A former assistant of Lance's makes accusations of drug use in court papers.
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I am shocked. Lance trying to boost his testosterone. The personal assistant claims he doesn't know what he was looking at exactly. Yet the article states it was a steroid. Whack journalism. Yeah Lance is guilty until proven innocent. Cuz drug use in the pro-peloton is a given.

I dunno, I just assume all those guys are using drugs.

A lot of Armstrong's European competitors have been trying for years to peg a steroids tag on Armstrong. They can't believe he could be that good.

The accusation comes from a former assistant who's in a dispute with Armstrong... and even if true it only indicates possession (or it could have been planted on him by rivals) and is no proof that Lance actually used drugs.

Still... you never know...

Lance Armstrong is suing his former assistant for "character assasination."

Hasn't Lance passed numerous drug tests? I suppose they have access to all these so-called masking agents so I guess it is possible. But I know during my battles with cancer that I was prescribed testosterone as well as Serostim.

I thought most of the drug allegations in cycling were about stuff like EPO rather than steroids. You can get cleared to use banned substances for medical use--I remember Gail Devers was taking something for a thyroid problem. There's no way he would have been given a prescription for androstenine (androstenodione?) though. On the other hand, if he was going to cheat, you think he'd use something with more proven effectiveness than a steroid precursor.

Yes, they all cheat. Yes, they are all pampered athletes. Sorry to ruin the magic for anyone wanting to chant "USA" and buy a made in China Trek bicycle. Giant does a nice job of making almost all Trek bicycles.

I do not think megadoses of supplements and hooking up IV's between stages is natural at all. It is easier to tell you who doesn't cheat in pro-cycling.

I know when I am out riding there is a support vehicle to keep my bike working and me hydrated

I should add that testosterone is a hormone and not steroid. What the accuser was claiming in the article sounded like a testosterone precursor. However, as was stated in the article, such manipulation is frowned upon in the UCI regulations.

From my knowledge of available steroids, they would be counter productive and have a serious health risk. However, they could be cycled on and off of to avoid testing positive. You could maintain the gains with a super strict diet and abusing a certain asthma medication.

I just love it when someone who refuses to cheat hammers the competition. Like Stamsted in the Iditarod races. It is humorous when professionals sandbagging local cycling competitions get dropped or cannot handle the trail

That guy who rides with one lung, one arm or one leg has my respect.

It’s no longer possible for fans to know which riders are clean and which are using performance enhancers. The bad guys can beat the tests, and the good guys can be falsely accused.

David Millar didn’t test positive when he won the time trial at the World’s competition two years ago. But months later, when EPO was discovered in his hotel room, Millar admitted he had used it when he won at World’s.

In the case of Cedric Vasseur, French authorities produced two confessions with Vasseur’s signature, and a hair sample that tested positive. Turns out the signatures were forged by the authorities, and DNA testing proved the hair sample was not Vasseur’s.

Cycling has a long history of doping that continues to this day. But I think it’s an exaggeration to say that all or most riders are doping. The hell of it is that fans really can’t be sure who’s clean and who’s cheating on that tough climb up Alpe d’Heuz or Mont Vonteux.

Yes it is an exaggeration to say all riders are "doping". Why only "dope" when there are so many other ways to cheat eek! Cheating with performance enhancing drugs is expensive. So you are only going to see it on the elite levels where a "team doctor" is on staff. In the states the pay off isn't there to cover the expense.

I know some people who raced "over there". Once Americans got with the program, their race results got much better.

EPO creates a plethora which can back-fire on the athlete. We are not talking about Evening Primrose Oil either.

Check out the old Tour De France rules. All these modern guys would be disqualified even if they were all clean.

Lance Armstrong is holding a press conference today to make an "important announcement". It will be carried live on ESPN News at, I believe, 3pm.

Speculation ranges from announcing the upcoming Tour de France will be his last to a recurrence of cancer to steroid issues. His contract commits him to ride this year's Tour but mayve he has some personal issue that will force him out? Wait and see I guess!

Maybe he's going to come out of the closet. wink

Wasn't there talk awhile back (a couple of weeks or more) that he was going to announce around this time that this would be his last Tour? That's what I'm assuming.

Turns out it was to announce he is indeed retiring after this year's Tour de France.

Yawn.

Yawn, cuz Allen is way hotter on a bike eek!

I hear Lance's posionality is a little toxic. But then I have never been interested enough to meet him or ask my friends about him. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Ask far as the drug thing goes, there is little doubt that he is doing something. Whether it is legal or not it is definitely unnatural. You have to supplement heavily at a minimum at that level of cycling. There is an outside chance that he could be going all natural and guru. However, since he relied on pharmaceuticals for treatment and got cancer to begin with, I doubt it. At best, that level of sport is going to burn you out. Even if you are a freak. frown

Most people who follow pro-cycling, including me, use the term "doping" to indicate use of any illegal performance enhancer. The cycling websites and magazines do the same. Even the group that tests for all kinds of drug use is simply called the World Anti-Doping Agency.

