Friday, January 18, 2013

So What Did Y'all Think?

Last night was the big moment ...

The interview we had all been waiting for ...

Lance vs Oprah ...


I watched it, thankfully on DVR so I could FF past all the damn commercials, and my take?

Ninety minutes of my life I will never get back. It was boring, contrived, contrite and I walked away feeling nothing at all. It was sort of like the series finally of Seinfeld - unfulfilling.

IMO, it was so uninteresting that I canceled Part II on the DVR for tonight. Just not worth my time.

Ten minutes into the program last night I realized what I really wanted to see:

Lance to just go away for quite some time. Just get out of the public spotlight and leave us all alone. We deserve that - bye, bye cheater.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff


17 comments:

  1. Hey, he was clean at FL 70.3 and kicked my butt averaging 50% faster on the bike. Before you discard him, you need to consider that.... (and I confess I was Reese cup loading the hours before the race but I still passed the testing). It didn't make a difference

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    1. I am no PED expert but decades of training while using these drugs would clear make him faster and stronger now. Just the extra amount of time training due to faster recovery alone would give him these gains.

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    2. The way I understand conditioning, that is true. It's very true in horses (my field) and when I read training/conditioning philosophies they seem to agree. The body remembers and while you cannot hit those peaks without help, the tremendous base he has is an extremely unfair advantage. It is ALSO true that he was an exceptional talent before the PEDs, but the chances of someone picking up tri training after so long and becoming a world beater right away... against so many outstanding talents that have been at it all along...are probably slim enough to support your theory, Jeff. I really wanted to believe that he was a Secretariat, a freak, and maybe he is, but we will never know.

      Honestly, if I walk a mile in his shoes, I can understand (not condone) the choice to dope given the climate of the sport at the time. For me, the atrocities started where the doping ended... in his behavior towards others. I think there are a lot of worthy articles around right now, including Tyler Hamilton, but I have to agree: Go away. Let life go on.

      Good post. Good comments following.

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  2. so far i watched the first 30 min from the DVR this morning. my real question was 'how'? How did he get away with it for so long? I understand the 'why' part. IMO it's not that much of a shocker because as he said 'everyone was doing it'.

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    1. Agree, after reading Tyler Hamilton's book nothing said last night shocked me at all.

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  3. You already read my response, I was one of the few remaining supporters left till last night. It ended last night for me officially.

    And I agree, he needs to stepp out of the spot light, but he wont. When I heard of this interview, I knew that it wasnt for clearing his conscience, there is some driving factor that will benefit him largely that we dont know about, like he cut a deal somewhere with someone that we will find out about later. Which evens adds more insult to injury.

    Cycling is forver tarnished, I know it already was, this was the final nail in that coffin. I will still watch it, still enjoy it, but everything I see will cast a doubt. The stars now all rode with Lance at one point, I can no longer assume they are clean, they are all guilty now

    One of the biggest losers of this all is the Livestrong Foundation. They need to revamp and reimage there whole company, they need to change the name right away, get rid of all the yellow, take his image off everything. I feel for all their employees and all the benefit from their cause.

    Sadly, we will be hearing about him weekly for years to come. Sighhhh.....

    Makes me want to just become a runner (did I really just say that?)

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    1. ha! unleash the runner dude!

      As you know, I've despised the guy for years because of the doping and the way he treated people. You'd think it would make me feel good that I was "right" about him but that is not the case at all. In fact, the exact opposite.

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  4. I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't think it was so horrible. I felt like he was pretty forthcoming from a Lance standpoint. And really, can we expect a complete 360 on his personality? I don't think so--he is who he is. And with the exception of the bullying and badmouthing of others in the field, I don't think he's so much lower down than any of the rest of them from that era. Why are we giving everyone else a pass but holding an egomaniac to higher standards?

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    1. " with the exception of the bullying and badmouthing of others in the field"

      This is where I cannot give an exception. I can justify (in my mind) the doping. It is the amount of lives he has ruined through intimidation, bullying, and lawyering up that is unforgivable. He has left a path of destruction and crushed lives and dreams of pretty much anyone who was unlucky enough to know him. All to uphold his wrongfully created "Hero" image. And this path of destruction also made him over $100m along the way, which he used to crush anyone who defied him. It is beyond ego-maniacal behavior.

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    2. B-Fricking-INGO!

      Have you read Rodney's post yet? I think the 3 of us are on the same page.

      Doping? Yeah, we all knew that already. Everyone was doing it. Does that make it right? No. I think it is wrong and want it to go away, but I can't be any harder on him for doping than I am on anyone else. Especially with the standards all over the board for violators (10 game suspension in baseball, lifetime ban for Lance... not really equal). HOWEVER, the way in which he destroyed the lives of those that spoke out against him/doping and tried to reveal what was really happening is where it is unforgivable. I was actually a bit surprised how much he admitted on this front last night (Emma O’Reilly, Betsy Andreu, etc.). While he admitted it, essentially removing any doubt that they were lying, he didn't seem sorry at all for basically ruining their lives. I heard a bit of an interview with Betsy on ESPN Radio (Cowherd's show) and it doesn't sound like she will ever forgive him (and I really don't blame her).

      Don't waste your time with part 2 tonight and watch the SouthPark episode instead. :)

      PS: Are you friends with John Proc? His commentary on FB last night was pretty good. Things like "Give this guy an onion or something. At least fake some tears." haha

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  5. Everyone needs to Google "Lewis Black Lance Armstrong" . He did a great 6 minute bit on the Jon Dailey show on Lance that made me laughing in the midst of a very sad situation..

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  6. Lance Who? I've already forgotten who he is. That is what he is most afraid of...being forgotten.

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  7. Oprah should disappear too. I thought she did. I was wrong.



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  8. Luckily the whole Manti Te'o thing broke pretty much at the same time. Lance wasn't the lead story on Friday on a bunch of sports news sites, including BBC Sport, which I thought was weird.

    I don't care so much the doping, the peleton was a loaded deck through the nineties and as far as I'm concerned he still won those races. I just think he's a dick. And up until recently he was an intimidating dick with power. He did so many people so much wrong, and for that I'll never forgive him.

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  9. I didn't watch it because it was so obvious he was lying the whole time. So I didn't think it was going to be anything we groundbreaking. Besides, I don't feel he deserves any of my time.

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  10. IMO, he's the king of douche bags and it's not because he doped. Fine, he cheated. He and a lot of other cyclists. It's a dirty sport. (I'm not condoning it, but I'm not shocked that he did it) To me though, with Lance it was about the lying and deceit. If he had come forward back in 2003/4/5 and said "yep, I doped like so many of the others" I think people would have accepted it more and moved on. But he was living this life of lies, adamantly denying it and throwing whoever he could under the bus along the way. I truly think he said his lies enough that he started to believe himself. And he doesn't seem like he has any remorse, except for getting caught. I hope that all the people he sued, sued his ass so fast.

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  11. Even though he was a cheater, he still needed to put in a lot of hard work and dedication. But that's besides the point, a cheater is a cheater and he has to pay the price for it now!

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