As the Toto Turns 263

by Andy Shen

What’s the Holdup?

What’s the Holdup?

113 Comments

monorchid conconi

the delay is obvious, in the uci’s point scheme, next year’s assignations all depend upon signed contracts in place this week. aigle is busy counting numbers, but the smart people know that all will be for nought once usada’s fingerpointing gets done. potential sponsorships, license applications and race calendars will all be affected by the new numbers.

now i ask you, who is running around nervously, and who is calm enough to take some time off, go fishing, get married, have a barbecue? who is secure in the outcome of a potentially unstable future?

Sacha Ergopower

Throwing Kristen “Under the Bus” is 30 times worse. The HoneyMoon is over. Throwing someone’s wife under the bus. Lame Husband. Calling someone else’s wife “hot” on twitter is Lame Husband too. 500++ 1234567 Scoreboard Booyah. Boo.

Q: How many p’s in Shup up? A: 2…peepee
Q: CVdV, DaveZ, TD? A: Sweet Deal

Provenzano Drainhole

About time we start turning the screws on Fabiani here……same old tired ‘witch-hunt, 500 tests, blah blah’ I wonder how much $$ it cost LA for the same playbook as Marion Jones bought from Leheye ??

Python

I have Lance envy. I would love to have Lance in my pants.
To bad I am just a croxx country ski hack on message boards.

bikesoverthemoon

…bullshit…complete, utter & fabricated bullshit…

…”cycling” actually stood up for itself today…

…a small vocal group, a group not only deeply involved in the culture of doping but a group who resented their own involvement, allowed their testimony to be revealed “en masse” because they realized individual attempts by associates of theirs were too easily denigrated by their former “boss” & the powers that be (the uci) & that nothing would ever accomplished towards the cleaning up of the sport in that manner…

…these guys all love the sport & while they may have or are doing well for themselves in the sport, they’re not rich, they don’t have private jets, they’re not world famous outside of cycling & none of ’em are so delusional as to think the end always justifies the means…

…cycling just took a big, deep clear breath today & will likely be a lot healthier for it…

…far, far away from being dead…

…with truth n’ love, bgw…

bikesoverthemoon

…………………………………………………………
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…at your beckett & call, love, bgw…

Guido Seatmast

Disappointed to see no mention on this page of the ” Paul Kimmage Defence Fund ” nor of the ” Change.org PETITION !

I like others are supporting these initiatives on Parrabuddy.blogspot and @skippydetour !

DO YOUR BIT TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE IN THE UCI !

Looks like these cartoons should go viral !

I am Skippy Mc Carthy and hope that Paul can kick the ” prats of Aigle so hard on the 12th Dec that they slink off into oblivion !

Sven Jenson

“About two years ago, I was approached by US Federal investigators, and more recently by USADA, and asked to tell of my personal experience in these matters. I would have been much more comfortable talking only about myself, but understood that I was obligated to tell the truth about everything I knew. So that is what I did.” –GH

Sporgen Usnuts

“EPO all in my veins
Lately things just don’t seem the same
Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why
‘Scuse me while I pass this guy”

to the tune of Purple Haze

Baptiste Drainhole

So Hincapie, Leipheimer, Vande Velde, Zabriskie, Danielson…. all heroes again. All of them confessed because they were put in a corner – otherwise they would still be playing innocent. Weren’t they all the same people acting like Floyd was a deranged alcoholic when he initially came out with his claims. Now they get suspended for the Winter and are good to go for the Spring. And sure, they all stopped doping in 2006…c’mon. If Hamilton’s description of doping in pro cycling is accurate – and I think it is. All these guy are probably still doing some form of doping – most likely blood doping. Let’s not paint them out to be heroes who are now trying to clean the sport. They all profited heavily from doping.

Ergopower

Leipheimer, riding for Team Einstein, won the 1996 U.S. National Criterium Championships in Grandview Heights, Ohio,[9][10] but tested positive for ephedrine, a banned substance, at the championship, and forfeited his title, prize money and jersey

bikesoverthemoon

…i’m not gonna buy one of those ‘betsy andreu appreciation society’ cycling caps unless ya do some in black…

…you ARE gonna make some up, right ???…

…selling those would show great appreciation for a chick who stood up to one of the most overwhelmingly negative & abusive personalities to come pedaling down the road in ages…

…capping the charade, love, bgw…

Anita Patchkit

Yesterday, I was anxious about my cancer taking over. Today, while serving on jury duty, a lawyer said he’d proudly supported cancer. That’s when, at the same time, another case, I was outta there and now my cancer is in remittance.

