Lance Armstrong: The Move

[KaiserSoze 998]

Hi Lance, please go away.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

On 7/7/2018 at 7:45 PM, phdhorn said:

oh, and on his podcasts, I'm sure they're interesting and insightful. I mean the guy was the world's best cycleist for the better part of a decade.  I mean, an expert in the sport is going to have good takes.

but I'm not going to listen to one second of it, because he's an asshole and doesn't deserve any more of my time than I put in here.

 

On 7/7/2018 at 7:58 PM, Neonmoon said:

I don’t care he cheated. Every cyclist cheats. I don’t think there’s been a clean winner in probably a hundred years. 

Lance is a known piece of shit. He is not nice to other people. Most in the cycling community don’t like him and it has nothing to do with doping. 

This and this. Barry Bonds should be in the baseball HOF too. Doesnt mean you have to like him. I hate Barry but he is a way better person than Lance.

Lance should have done time for the Lemond threats. Nobody should listen to his podcasts.  He should have his titles reinstated and asterisked though. 

[wild_turkey 3182]

9 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

Nobody is arguing what he did wasn't really bad. I would argue two points in his favor.

1. He's massively interesting. He just called out Phil for not acknowledging the boos for Froome saying "buddy, turn up your hearing aids". 

2. Is there such a thing as forgiveness? Moving on? Being a better person? I don't actually know, but I'm intrigued. He seems to care about his family now. He's constantly talking about his cycling friends, his kids, and his wife. He sounds like he has his priorities right. Like I said in the OP, it's hard to condemn who he is now.

He has hard edges and he doesn't hide those either. I just appreciate the honesty. I've always known he was not a good guy. You go into the details of how he lived, it's not just about what was posted above, it was worse than that. He was a kind of Tiger Woods. He ignored his kids. Anything you could do wrong short of murder he probably did it.

But he's interesting and I feel no need to apologize for listening though I respect the opinions of people who hate him. 

You appreciate the honesty? How do you know he is being honest? Lance lied to the world for a better part of a decade, during which time his fans swore he was being honest and he was clean. Then he confessed on Oprah so the truth can no longer be denied, and for some reason you think he is now being honest. Oprah did not magically take away his ability to lie. Whatever impressions he is feeding you are the things he wants listeners to hear so he can somehow repair his image and gain forgiveness from his fans.

[52-80 19259]

You know that old observation about how the way someone treats waitstaff and other service workers is an accurate reflection on a persons character?  Well from Colorado to Texas hes reputed to be a gigantic cockhole in restaurants and bars

[Washpark 176]

Being an asshole isn't a signal for honesty. He is the opposite of honest and an asshole.

Explains a lot of your other posts. 

[52-80 19259]

17 minutes ago, Washpark said:

. He is the opposite of ... an asshole.

 

soooo hes a dick? or a mouth?

 

[Thetexashammer 1062]

A whole lot of what I said can be understood if you listened to the show.

And I never said he wasn't an asshole. To the contrary, he's one of the all time assholes, truly a hall of famer. Plenty of people are not hounded out of society for being pricks. There are literally millions of examples, even on this board. Lots of gainfully employed athletes and celebrities are complete raging dicks.

I did say he was interesting. And I will say that he is at least attempting to change. And that's part of what makes it interesting. 

Can people really change? I don't know. 

[Beau Vine 54443]

9 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

You appreciate the honesty? How do you know he is being honest? Lance lied to the world for a better part of a decade, during which time his fans swore he was being honest and he was clean. Then he confessed on Oprah so the truth can no longer be denied, and for some reason you think he is now being honest. Oprah did not magically take away his ability to lie. Whatever impressions he is feeding you are the things he wants listeners to hear so he can somehow repair his image and gain forgiveness from his fans.

He also lied on Oprah about several things, including about when he quit doping. 

The guy has never been honest.  There's no reason at all to believe he's being honest now, about anything.

[Txzen 498]

On 7/7/2018 at 12:46 PM, Lhorn said:

Playing devils advocate but thought I remembered that some of the guys he beat  weren’t clean either so they aren’t exactly victims. 

I continue to respect that he survived cancer to compete as a world class athlete but unfortunately his victories were bullshit. 

Sure, the top 20 were mostly doped to the gills. 

The victims were the ones who couldn't afford 'the program', or were determined to ride clean and were thus deprived of an untold amount of professional achievement. 

Then's there's also the clean riders who he literally bullied out of the sport. So, fuck him.

[Thetexashammer 1062]

6 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

He also lied on Oprah about several things, including about when he quit doping. 

The guy has never been honest.  There's no reason at all to believe he's being honest now, about anything.

