Armstrong tests positive?

[Barking_Mad]

Boil Lance.

Boils on his lance!

 

[butchersapron]

Rabobank pulling out full stop.

Rabobank will end its sponsorship of both the men’s and the women’s professional cycling teams per 31 December 2012. Rabobank will continue its ties with amateur cycling as a sponsor, including the youth training and the cyclocross team.


Rabobank has come to this decision following publication of the report from the American doping authority USADA last week. This report speaks volumes. Bert Bruggink, member of the Managing Board: “It is with pain in our heart, but for the bank this is an inevitable decision. We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport. We are not confident that this will change for the better in the foreseeable future.”

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Wow, that is a big exit. As big as ZDF in Germany refusing to show the TdF in the wake of the Telekom confessions. Rabobank sponsor the Dutch national team at road/MTB/track too.

Its this kind of pressure that has the most influence in cycling and IMHO its this kind of action that is the only action that can shift McQuaid and Verbruggen quickly (how are they still there?!?), corporate sponsors figure on their fatcat radars in a way fans, riders' health or morality do not.

 

[butchersapron]

And note the statement basically says they have no faith whatsoever in either the ability to effect or desire for change.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

They are honouring the contract financially though - the team will be financed for next year but bear 'white label' sponsorship...they just want their name disconnected with cycling.

 

[Frumious B.]

Its this kind of pressure that has the most influence in cycling and IMHO its this kind of action that is the only action that can shift McQuaid and Verbruggen quickly (how are they still there?!?), corporate sponsors figure on their fatcat radars in a way fans, riders' health or morality do not.

Very true. Do sponsors have their own association?

 

[The Boy]

But...but...but..Lance did so much for the sport!!

Just remembered there is the Barredo investigation too.

 

[Jazzz]

But...but...but..Lance did so much for the sport!!

It's a tricky question. I wonder how much of sport has been tarnished with either drug-taking, or match-fixing, and maybe we don't actually want to know exactly.

 

[bendeus]

Had an interesting discussion yesterday. Which is the most corrupt governing body in sport. UCI is an obvious one, but then we started ruminating on FIFA, the WBA, WBO and various boxing 'governing' bodies. Does the UCI trump them all in the eyes of this august thread population?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

No. The UCI are shit beyond belief, but the boxing organisations are on a different level entirely.

 

[butchersapron]

Yes, i'd agree with that.

 

[bendeus]

In the sense that the boxing organisations freely channel mob money? Was the UCI not another figleaf for organised crime insomuch as by the law USPS was an organised criminal operation and the UCI freely colluded in its perpetuation?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

No really, it's a different level of madness. Not just in the sense that boxing involves a whole bunch of proper "horse's head in your bed" gangsters. But also in the structural sense that the various boxing governing bodies are essentially rival businesses competing to be useful to promoters.

 

[The Boy]

Bassons pinged? Sounds like pay back to me.

To expand: "Christophe Bassons, was riding the French MTB Marathon Champs and abandoned, then drove home. He was picked for a post-race control and didn't know."

Suspended for a year by French authorities. The same authorities who overturned Turgot's suspension for three missed test violations.

Looks like Lance still has friends /tinfoil hat.

 

[Jazzz]

Whodathunkit!

 

[1927]

http://news.yahoo.com/lance-armstrongs-worst-week-ever-now-includes-bribery-182832456.html

Oh dear Lance!

 

[The Boy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ot...0801/Team-Sky-braced-departures.html?ITO=1490

Anyone any idea of which Sky rider/staffer being referred to in that article? Can't be Yates, because the accusee insists they never tested positive.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ot...0801/Team-Sky-braced-departures.html?ITO=1490

Anyone any idea of which Sky rider/staffer being referred to in that article? Can't be Yates, because the accusee insists they never tested positive.

Mick Rodgers? Reckons his involvement with Ferrari was for 'training plans', that most worn of old chestnuts and non defence to boot. He must be top of the list? And how can DB still have Yatesy on the staff and keep a straight face.

 

[The Boy]

Mick Rodgers? Reckons his involvement with Ferrari was for 'training plans', that most worn of old chestnuts and non defence to boot. He must be top of the list? And how can DB still have Yatesy on the staff and keep a straight face.