West Coast Reader

@Gabin Crank: Victims? What none of them got a paycheck during that time? All villains! No sobbing by anyone of them makes them a victim, they were grown men, not kids. They knew all to well what they were doing or they are just mentally non-gifted?

Its a great day for many of us, the stories are now in one place in chronological order. Whether it will actually make an impact, well we will have to wait and find out.

er

Let’s not fete them too much. They got caught and begrudgingly admitted, most while retiring anyway. They lied and cheated and collected paychecks. They aren’t heroes. Get a grip

Tristan Headset

we aren’t getting the whole truth, unsurprisingly… you think tom danielson, with rick crawford as his coach and mercury and fassa bortolo on his resume, and having broken the records on both mount evans (by like FIVE MINUTES) and mount washington (previously held by tyler ’99 vintage)in 2002, didn’t dope until 2004 when he signed up with big, mean discovery? i don’t think so.

Ello

Tristan hit the nail on the head. there are many other players involved in all of this. But trust me, many of these other guys like Rick “Crawfish” Crawford have been contacted by USADA for the Armstrong Case. For those that don’t know, Rick Crawford was likely a factor in Armstrong in the earlier years and other riders in the years to come.

Don’t forget Eddy B and Mike Fraysse who invited Armstrong to train at the USOC at the same time when doping became huge in US Olympic cycling. Lance was still a junior then. That said, Lance is still one of the most talented athletes ever, to bad we’ll never know what that truly looks like.

Gabin Crank

The victims were the one who refused to bend and paid the price. I can’t throw all these guys under the bus, because we all make mistakes.

Maybe now we can put the “Hard Men of the Road” myths to bed.

On the plus side, it sounds like Betsy make a mean risotto. Is there anything this woman can’t do?

er

brailsford’s comments make me trust him even less. Either he is honest, and a completely naive moron, or balls out lying.

Dx

I was there. Armstrong dope or no dope was impressive -not just because he pulled, but he has a bulge on his back (make your jokes) – seems like he has superhuman lung capacity.

What you fail to mention is that Charlie I went off the front at this race in an attempt to win. None other than Joe Papp (along with Frank Pipp) bridged up to him and Papp, pipped Pipp and Charlie at the line. Needless to say, Lance wasn’t the only doper there that day.

Guillaume Chamois

It was Skip Foley who got beat at the line by Joe Papp.It was Charlie I ,Joe Papp and Skip Foley in the break and Joe Papp beat Skip Foley in the sprint Sorry it was not Frank Pipp

bikesoverthemoon

…i’m not feting them but by most admissions, the ex-posties in question did their stint w/ the drug culture & moved on…

…george sez he spent the years after #7 cleaning up his act & encouraging younger riders in staying clean…

…a point i’d make is that every one of those ex-posties were psychologically very different animals than mr armstrong…

…from what i’ve read, the usada’s edited version bears that out…

…speaking for myself, love, bgw…

BigTimeBikeRacer

Why would George and/or any of these riders encourage younger riders to stay clean? After all, in their case doping worked and it got them the success they needed to make it.

bikesoverthemoon

…but to a man, other than ‘el negador’, they’ve all stated it wasn’t something they were comfortable with…

…they lived like glorified junkies, always looking over their shoulders, always wondering if they did get tested, would their “values” be ok…a life of denial & lotsa needles, always lotsa needles…

…kinda doubt that’s too much fun…

…pointedly, with love, bgw…

Ernesto Polished

Yeah right. All the ex posties doped for years without apology and then all quit and started riding clean?! Wish I could believe it.

Why is everyone getting worked up about Lance putting the hurt on a race eventually won by Joe Papp. If it was that hard Papp would have gotten dropped, dope or no dope.

Erwan Polished

Ernesto, Papp won the Cat. 1-2 race. There was a separate Pro race that lance was in and Ivan Dominguez won. From the way he’s got the best US Pros strung out and how few are left I’d wager it was pretty damn hard.

