Posted: Jan 16, 2013 8:18 PM
I find it interesting if you go to Wikipedia today... the UCI officially has no Tour de France winner recognized from 1999-2005 after they stripped Lance's titles. You'd think they just bump up the riders behind to raise their official spots.........but maybe many of those riders might fail scrutinizing their drug use as well..... so no winner is better than Lance?
Sad to see all this, as I was a USCF racer in the 1970's through mid 1980's (cat 3) but now am now just an avid cyclist in my spare time. I've followed the Tour de France for over 40 years and for this to happen is totally insane. Drug use has been going on in cycling for over half a century. Five time winner Jacques Anquetil was famous for using drugs during his tours and even bragged about it off the bike! He's been quoted as saying ""Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope". Of course this was before the modern era of wide spread steroid use and mandatory drug testing in many sports.
Stripping Lance of his titles sends a message to the competitors involved in the sport but unless the organizers are willing to scrutinize EVERY cyclist in the same manner since drug testing was first invoked, it means nothing more than being a witch hunt to crucify one man. This won't stop the on going issues of drugs in sports as participants are always trying to get that extra edge against their competition.
What a waste of money, energy and time for everyone involved. No, I'm not a Lance fan and I always thought the hype around him was overrated. He is no doubt a great athlete but to me Merckx has and always will be the greatest cyclist of our era. He was the most accomplished cyclist ever. I've met Merckx, LeMond and Lance in person several times over the past 30 years. Merckx always seemed the most humble of his accomplishments in his life of the three and I have deep respect for him. He has admitted to using drugs in his career like most other cyclist's since his retirement.
At one point in his career Merckx won almost every other race he rode. Merckx won the equivalent of a race a week for six years. He won 525 races in his career!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Merck ... _victories
I don't see them stripping Merckx of his victories anytime soon...... admitted drug use or not.
WH
Sad to see all this, as I was a USCF racer in the 1970's through mid 1980's (cat 3) but now am now just an avid cyclist in my spare time. I've followed the Tour de France for over 40 years and for this to happen is totally insane. Drug use has been going on in cycling for over half a century. