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Tag: cycling

  • Sheryl Crow Admits Knowledge of Armstrong’s Doping

    In “Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, The Tour de France and The Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever,” a new book by Wall Street Journal reporters, Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell, set to release next Tuesday, Sheryl Crow admits that she knew what Lance was doing while he was doing it.

    Crow and Armstrong dated, and were even engaged, for a brief period of time in the mid-2000’s. In 2004, Crow flew with Armstrong to Belgium in his private jet. Once there, Crow witnessed Armstrong undergo a blood transfusion. The purpose of the transfusion was to increase the number of red blood cells in Armstrong’s body, thus increasing the amount of oxygen that could be transported to and used by Armstrong’s muscles. This procedure was a way in which Armstrong could get a leg-up on his competition without testing positive for illegal substances.

    Albergotti and O’Connell state in their book that “Rather than try to hide the transfusion from her, Armstrong was completely open about it. He trusted that Crow would have no desire to tell the press or anyone else about the team’s doping program. He explained that it was simply part of the sport – that all cyclists were doing the same thing.”

    While many other cyclists may have been doing the same exact thing, most of them were not winning multiple Tour de France titles and constantly drawing attention to themselves.

    Crow decided to talk to the FDA only after she had been offered a proffer – a legal document which prohibits one from being prosecuted due to cooperating with the investigation.

    While Crow has escaped legal prosecution, Armstrong is still in hot water. The Justice Department is still prosecuting Armstrong under the False Claims Act due to Armstrong receiving millions of dollars in sponsorship from the USPS while knowingly violating his contract.

    Armstrong opened up to Oprah Winfrey last January and admitted that his entire career was one big lie, he was not able to save face. Once mentioned in the same sentences as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods as one of the most dominant athletes in his sport of all time, Armstrong and his “Live Strong” campaign have fallen harder than the Roman Empire. If Armstrong is convicted by the Justice Department under the False Claims Act, his career will have an asterisks as permanent as Pete Rose’s has been.

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  • Lance Armstrong Settles Lawsuit

    Lance Armstrong Settles Lawsuit

    Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong reached a settlement with the British newspaper the Sunday Times to recover part of a libel settlement Armstrong won against the paper.

    The Sunday Times chief sports writer David Walsh and deputy editor Alan English co-authored a book called LA Confidential which exposed the ins and outs of the drug and doping strategies of cycling teams including Lance Armstrong. The book was serialized in the Sunday Times in 2004.

    Armstrong’s attorney’s accused the Sunday Times article called Armstrong “a fraud, a cheat and a liar” and sued under Britain’s stricter libel laws. The Sunday Times settled the claim in June of 2006 for 300,000 pounds (about $470,000) in 2006.

    After the U.S. Anti-doping agency’s conclusive report found that Armstrong led “a sophisticated doping program” and Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey that he was guilty, the Sunday Times sued Armstrong for 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) to recover the award and to cover court costs incurred during the legal battle.

    The Times reported that the paper along with Walsh and English had “reached a mutually acceptable final resolution to all claims against Lance Armstrong related to the 2012 High Court proceedings and are entirely happy with the agreed settlement, the terms of which remain confidential”.

    Armstrong has already been stripped of his record seven Tour De France titles.

  • Lance Armstrong Spotted in Los Angeles

    Lance Armstrong Spotted in Los Angeles

    Lance Armstrong may represent the largest shift of public perception surrounding an athlete since Pete Rose was caught betting on baseball.

    Armstrong maintained his steadfast rejection of doping rumors until the last possible second, making his lies seem all the greater. His world came crashing down last year as he was abandoned by sponsors and even by his own Liveotrong organization. As a final humiliation, the cyclist was stripped of all of his record-setting Tour de France titles. The athlete recently appeared in an interview with Oprah Winfrey to give a lukewarm apology and reveal some choice details of his doping.

    This week, Armstrong (who lives in Texas) was spotted in Los Angeles. TMZ reported that the athlete was spotted attending a restaurant and posing for pictures.

    Armstrong has been rumored to be in talks with movie studio executives over a possible biopic about Armstrong’s storied life. In fact, TMZ hinted that there could two different movies about Armstrong in some form of pre-production.

