doing this, that it was common knowledge they were doping even among the powers that be.

So Lance is just their lee harvey oswald. 

[i am gay and i like cats]

Not yelling, just defending a sport I really enjoy.

On the surface I can see how it just looks like a bunch of skinny blokes riding bicycles. In reality though, there's plenty of strategy and mind games happening within the Peleton, even between competing teams. (Let's work together and put team ***** out of contention so it's just down to our two teams) It's not just that last 1km sprint finish up for grabs.

Aren't balls of all shapes and sizes just childrens toys?

was just joking about your yelling . . . but YES, balls are toys, too.

[Frank Gallagher]

My guess is most of the top cyclists of his era were doing this, that it was common knowledge they were doping even among the powers that be.

So Lance is just their lee harvey oswald. 

No. LA is Custer. This was his last stand. Many have fallen before him.

[Frank Gallagher]

Not yelling, just defending a sport I really enjoy.

On the surface I can see how it just looks like a bunch of skinny blokes riding bicycles. In reality though, there's plenty of strategy and mind games happening within the Peleton, even between competing teams. (Let's work together and put team ***** out of contention so it's just down to our two teams) It's not just that last 1km sprint finish up for grabs.

Aren't balls of all shapes and sizes just childrens toys?

was just joking about your yelling . . . but YES, balls are toys, too.

...and not just for children!!!! 

[chaz]

My guess is most of the top cyclists of his era were doing this, that it was common knowledge they were doping even among the powers that be.

So Lance is just their lee harvey oswald. 

No. LA is Custer. This was his last stand. Many have fallen before him.

I know nothing of cycling.  How pervasive was doping?  Was it common knowledge among those involved in the sport (cyclists. officials)?  Of these 7 titles they are stripping, how far down the leader board will they have to go until they get to someone who wasn't doping?  Or were all the top cyclists of that time involved in it (whether proven or not another story...)?

[Frank Gallagher]

I think LA is the last main contender they nailed. 

[chaz]

I think LA is the last main contender they nailed. 

I figured that...I guess what I'm asking is, how likely is it that many of the contenders were cheating as well and just never got caught?  Lance was like the golden goose.  You bust him and you can pretty much close the book and move on.  One big fish worth a dozen little ones.  You get the picture.

[James Ford]

If he had more balls, I think he would have fought these charges a little harder.

[ggw]

Of these 7 titles they are stripping, how far down the leader board will they have to go until they get to someone who wasn't doping?  Or were all the top cyclists of that time involved in it (whether proven or not another story...)?

Five cyclists stand to inherit Lance Armstrong?s seven Tour de France victories after anti-doping authorities said they would strip them from him. Three have served doping bans and one may be investigated.

Armstrong yesterday was banned from the sport of cycling for life after refusing to fight drug allegations by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, saying it was pointless to fight a ?witch hunt.?

Armstrong, 40, won the Tour de France every year from 1999 to 2005, a record for the sport?s most prestigious race. He survived testicular cancer early in his career, and created Livestrong, a charity that has raised more than $470 million for the fight against cancer, according to its website.

Germany?s Jan Ullrich, a winner of the Tour de France in 1997, finished second to Armstrong of the U.S. three times between 2000-2003. He was banned in February for two years and had results between 2005 and 2007 voided after being found guilty of blood doping.

Ullrich told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that he was ?proud? of his second places and was giving no thought to Armstrong losing his titles.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, said at the time that the German?s DNA was matched to blood bags seized by police in a 2006 anti-doping investigation in Spain. He had also served a six-month ban for testing positive for amphetamines in 2002, which he said came from taking drugs on a night out.

Alex Zuelle, a runner-up to Armstrong in 1999, was part of the Festina team thrown out of the 1998 Tour after its coach was caught with banned performance-enhancing substances. The Swiss rider was banned for seven months after admitting taking the performance-enhancing drug EPO.
Basso Ban

Two years after finishing second in 2005, Italy?s Ivan Basso confessed to being part of a blood-doping ring in Spain, Italy?s Olympic authority said at the time. He served a two-year ban in 2007 and 2008 for ?attempted doping? although he denied taking any.

Cycling News reported yesterday that the German national doping agency said it may open an investigation into whether three riders, including Germany?s 2004 second-place finisher Andreas Kloeden, used illegal doping or products.

[vansmack]

Ullrich also served a six-month ban for testing positive for amphetamines in 2002, which he said came from taking drugs on a night out.

Just give them to this guy simply because he likes to party.

[chaz]

So...it's safe to say with a large number of people we are dealing in levels of guilt rather than actual guilt.

I say just vacate them.  Or let him keep them.

[RatBastard]

The man raced all those years.  He was constantly tested.  he never failed a single test.  Now they go back and claim that someone said something to someone and swears that they saw someone else do something with someone.  Sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me.  He was tested, all negative.  That is proof enough for me.  The organizations who go back now and strip medals are hollow, spineless, and weak at best.  Leave the man alone.  He passed your own test for all those years.  Medals stripped or not, I consider him the seven time champ and anyone else selected to take his place are mere puppets of their little game of gotcha.