Do you think more shit will come out? Do you think he is engaging in bad behaviors now? I mean it's possible and that would change things.

[Txzen 498]

What has never really been uncovered is how he managed to evade a positive drug test. From either being tipped off to the testers coming, 'donations' to testing agencies, and who know what sort of backchannel skullduggery, they not only operated an unbelievable doping program but did so at a time when almost everyone one else was getting popped. 

The full extent of the corruption has never been uncovered, and those repercussions are still with us today with the latest Sky/Froome bullshit. For his lingering effect on the sport, I say fuck off. 

[Art Vandelay 1712]

9 hours ago, 52-80 said:

You know that old observation about how the way someone treats waitstaff and other service workers is an accurate reflection on a persons character?  Well from Colorado to Texas hes reputed to be a gigantic cockhole in restaurants and bars

Yeah, this. Plenty of stories of his dickishness on display in Austin bars & restaurants (including at least one I can remember that was covered in local media). And if you know anyone who's had to work around him, as I do, they will tell you first hand how poorly he treats people.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Some bizarro white knighting going on here.

[Txzen 498]

If you want cycling perspective from a human being, I would suggest Greg Lemond.

Greg Lemond - What I've Learned

Quote

Sometimes I wish I was more cutthroat, cared less about things like that. But 25 percent of CEOs in America are sociopaths. A lot of very successful people are sociopaths. And I’m not. It’s easy when you have no emotions, when you have no empathy for people. But that’s not how I operate. So I wouldn’t change that.

Quote

Myself and Laurent (Fignon) were friends. We got into a big battle in 89. We just raced it out, battled it out to the end. But honestly, I felt bad for him losing the race because he’d struggled like I had to come back to the top. We met up afterwards in 97. Then we met in 2008, rode, had dinner, then again in 2009.

We got along. I think the only thing that for him was painful was sometimes when I’ve been with him, and people went ‘Greg, Greg, ’89, what a great deal.’ And to Fignon, ‘oh, how could you lose?’

And I’m standing right there with him, seeing this. Imagine, he’s known not for his two victories, but the one loss.

Laurent never went back to the Champs Elysees after the 1989 Tour. Imagine that. I’d almost give the Tour back for that. Racing wasn’t that important to me.

 

[Beau Vine 54443]

2 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

Do you think more shit will come out? Do you think he is engaging in bad behaviors now? I mean it's possible and that would change things.

I don't know.  But I know he's fucking sociopath, a narcissist, and a pathological liar, and I'm not even a psychologist.  He's cycling's Pete Rose.

Expecting change out of that mess is like hunting unicorns.

[LCHorn 2632]

2 hours ago, Art Vandelay said:

Yeah, this. Plenty of stories of his dickishness on display in Austin bars & restaurants (including at least one I can remember that was covered in local media). And if you know anyone who's had to work around him, as I do, they will tell you first hand how poorly he treats people.

He has the all-time record for saying “Do you know who I am?”

[Wally Pryor 5263]

On 7/9/2018 at 10:30 PM, Thetexashammer said:

2. Is there such a thing as forgiveness?

Armstrong professes to have learned from his mistakes but I've no doubt he'd shit all over people, again, given the chance.  So, no, not with this asshole. 

Is there still a bike trail named after this snake?  

[Guest]

On 7/10/2018 at 3:09 PM, Thetexashammer said:

A whole lot of what I said can be understood if you listened to the show.

And I never said he wasn't an asshole. To the contrary, he's one of the all time assholes, truly a hall of famer. Plenty of people are not hounded out of society for being pricks. There are literally millions of examples, even on this board. Lots of gainfully employed athletes and celebrities are complete raging dicks.

I did say he was interesting. And I will say that he is at least attempting to change. And that's part of what makes it interesting. 

Can people really change? I don't know. 

Why the fuck would anyone listen to that guy utter one single word?  You’re making terrible points, clearly didn’t know the history of Lance, but you know it now, and you’re still going to listen to him?  Cycling does not have appeal sufficient to overcome what that piece of shit has done. You cannot make it interesting enough. He should be dead to any person with a functioning brain. 

[Guest]

On 7/10/2018 at 6:47 PM, Beau Vine said:

I don't know.  But I know he's fucking sociopath, a narcissist, and a pathological liar, and I'm not even a psychologist.  He's cycling's Pete Rose.

Expecting change out of that mess is like hunting unicorns.

He is so much worse than Pete Rose it is not even funny. 

[Jack 51]

21 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

He is so much worse than Pete Rose it is not even funny. 

Not even in the same ballpark.