Fred Nitche

…dot guy…, your reason for believing these guys is about as good as the “LANCE SPOKE ON THIS” guy’s reason for believing lance. actually it seems to be the same reason.

Lukas Wave Ring

Waiting for Phil to speak out in support of L A again. It wasn’t a conspiracy of US Postal, it was a conspiracy against them. I also loved the quote from one of L A’s lawyers regarding the wasting of taxpayer money investigating Postal. Didn’t taxpayer money support Postal?

Sam Clamp

It is a complete joke that Zabriskie, Vandevelde, Danielson, and Levi who are all currently racing are getting 6 month sanctions that don’t even matter because they start in Sept and run through March. That is effectively no sanction at all. They contributed to what USADA describes as “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen” and will not miss a single race of consequence.

And so we are to believe that they all – to a man – stopped as soon as Lance retired the first time in 06? Not a chance. And what about everyone else on those teams? The using was confined to just these guys who came forward and Lance? What about all the other guys on the team? Where is the testimony and sanctions against them? Reed Albergotti reported in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that Levi Leipheimer said “riders from different teams-who were competitors on the road- coordinated their doping to keep up with other riders doing the same thing”. Really? Well who were those other guys and other teams, and where are those sanctions? And why do you get a free pass Levi without disclosing them?

USADA has this whole thing tied up with a pretty bow for the media – LA was the ringleader and made all these poor souls dope and do his bidding and everyone of them stopped the moment he left the room. That is a crock of shit. Vaughters stopped when he left Postal – really? He won the TT on Credit Agicole in the 2001 Dauphine on bread and water? Don’t think so.

Tyler and Floyd had the balls to admit the whole truth – they may have started on Postal, but they were using to the day they stopped racing. We are being played here by USADA big time. Given an “out” everyone of these guys says “it was the culture of doping and Bruyneel and Lance that made me do it” and “I only did it when I was with Postal and Disco”. As long as they tow that line and show contrition, they get a 100% pass from USADA. That is why this is a charade. Travis says he was after the truth, but this is not the truth by a far, far measure.

Dx

Eustice is an embarrassment to cycling and himself. Seems like he is staking out the ground where he will Lance’s only media supporter (well, and Phil Liggett) with the bet that it will pay off as he becomes part of the omerta. Nothing worse than being a “hanger on” to corrupt organizations. Fredo Corleone.

Guillaume Gel

‘…with the bet that it will pay off as he becomes part of the omerta.’

Eustice IS part of the Omerta. He’s been part of it ever since he started cycling. There are probably dozens of racers that he and Robin Morton, et al. did not pay! As the wives and children of the racers they didn’t pay what they think of them. John is so low that, once, he didn’t pay his Web site designer, until the designer made it public knowledge on the site he designed for Eustice. Haha!

Once again, I maintain that Eustice and Morton are lower than what ends up on the bottom of one’s shoe after a walk around NYC. I think his most current article proves that ones again.
Morton has strategically distanced herself from the fray, pursuing ‘fund’ raising, utilizing the same veil that Lance used.
And, once again, I maintain that Lance is just a scapegoat. All of his racing buddies should be ashamed of themselves. Hincapie, et al have NOTHING to be proud of. They are grown men and were grown men when they made their decisions along with Lance. They ALL condoned this and still do.
The UCI and USA Cycling should be investigated and dismantled.
All racers should boycott their races and tear up their licenses! Refuse to participate in the sport with anyone who has been involved in it on a high-level for the past 30/40 years. They are as corrupt as the day is long. I’ve been saying so for years. We’ll see how fast their sponsorships get dropped!!! Then and onnly then will things change.

Stop buying into their self-proclaimed, self-promoted mythology! For instance, Robin Morton’s only qualification for being the first woman to start a cycling team was that she had affair with a cyclist. This is an insult to all hard working, educated women who sacrificed to be cyclist and who abandoned the sport because they couldn’t make the sacrifice. The Italians didn’t discrimate against her! The Italians knew she was having an affair with a racer. And still, the Italians were polite. But, hey, let’s believe her story and imply the Italians were discriminatory towards women in sports.

From someone who aspired to be a racer and left the sport!