EPO is one of those other well-known ways to cheat. I assume by "a plethora" you mean "a plethora of damaging side-effects." That's clearly true: EPO thickens the blood and was implicated in the deaths of several young pro-riders last year.

I don't know about the old Tour rules being tougher; perhaps you can cite a specific example. I do know that Bjarne Ries was infamous for having a 60% hematocrit when he beat Indurain to win the Tour. That's some 10% higher than the rules allow today.

Anyway, returning to the topic of the thread....

Last year at this time, David Walsh and Pierre Ballester issued "L.A. Confidential: the Secrets of Lance Armstrong." They reported unproven allegations that Armstrong used illegal substances to achieve his Tour victories. Nothing seems to have come of the book except legal manuevering about its publication.

Now here we are, a month before this year's Tour de France, and disgraced rider Philippe Gaumont is stirring up the "Belge Pot" with his new book, "Prisonnier du Dopage." I suppose we should thank him and Jesus Manzano for describing in detail how their teams leaned on them to cheat. Still, I can't help thinking that these riders made a choice. "I devoured everything that he [a doctor] gave me without asking questions," Gaumont wrote. "I swallowed anything that might make me go faster."

Now Gaumont wants to make some bucks hawking his book. Are professional athletes and the people who make a living off them really just a bunch of venal guys with no conscience?

Dasher, a plethora is an overabundance of red blood corpuscles when used as a medical term. I know lot's of pro's that "dope" on rides. The test are not for metabolites of cannabis sativa, however. It is not considered a performance enhancing drug. Which it can be actually.

Check out the old Tour De France rules, really. It should be a real eye opener for you. We are talking 1940's. Not trying to be obscure or be over anyone's head. As for my head? This Saturday night ride (4 hours) was lit on Bacardi 151, The recovery drink also included Bacardi 151 in the mix. Yeah some were "doping" on the ride wink

Note: the use of booze, reefer, or both on night rides is not intended for the novice bicycle rider. Meth? See official winter biking thread. Nutmeg experimentation is at your own risk. I am in no way responsible for your loss of vision the next day.

I felt I had to speak up after reading Jim's article on Lance Armstrong being cleared of doping allegations.

*Note: This is in NO WAY a dig at you Jim...I thought you were fair in your article! But this is directed at those who still believe he was on drugs*

Why is it so hard to believe that Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France a record seven times? I know that winning the event once is incredibly difficult, let alone seven times. But you look at everything he did to achieve it.

While other riders spent the off season resting, he was out climbing mountains on his bike for hours at a time. If it rained, he still managed to go out and train. He focused his entire life around the Tour and it paid off.

Of course, he couldn't have done it without his team and teammates. He surrounded himself with the best possible people. He found other riders who each brought something unique to the table and filed certain positions nicely. He had a well rounded team that simply overpowered anyone and everyone that was a threat. His team provided him with some of the best technology in the world. Teaching him at what degree he should bend his body to get the maximum amount of speed, how fast he should pedal, and by modifying his bike to make it as fast as possible.

He worked damn hard to win the Tour de France and instead of thinking that he's a cheater, we should applaud him for everything he's accomplished.

He went through hell and back with his bouts with Cancer and the fact he's not only alive but managed to accomplish so much is just phenominal.

Maybe I'm the stupid one for thinking he's clean. After all, I consider Lance Armstrong to be one of my heroes and it was honour to hear him speak just a few short months ago. But deep down in my heart, I just know that there's no way he would have cheated...not after going through so much.

I don't know if he used drugs or not. It could always be many people are after him. But in a sport in which drug use was not uncommon, he dominated the Tour de France for many years.

After LA Confidentiel, the same authors launch LA Officiel. Here we go again.

New book

"In the new book the testimony of Australian doctor Michael Ashenden, a former Australian Institute of Sport scientist who is credited with creating a blood test to uncover blood boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin), suggests otherwise.

Some doctors had previously stated that the American's recovery from cancer, his change of morphology and his extraordinary lung and heart capacities were the key to Armstrong's almost superhuman endeavours.

However Ashenden says in the book that Armstrong's lung and heart capacities are not "exceptionally high", and added: "There's no doubt: he (Armstrong) used doping products."

The book also uses the testimony of Frankie Andreu, a former teammate of Armstrong's who recently claimed he used EPO in 1999 when riding with Motorola.

Andreu's wife Betsy also appears. She was also a key witness in SCA's dispute with Armstrong, whom she claimed to have heard admitting that he had used banned doping products prior to contracting cancer, in 1996."