    As a side note, let’s indulge in a bit of speculation as to who Hollywood may cast to play Armstrong in a movie. A young Paul Newman would be perfect, but rumors suggest that Bradley Cooper may have been cast as the world’s most infamous cyclist. More great casting suggestions would be welcome in the comments section below.

  • Lance Armstrong Ruling: Stripped of Tour de France Titles

    The International Cycling Union (UCI) today announced that it has completed its review of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) decision regarding Lance Armstrong’s alleged doping. The UCI has decided not to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and will recognize the USADA’s sanctions against Armstrong, which include stripping the athlete of his seven Tour de France titles. The titles, which Armstrong won in seven consecutive Tour de France’s starting in 1999, will be wiped from official record books.

    In reviewing the USADA’s decistion, the UCI had considered the issues of jurisdiction, statutes of limitation, the evidence against Armstrong, and the sanctions imposed on Armstrong. From the UCI’s statement:

    The USADA decision explains how riders on the USPS Team showed no inclination to share the full extent of what they knew until they were subpoenaed or called by federal investigators and that their only reason for telling the truth is because the law required them to do so.

    These riders have confronted their past and told their stories. Their accounts of their past provide a shocking insight into the USPS Team where the expression to ‘win at all costs’ was redefined in terms of deceit, intimidation, coercion and evasion.

    The USADA’s findings showed that the anti-doping tests and policies were inadequate during the time team USPS is accused of systematically doping. The UCI stated that it recognizes the problem of doping in cycling, and has taken “significant” steps to curb it. The organization stressed that today’s cycling culture has already changed and that young riders do not deserve to be tarnished or live under the stigma of what they are calling the “Armstrong Era.”

  • Lance Armstrong’s Former Teammates To Testify Against Him

    The Tour de France has been pretty clean for the last couple of years. Mostly since the whole doping thing got so out of hand that at one point the active yellow jersey holder and his entire team were kicked out of the epic 3 week race. This year, the old trend of breaking doping news happening either in the days leading up to, or the first few days of, the tour continue.

    This time we have a Dutch newspaper called De Telegraaf has printed a story claiming that 4 riders and a team manager (George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vandevelde, David Zabriske, Jonathan Vaughters) are going to testify against 7 time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong in exchange for lenient sentences. The lenient sentences they are hoping to get a 6 month delayed sentence. This means that while on probation for their “crime,” as long as they are clean, they will not be banned from the sport. Team Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters went on Twitter to immediately cast doubt onto this story:

    These supposed delayed sentences are obviously because the United States Anti Doping Agency and the World Anti Doping Agency have had it out for Armstrong for years. He has never failed a drug test, not even been cast in the shadow, and he has been tested more than any athlete in the world the past 15 years. Yet they still assume that he had to be doping because he won that epic race so many times.

    In my opinion, if he was cheating, so what. So was every other rider in those tours that he won. No question. From Bjarne Riis, to Marco Pantani, to Jan Ullrich. Nearly every rider was doping at one point in time. in the late 90’s the doping technology far outweighed the anti-doping technology, so it was easy. If anything you could call it a level playing field. This is the same way a lot of people feel about baseball during the 90’s.

    The fact is that He has passed every single doping test he has ever taken. Every single one, even the B samples. Part of me feels that these doping agencies have it out against him. If you ever wondered why professional sports in America stay away from these agencies, this is why. They have the tendency to not care about the sport as a whole and push forward. I’m sorry, but it is in cycling’s best interest to have Lance Armstrong be on the pedestal he is so that Americans watch their precious tour.

    SInce the start of this whole fiasco with Floyd Landis losing his spot due to failing a drug test, and this whole thing coming out against Armstrong, I have always maintained that as long as big George Hincapie doesn’t say he did it, then he didn’t. Do not ask me why I trust this rider, but I really do. He is routinely considered the most caring and trustworthy man on the tour by his teammates and will ride to hell and back for the leader of his team. When I read that he was part of this deal, my heart sank because maybe Lance actually did do the crimes he is accused of committing.

  • Sagan Wins Tour De France’s Crash Marred 3rd Stage [Video]

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    The Tour De France is considered the race to end all races. It is 3 weeks long and on average travels approximately 2,000 miles over 21 days. Some days are better than others and some days are more dangerous than others. Most of the time the bad ones or dangerous ones come when there are dangerous descents, like the one in 1995 that cost Fabio Casartelli his life. Lance Armstrong was his teammate and tributes a lot of his success to wanting to make his great friend proud.