Shammy Cream

Lance’s asshole is the gold mine that keeps on giving. Tyler continues to mine it striking a generous vein indeed. Eustice gets a Time piece. The editors of this site continue on their way to becoming wealthy internet moguls. And now that gold mine has provided you with the inspiration to come up with some damn clever name calling.

Flatty flatser

I am surprised no one is going after Hein Verbruggen. These guys at UCI had all the blood values and medical reports, but did not do a thing. Doping become part of their culture. A culture in which most of the racers doped and in which UCI approved of it. And why is no one going after these so called doctors? Doctor patient confidentiality perhaps? Guys like Fuentes and Garcia del Moral. They had many cyclist on his client list including the Postal Team, but also various players from the Madrid and Valencia football team. I wish they would speak out about their services to football and tennis players.

bc

me too. been curious about novak’s year last year, and some others. Hell, throw Murray in there, too. God it would suck for the UK to have Wiggins and Murray take gold, then get taken down in a doping scandal…but I am getting ahead of myself there. I am very curious about Sky though. Team Director’s comments about Barry were troubling, no one can be that stupid.

Humorous Angle

Did anyone notice the notary’s signature on Levi’s affidavit? Haven Parchinski!! Guess they are still friends.

That link http://cyclinginvestigation.usada.org/ gives you ALL of the appendices to the report under the tab entitled “Appendices and Supporting Materials” from this link. All the afadavits are there to see.

bikesoverthemoon

…john eustice has become the great apologist for one mr lance armstrong & cyclings doping culture in general…

…unlike many journalists who allude to yet deplore it’s presence, eustice seemly embraces it simply because it’s been in place so long…

…wondering what that’s about, with love, bgw…

bikesoverthemoon

…rail against the ex-posties getting 6 month, over-the-winter bans for admitting to having been part of the culture in the past, let’s not forget the real farcical situation of one mr alberto contador, who all but had his ass tongued by his national federation & pretty much everyone in espana, from the top down with the exception of the farming community & then went on to serve the lightest of suspensions imaginable…

…after his years of involvement w/ the masters armstrong & bruyneel, that truly was a joke…

…not laughing, with love, bgw…

Ernesto Polished

@Erwan–thanks for the clarification. I raced in the 1-2 race that year. I got killed. Now I can blame the dopers!

Cat4Forever

Wow, he didn’t pay the people who are working for him??? LOL Don’t worry. I will deal with John E with some teeth. Hahahaha…. He better saves up some money because it won’t be cheap….. 🙂

Michele Sealant

nothing novel here in my comment, just wanted to point out that despite his reasons for coming clean, landis is the only guy in this whole episode that was man enough to stand up to armstrong. if it wasn’t for him, nobody else would’ve said a fucking thing, and in the end the only reason they did was the safety of numbers. leipheimer, vandevelde, zabriskie, vaughters, hincappie, et al are all big fat pussies and floyd is the only one who could look lance in the eyes and say “fuuuuuck you dude!!!”. maybe in a few years a ppv fight between the 2 when armstrong needs loot to pay off the judgements? i got floyd on a 3-1.

picchio p'formance

who was man enough to stand up to Lance. Don’t forget Betsy Andreu. Kudos to her for sporting a pelota bigger than Juan’s.

Noa Compliant

I’m going to disagree by degree, not by substance here. Vaughters’ dad is a lawyer, and vaughters is no idiot. He hand-picked those guys because of, not despite, their doping background. And he’s been playing his cards close to the vest, buying his time for that winning hand. Might disagree with his strategy, but can’t find much fault in the results.

Al Pine

Everyone should go to the website and read the USADA’s Reasoned Decision, also known as The 50 Shades of Postal.

Giovanni Drainhole

Let’s also give major props to Matt DeCanio. The stories he was telling 5-6 years ago, which were widely dismissed as the rantings of a bitter ex-pro who couldn’t hack it, have all turned out 100% accurate…almost eerily so.

liquiguts

What’s it like to be:

Chris Horner
Bobby Julich (rider #4)
Kevin Livingston

right now?

Sadly, the only person clearly out of the line of fire is Carmichael.
Lack of planning there. Your cover should always be your fall guy.

Will there be trickle down sanctionomics…
or up? to the Wozzles-in-chief and the USAC Heffalumps?