 

[Beau Vine 54443]

Quote

Lance Armstrong said he isn't sure why former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez has regained popularity after his doping incident while the former cyclist is still largely vilified. 

 

In an episode of the "Freakonomics Radio" podcast that was released Wednesday, Armstrong was asked by host Stephen Dubner about the parallels between himself and Rodriguez, who was suspended for the 2014 season after MLB found that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez is now a prominent baseball commentator for ESPN.

Armstrong said on the podcast that he "went crazy" one day while thinking about their respective paths after doping scandals ("like, what is the difference?") and decided to solicit thoughts from five friends.

"And the answers were pretty consistent," Armstrong told "Freakonomics Radio." "The one key thing is that Alex Rodriguez was allowed to come back and play. And Alex Rodriguez was part of a team sport. And thirdly, Alex Rodriguez never stood for anything else other than baseball.

"So I was never allowed to come back to my sport at any level, and most people viewed it as an individual sport. And I stood for much more than just cycling."

MORE: How the Oprah confession has weighed on Lance Armstrong

MORE: Livestrong adjusts to life without Lance Armstrong

When pressed about the way he responded to doping allegations — "you denied it with a vigor and a venom and sometime really viciously," Dubner said — Armstrong claimed that there was "an extremely litigious nature" to Rodriguez's reaction, too.

"And so, not to debate it with you, but there is no difference," Armstrong said on the podcast.

Armstrong was banned from sanctioned cycling for life in 2012 and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, which he won from 1999 to 2005. He publicly denied ever doping for more than a decade before admitting to an extensive use of performance-enhancing drugs in a 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

More recently, Armstrong settled a lawsuit with the federal government, which sued on behalf of his former sponsor, the U.S. Postal Service.

"I know I did that. I know I treated people the wrong way. I know I sued people," Armstrong said on the podcast. "But I’ll tell you what I have done. This, this thing’s cost me $111 million. Everybody’s been paid back. The people that were, that were treated poorly, I have traveled the world to sit with, to talk to, to apologize to, to make amends and to try to move forward."

What a fucking moron.

[wild_turkey 3182]

1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

"I know I did that. I know I treated people the wrong way. I know I sued people," Armstrong said on the podcast. "But I’ll tell you what I have done. This, this thing’s cost me $111 million. Everybody’s been paid back. The people that were, that were treated poorly, I have traveled the world to sit with, to talk to, to apologize to, to make amends and to try to move forward."

You can't pay back ruined lives unless you have a time machine to go back and change the past. Sorry Lance, but if you think you've made amends and that you now deserve forgiveness in the public eye, you are sorely mistaken. Most people justifiably consider you to be a shitty person and no one cares that you've spent $111 million on your self-created problems.

[Neonmoon 38130]

He’s playing the victim card? 

Yep. Still a cunt 

[G650 14278]

There's an entire thread on cycling in the Other Ports forum fyi.

 

And LOL at all the Lance haters.

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

Austin used to be symbolized by Willie Nelson, Darrel Royal, and Earl Campbell.

Then it became Lance Armstrong, Michael Dell, and Alex Jones. 

[Thetexashammer 1062]

https://deadspin.com/lance-armstrong-begins-his-second-act-1827929376

Was up to #2 on sports podcasts ahead of Bill Simmons but behind Barstool.

 

[ChiTownDoc 21167]

Cancer sucks....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

because it didn’t kill Lance.  

[SpiralOut 1818]

I'm a frequent listener of Joe Rogan's podcast and he had Lance on awhile back.  Rogan didn't press him too hard on his doping/lies, but Lance was basically just making excuses the entire fucking time.  Dude hasn't reformed at all because he's a sociopath.  He'll say some shit to try and sound like he realizes what he did was wrong, but it's just a facade.

I remember catching SO much fucking shit from some posters back on the Shag when I claimed he was a POS before all his shenanigans got exposed.  People did not want to believe for a second their spandex wrapped hero was actually a shitbird. 

[Guest]

On 7/27/2018 at 10:52 AM, G650 said:

There's an entire thread on cycling in the Other Ports forum fyi.

 

And LOL at all the Lance haters.

 

On 7/29/2018 at 6:47 PM, Thetexashammer said:

https://deadspin.com/lance-armstrong-begins-his-second-act-1827929376

Was up to #2 on sports podcasts ahead of Bill Simmons but behind Barstool.

 

You two either are retarded or you have an extremely short term memory. 

[G650 14278]

How so? 

[Guest]

You like Lance; you stated it in the cycling thread. The other jackass keeps foisting podcast rating stats upon us and has already said he finds the guy interesting.

The guy ruined lives and deserves no additional chance. So I’ve got to conclude y’all are retarded. 

