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Lance Armstrong


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What does humanity gain by being the fastest, fattest, leanest, tallest, etc., and why would anyone cheat to gain an advantage? Seems just to be ego. Worldwide more folks know of Lance than Jonas Salk or a thousand others.

The answer to "why cheat" in cycling is largely that it's the second-largest spectator sport in the world. (Or at least it was.) If one seeks money or fame, winning is the ticket. But that's not the answer to the "humanity's gain" part. That I don't know.

Edited by BeBop
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. (I've never appreciated the spectator angle on any sport, but that's just me.)

Glad you said that. Sport is great - I do as much as I can - but spectating?

Yeah, being a musician is great - I do as much as I can - but just being a listener/spectator?

Whisper it quietly...

A 'listener' or, as Anthony Braxton now puts it, a 'friendly experiencer'.

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Maudlin but interesting article from VeloNews

...We wanted to believe in unconscionable achievement, and the story was overwhelming. When it comes to heroes, human beings are inherently fallible, often as flawed as those held up to the sky and called great. Armstrong turned out to be a hologram hero, as most of them are. We don’t know the names of the real greats from those years, who felt the screws of human pain and un-medicated ability. We didn’t care about them, because they finished 65th or somewhere else in the basement...

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Sheesh, who the hell still cares anyway?

If it wasn't for this board, I would assume no one did. I've never met anyone who had any interest in professional cycling, except here.

True dat! :lol:

Because you're both Americans. No slight intended, but bicycle racing was the second biggest spectator sport in the world (after football/soccer) when I was racing. It's undoubtedly taken a big "hit" since. Europeans, sure. But I had fierce competitors from Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, CIS...

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Cheap shot.

I though SI was above that sort of thing.

SI didn't write that.

It's a Tweet that somebody posted, and SI put it in their magazine as their Tweet of the Week.

They still published it.

Not a whole lot of difference, IMHO.

Sheesh, who the hell still cares anyway?

If it wasn't for this board, I would assume no one did. I've never met anyone who had any interest in professional cycling, except here.

Well, this whole thing has certainly sucked out any interest I once had for the sport.

Not really sure what has been accomplished here beyond settling old scores.

Edited by GoodSpeak
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Because you're both Americans. No slight intended...

None taken; I knew that was the reason. We prefer our sports odd and complicated. Now that cricket thing has some possibilities; I can't figure it out for shit.

I'm with you on cricket. Popular sport. Followed enthusiastically by one of my friends (incidentally met through the Blue Note bulletin board, I think it was). And I don't get it. I don't know a damn thing about baseball, but I'm thinking - in any context - you got a bat and a ball, so you ought to be trying to hit it was hard and far as you can. If God didn't want us to do that, why'd "

He" give us steroids?

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Because you're both Americans. No slight intended...

None taken; I knew that was the reason. We prefer our sports odd and complicated. Now that cricket thing has some possibilities; I can't figure it out for shit.

I don't really get the scoring, but a sport where a guy can score 100 runs in one at-bat is intriguing. The ball they use is hollow, which I found out by chance while walking by a cricket game and picking up an errant ball to toss back to the players. Cricket is pretty big in Brooklyn because we have a large number of folks from the Caribbean who all played it in their home countries.

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Lance's reputation has been shot down..; now he is just trying to save his money!

A good assessment of his predicament:

http://aol.sportingn...ves-no-sympathy

Right on the money, Brownie. The only people I really feel for in all this are the cyclists--and there were some--who raced honestly and didn't get the glory that should have been theirs.

gregmo

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