The season’s show ending was exciting but predicable.
I hope the writers as good for the next!

HV “Lance Armstrong heeft nooit doping gebruikt. Nooit, nooit, nooit.”
How much does it cost to get Keirin into the olympics?
This stuff writes itself.

Wheelsuckerrrrr

Why is everyone after Eustice? Is he the local scapegoat for everything that is wrong about cycling? Does that make one feel good? It is the same as everyone going after Lance. Everyone knows that he doped but it is still up to him to decide to confess or not. When he started cycling in ’92 EPO was the way to go in track and field, swimming, cross country skiing, soccer and cycling. There are plenty of guys that could not keep up anymore, look for example at all the great colombians of the late eighties who didn’t get the memo and got dropped. Like talent and hard training was enough to keep up. Armstrong just made up his mind just like many others and got on the program. 20 years later many folks are crucifying him, sitting in their lazy chair simplifying the the life of a cyclist from “no dope=good” and “dope=bad”. What about the sponsors, teams, media and organizers? Is Eustice really such a big guy? Maybe US Postal Services had unrealistic expectations and, if it wasn’t Armstrong that would bring home the postal bacon, it would be someone else.
Topsport in my opinion does not have much to do with sport. It is entertainment and in entertainment people compete with a different set of rules. Maybe it is time to discuss and perhaps reconsider these doping regulations.

West Coast Reader

If JV is no idiot why did he dope and go along with the whole conspiracy?

Because he wanted to gain financially from it or he’s an idiot?

bikesoverthemoon

…the dust to settle but as of today, nike, trek, radioshack have all dissolved the relationship with one mr lance armstrong…

…ironically, eyewear company oakley is protecting their sporting vision by hanging on…

…while the mot grows bigger, with love, bgw…

Baldo Compliant

Interesting point: Oakley is one of the innumeral sunglass brands owned by the monopolist, Luxotica. Luxotica is…wait for it…ITALIAN! So, a different set of calculus from a different culture that has long had a different view on sports ethics, at least in the cycling world. I’m sure they will eventually follow suit and drop LA, but its just not so automatic for them to do the right thing in terms of setting ethical boundaries and sticking to them. It goes hand in hand with being a monopolist as well.

mikeweb

Re: Oakley. Or it could be that since Luxotica is such a large conglomerate that the Oakley-Lance link is a blip on their radar, unlike the giant meteor that it is on Trek’s.

bikesoverthemoon

…are prob’ly both right…

…whilst the armstrong cycling saga has been taken to heart in america with a public who, at the same time have shown very little concern over the same kind of ethics in the major league “stick & ball” sports, so too it likely is with the italians regarding cycling…

…”ehhh, boys will be boys & now, with so much money involved, what can you expect ???…it’s such a hard sport but such a beautiful spectacle, why tinker ???…”…

…turning a blind eye, with love, bgw…

Flatty flatser

Wonders which big sponsor will be the next one to withdraw their support now that Rabobank is ended their 17 year long commitment to cycling especially since we still need to hear about all the doping scandals among the Spanish, Italian and many other teams including the ones that worked with the doping doc Ferrari himself..

“International cycling is rotten, including some of its highest institutions,” Chief Financial Officer Bert Bruggink told a news conference. “We tried to improve things, but we didn’t succeed.”

Andy Shen

1: Things are happening so fast we can barely get one done before it’s rendered moot.

2: Reality is becoming way weirder than Toto. Bruyneel was just accused of poisoning Frank Schleck fer chrissakes. We can’t top that.

Having said that there’ll be more.

Sergio Romero

On October 23, 2012, Cycling News published an article regarding a threatening email sent by Lance Armstrong to John Kerry. According to Cycling News, [Selena] Rodgers recounts a story of Kerry reading a furious email from Armstrong, which included the ultimatum: “If cancer isn’t an issue of concern for the Democratic Party, then we will go into the database of Livestrong, which has millions of people, and let them know where the Democratic Party stands.”

Question for all of you, is it possible that President Obama unleashed the dogs on Lance as a preventive measure before the elections? or as revenge? I am not saying that Lance is not guilty, but it seems that USADA was way too focused on getting Lance and only Lance.

Form Texas, I hope all of you are fine after the storm!

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