[G650 14278]

Love it. 

 

[Guest]

I’m commenting on a message board, fuckface. The only thought given to Lance between the Oprah interview and now is this thread. Indifference - not hate - and my penchant for calling out assclowns are what you’re seeing. 

[Thetexashammer 1062]

2 hours ago, Rex Kramer said:

You like Lance; you stated it in the cycling thread. The other jackass keeps foisting podcast rating stats upon us and has already said he finds the guy interesting.

The guy ruined lives and deserves no additional chance. So I’ve got to conclude y’all are retarded. 

I bet you're real popular around the office.

[Guest]

I would bet if you’re extolling the virtues of Lance F’in Armstrong at your office, you’re universally ridiculed. 

[G650 14278]

Lol. Rex is extra Rex-ish today

[Steamboat1874 4085]

Fuck Lance and totally fuck cycling and cyclist.......they should all die in a fire.

[Beau Vine 54443]

3 hours ago, G650 said:

Lol. Rex is extra Rex-ish today

No, he's actually correct this time.

[G650 14278]

The butthurt cup overruneth today. This is glorious. 

[Guest]

Why do people mistake disdain for butthurt?  Such a dumbass label in 90%+ of the time. 

I also love the “this is glorious” deflection when faced with heavy opposition / losing an argument. 

[G650 14278]

I didn't realize we were having an argument 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

On 7/7/2018 at 11:22 AM, Patricio Swayze said:

Lulz...hard to hate? Fuck that. I don’t dislike him for the doping. Essentially everyone was doing it. I dislike that shithead for the lives he ruined to maintain his lies. Terrible ambassador for our state.

Yeah, but he was great in Dodgeball.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, G650 said:

I didn't realize we were having an argument 

Difference of opinion. And I’m arguing that your favorable opinion of the Sports World’s Hitler is ridiculous. And you’re dismissing that with butthurt comments. It’s a really basic, juvenile message board tactic. Congrats?

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

I don't get the Armstrong hate for his career, however the hate for his dickish behavior I get. He rode during the equivalent of baseball's juicing era.  Pretty much all the top riders of that era got popped for doping; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_cycling  It takes nearly 700 footnotes on wiki to document the cycling doping of that era. With all the doping riders of that era he was still the best of them.

Edited July 31, 2018 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[threesheets 1674]

Frankie Andreu makes Doug Christie look like a pimp by comparison.

[G650 14278]

1 hour ago, Rex Kramer said:

Difference of opinion. And I’m arguing that your favorable opinion of the Sports World’s Hitler is ridiculous. And you’re dismissing that with butthurt comments. It’s a really basic, juvenile message board tactic. Congrats?

 

Four posts to Godwin's Law. Impressive.

 

To be clear, there is no difference of opinion. You guys are rambling at the mouth about old Lancelot, and I'm making fun of you. That's all.

[HouTex 1894]

Lance did what Andy Fastow did at Enron. When someone figured it out or started asking the tough questions he went out of his way to ruin him/her, get him/her fired, etc. It's a special kind of shitty person who knows they are in the wrong and yet they go out their way to harm their accusers. I could forgive him if he just denied the doping and left it at that.

[Guest]

Fastow’s a bad guy but he wasn’t a sociopath. Lance was, and is. He isn’t remorseful. Fastow is. One of my buddies has hung with him extensively and just got back from a fishing trip with him. 

Love the “old Lancelot” references and your misunderstanding Godwin’s law, G. 

[jimmyjazz 46187]

It took me a long time to accept some of the stories being told by Betsy, etc.  I didn't assume they were lying -- it was just too "he said, she said" for me to judge.  But in the end, it became crystal clear that shitballs think Lance is a shitball.

My daughter's boyfriend is a highly ranked amateur cyclist.  He idolizes Lance the athlete.  He hates Lance the man.  Told a story the other night of hanging with Lance in a "friendly" and all it did was piss Lance off that he wouldn't fold.  Kid thought he'd get a pat on the back, and he basically got spit on.  Surprise.

[Beau Vine 54443]

4 hours ago, G650 said:

The butthurt cup overruneth today. This is glorious. 

There's zero butthurt here.  Butthurt implies you're upset about something happening that you didn't like. 

I consider cycling to be on the same level as the WNBA.  I don't give a shit about it.  I don't care who wins or how they do.

Even given that astronomical level of I-don't-give-a-shitedness, I keep hearing about Lance, and everything I hear about him tells me that he's a narcissist, a pathological liar, and a sociopath.  He's literally one of the most annoying people on the planet.

 

I hope you think that's glorious, too.