Rogers has already been named so they wouldn't be so coy about him, would they? Was thinking it might be Julich or someone?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

http://news.yahoo.com/lance-armstrongs-worst-week-ever-now-includes-bribery-182832456.html

Oh dear Lance!

Bribery like this is/was pretty common though though - and been going on for decades and is accepted in the sport. I've seen a famous pic of Tom Simpson being 'outsprinted' by Rudi Altig in a classics finale....if you look closely at the pic Simpson is braking. The history of the sport is littered with brokered deals, Robert Millar lost certain victory in the '85 Vuelta cos his DS wouldn't bribe Delgado and the SEAT team.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Very true. Do sponsors have their own association?

Not to my knowledge but now would be the time to form one - you kind of need a properly organised UCI for it to make any sense though, and we've not seen that in a generation.

 

[Frumious B.]

This made me larf - Livestrong donors wanting their money back, on CNN. Finally the fucker is starting to get the kicking he deserves in the mainstream US press. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/19/us/lance-armstrong/index.html

For years, Connie and Daniel Roddy did all they could to support Livestrong, raising tens of thousands of dollars for the cancer charity founded by cyclist Lance Armstrong.​

"It all started when Lance's first book came out," Connie Roddy said, referring to the 2001 publication of "It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life," which details Armstrong's bout with testicular cancer. "I read it cover to cover. I was just so taken by who he said he was."​

The Roddys, who live in Santa Monica, California, say they initially gave $50,000 to the foundation. In 2003, Connie Roddy said, she helped organize an event for the foundation at a health club that raised an additional $150,000.​

Now they want their money back.​

"I feel we were really fooled. We were really hoodwinked," she said.​

​

​

criticism poured in from some of the charity's donors.​

Former Livestrong donor Michael Birdsong of Salt Lake City is among them. "The charity was established and publicized and got their funds based on a fraud," he said.​

Birdsong said he was attracted to the organization after his wife -- an avid cyclist -- was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, about the time Armstrong won his first Tour de France title.​

"She found his story very inspiring," he said. "Before we read his book, she would work all day, go to radiation treatments and go riding because that made her feel good."​

In 2007, the couple "became part of the public face of the foundation," said Birdsong, a software engineer. "I was one of the people who would answer questions from people to raise money."​

Though he had long been aware of Armstrong's alleged drug use, he said he didn't believe it. "I was a huge Armstrong fan from 1999 to the time he retired; I would defend him from anyone."​

But, as his involvement with Livestrong grew, "I started to ask what are they doing with all this money they are raising?"​

The foundation's IRS filing last year reported more than $100 million in net assets or fund balances.​

The organization spent $2.1 million in compensation to its seven highest-paid officers and three employees, according to the IRS form. No member of the board, whose members include CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, was compensated, it said.​

Now, Birdsong said, he feels disillusioned. "The whole thing is founded on a lie. The guy cheated, and he forced other people to cheat. I would like my money back. We donated under false pretenses."​

​

 

[agricola]

They are honouring the contract financially though - the team will be financed for next year but bear 'white label' sponsorship...they just want their name disconnected with cycling.

Which is probably the most damning statement of all.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Which is probably the most damning statement of all.

Yes, but it seems there are others out there waiting to take up the spot:-

Giant may take up Rabobank slot

"The important thing for us now is to build a team that satisfies the UCI, so we can apply for a license,"

Surely the important thing now is for the UCI to satisfy Giant it can run the sport? I kind of despair at this kind of news, it just keeps a dead cat bouncing. Maybe its up to the fans now - if you love this sport then do it a favour and watch something else for a year.

 

[The Boy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ot...-banned-Olympics-Lance-Armstrong-scandal.html

Daley Thompson calling for cycling to be kicked out of the Olympics. It's been close to happening before, iirc, so wouldn't surprise me.

 

[The Boy]

Oh, and I think the UCI press conference should be starting around now.

 

[yardbird]

Armstrong is wiped from all results

 

[The Boy]

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling"

It wisnae me

 

[Frumious B.]

And for once there's been no preemptive rebuttal from Herman.

Lance's bio still says he won 7 Tours. Mind you, it also says he's doing Ironmans. How on earth will he rewrite his own history now?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

On what he called a "landmark day for cycling", the Irishman, who became president of UCI in 2006, said he would not be resigning.

Incredible.