    Todays stage was one of the dangerous ones. There were 5 major crashes that caused several riders to check out of the race on only the 3rd day. One man came home a winner though, Peter Sagan of Slovakia. He was able to outlast a surging peleton and hold on for his second victory in 3 days after winning the first stage. At 22 he is a rising star and these stage victories make him the youngest winner since Lance Armstrong won a stage at the age of 21 in 1993. He is also very flamboyant doing a “Forrest Gump” type celebration when he won.

    “It’s a thing I’d discussed with my teammates about what kind of gesture I’d do on the line,” Sagan said of his Liquigas-Cannondale squad, “Everybody said, `Do a Forrest Gump’ because when he was told to run, he ran. And when I’m told to win, I win.”

    Even though he won the race Fabian Canellara maintained the overall lead and still wears the yellow jersey.

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    We are in the first part of the tour so there aren’t expected to be any winners or losers made for another couple of days, but there are gaps that can form that have the ability for riders to make mistakes. The 2 category 3, and 2 category 4 climbs can catch people off guard and split the peleton. Look for the real action to start on stage 11 when we have our first HC climb, but that stage will be more about surviving because the finish is at the bottom of the mountain. Stage 12, the next day is grueling and will be where the favorites like the Schlek brothers and Cadel Evans will look to be near the top of the leader board.

    Here is a rundown of the 5 crashes by Paul Sherwin and Phil Ligget of NBC Sports:

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    Videos courtesy of NBC Sports and stage profile courtesy of letour.fr

  • Tour De France 2012: Cavendish Wins Stage Two

    Mark Cavendish won the second leg of the Tour de France, according to AP, which is mostly a flat race across Belgium. The 27 year old received little help from his team. Sky team are concentrating on helping Wiggins become England’s first Tour de France Winner.

    The overall standings didn’t change, and Fabian Cancellera keeps the leader’s yellow jersey going into stage three.

    This is Cavendish’s 21st stage victory in cycling. The 129 mile stage is mostly flat, and the style of cycling required makes Cavendish a favorite for the London games.

    Speaking to the Associated Press, Cavendish says that his main objective is the Tour de France, despite being a heavy favorite to win the road race in the London Olympics. “It (the Tour) is the most beautiful race of the year for me,” he said. “Here, it’s the Tour de France … I can’t say the Olympics are more important.”

    The stage two win follows news Slovak Peter Sagan’s stage one win, yesterday. The 22 year old is the youngest stage winner since Lance Armstrong in 1993.

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    [lead image source: SI – Christophe Ena/AP]

  • Turn Your IPhone 4S into a GPS Bike Computer

    Here is a cool new iPhone gadget for all you bikers out there. The Heart Rate Watch Company has released the iPhone 4S ultimate bike pack, turning your iPhone into a personal GPS bike computer. It gives you speed, distance, heart rate, and maps on a convenient bike mounted display.

    The device works with a blue tooth chest strap to monitor your heart rate at all times. It is rumored they are working on a cadence sensor to monitor your real time pedal pushes, though it is not available now.

    You install the iPhone in a protector case that attaches to a bike mount that includes an extended battery pack. The battery pack lets you use your iPhone 3 times longer, perfect for running the battery draining GPS programs on long trips.

    The mounting hardware that comes with it, lets you attach it to your bike’s stem or handle bars, allowing continuous hands free use while biking.

    “The iPhone 4S ultimate bike pack turns your iPhone 4S into a great bike computer that will rival most any bike computer,” says Rusty Squire, President of the Heart Rate Watch Company. “It offers unrivaled features and protection for your iPhone and if you are bringing it on your rides anyway then you might as well make use of it.”

    I am not an avid biker, but this cool gadget kind of makes me want to take up the hobby. The mounting kit alone makes it a nice tool for listening to tunes while staying in shape. The portable battery pack has obvious uses outside of biking, and the bluetooth heart rate monitor is good for people trying to get in shape, regardless of the exercise. If you are an avid biker and you take your phone everywhere anyway, this thing makes perfect sense.