Lance Armstrong.

[diddl]

What on earth is going on?

If he hasn´t failed a drug test, how can he be found guilty just because he can´t be bothered to fight any more?

Is it an admission of guilt?

If the USADA has evidence-where is it-why haven´t they produced it or is it all just rumour/hearsay?

Happy to help I wasn't saying you are wrong, btw. Just that it feels to me that LA hopes to damage control through (1) "Feel sorry for me - I had such a bad childhood" and (2) "I'm just a bit antisocial".

I agree with you - he completely hopes that - they can turn on the charm oh so very well when it's for their personal gain while not meaning one single bit of what they're saying. Manipulative bastard.

Typical narcissist will use anything to garner sympathy and get himself out of trouble

Plenty of people really do have horrible childhoods and loads of people have testicular cancer, doesn't turn them into monsters (or celebrities) or make them go around destroying other people's lives.

Obviously testicular cancer is Not Fun but if you are going to get cancer, it's the least-worst - treatable with excellent prospects of a full recovery. It's hardly time to get the violins out. I have sympathy for anyone with testicular cancer but LA acted as though it was the most terrible thing that could ever happen which suggests a lack of awareness of severe, hopeless suffering of e.g. Huntingdon's or dementia or lung or pancreatic cancer or loads of other conditions.

Also, he was a cheater and a liar way before he had the cancer. So he can't really use it as an excuse

Edam you're right.....also plenty of people have awful traumatic experiences later in life and some cope better with it than others. My point was that a bad childhood is a risk factor for producing a child who will have these tendencies - so no, I'm not surprised. Is this an excuse for his behaviour? Most certainly not - it's a big fat warning sign to anyone who is in the position of allowing him to get away with this and/or let him race again that he is what he is and he will shit all over people again in spite of the crocodile tears and the fake apologies and fake remorse. He will not change.

Heard the latest?

He calls his life ban - 'a death penalty'.

I shall get my candle out and pray for you then you tosser.

From what I've read, I can't sympathise at all with him and think an absolute ban from cycling is fairer for the sport and other cyclists.

The interview sounded like a PR stunt and spun in the most favourable way for him. His tweet that he regrets now was probably more truthful.

Wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him (with or without steroid help).

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21072708
BBC summary transcript of part two

Extracts that are revealing:

Oprah: How do you see yourself?

Armstrong: This is heavy. This is messy. I'm doing therapy. I'm the type of person who can't do this sporadically. This is going to be a long process.

Oprah: Is there real remorse? Or is there a sense of 'I'm sorry I got caught'?

Armstrong: I'm only starting. Do I have remorse? Absolutely. Will it grow? Absolutely. I'm paying the price but I deserve it.

Oprah: When something like this happens do you think it will bring a change in you?

Armstrong: I've got work to do. There's not going to be a tectonic shift.

Oprah: Are there people who knew about this that wanted you to stop?

Armstrong: Of course.

Armstrong talks about his ex-wife Kristin Richard

Oprah: Are you at a space not apologising but knowing that you have shattered people's lives?

Armstrong: Yes. Yes. Yes. I don't need to be back in that place when I can slip like that. If I had one of my kids act like that (reflecting on archive video shown of him) I'd be apoplectic.

Oprah: Are you a better human being because of what has happened?

Armstrong: Without a doubt. This has happened twice. When I was diagnosed. I was smarter, but then I lost my way. I can't lose my way again. Only I can control that.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21072708

Actually this one is better

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21087586

The thing is, they demanded he was banned, he got banned, they demanded he apologised, he apologised, they demanded he confessed, he confessed. He is doing everything that is bring demanded of him but where does it stop.

They're still not happy. They want him to go to prison now and I suppose he might but what else do they want?

In perspective, he cheated on a bike ride, let's not get too carried away.

He cheated on a bike ride, let's not get too carried away

Not I'll forget the bit where he lied in court and defamed, sued and ruined peoples careers and reputations for telling the truth.

You know, criminal behaviour.

Amongst other issues.

What about all the other cyclists whose careers he destroyed? What about the millions of ill-gotten gains? What about the people telling the truth that he hunted down in the courts and destroyed?

If only it were only a bike race. quote again from the interview.

~~ Losing sponsors was financially devastating, he said. "I've lost all future income. You could look at that day and a half when people (sponsors) left. That was a $75m day. Gone. Gone. And probably never coming back."

I wonder if he needs a meal planner now? Hardly...

Second part of the interview shows his reasons for doing the interview in the first place - money. He has lost his income and wants to get it back. He is an utterly ruthless and nasty piece of work. Hopefully he will never be allowed to compete in anything ever again. He destroyed the lives and careers of several people.

There is absolutely no way he rode clean during his come back. Why would he even try when he had got away with it for so many years? I hope that the officials that were complicit in enabling him to pass all the drug tests he took now come forward. They won't and Armstrong won't name them because he will be prosecuted if he did.

Only a bike race. Ha!! Try telling that to the hundreds of men and women who work really hard training and racing without taking drugs who have to watch their sport ruined.

My Dad races in a cycling club. He had druggie yelled at him 5 times in 1 10 mile race a few weeks ago.

Sponsors are pulling out of cycling because Lance Armstrong is a twat. So other people have to suffer.

Lance Armstrong sounds like he baddie at the end of a Scooby Doo cartoon. "And I'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky kids"

He is only sorry that he didn't get away with it. Perhaps given how rife drug use was in cycling during his career his feelings on that are understandable though he was still very wrong to cheat.

But Lance Armstrong protested his innocent too much and for too long. He made some terrible comments and untrue accusations in response to his accusers, he sued for libel and therefore committed fraud, the list goes on.

I genuinely hope that his lifetime ban does stand. I hope that he is sued by many people for many millions. Because he did not simply dope like others who have received a 2 year ban have done.

He was given ample opportunity to "come clean" but he chose to instead to attempt to discredit others. But finally in the face of incredible evidence against him he has confessed (to some things at least). And so here he is, like the convicted man trying to do a deal after the trial. It's too late. Lance Armstrong thought he could win this and he lost.

'They're still not happy. They want him to go to prison now and I suppose he might but what else do they want?

In perspective, he cheated on a bike ride, let's not get too carried away.'

Nah, a little lying in court, bringing law suits against people who were telling the truth, defaming their characters, ruining their careers, cheating others out their wins and sponsorship monies/income, it's all just water under the bridge.

"The thing is, they demanded he was banned, he got banned, they demanded he apologised, he apologised, they demanded he confessed, he confessed. He is doing everything that is bring demanded of him but where does it stop."

who is the 'they' in this sentence? i wouldn't presume to speak for the people whose careers he ruined. if 'they' want him to go to prison, fair enough. he has behaved in a criminal manner.

But he hasn't apologised, has he? He has only apologised for getting caught. There is no remorse, there is no contrition, there is no apology to those whose lives he destroyed, there is no offer to make amends. Nothing.

He said he wished he hadn't come back as then he would have been home and dry. He only regrets getting caught!

Funny thing is, when all the French were saying cheat and druggy, we were all believing it. Some of the things he did in the Tour were just incredible - really, not credible. We all wanted to believe this cancer-recoverer could do super human things.

Looking back, I feel silly to have believed it was possible. Are we not also a part in the puzzle as to how he could go on so long and never get caught? He was tested over 500 times and never got a positive. How is this possible when even he says he was cheating for practically the whole period?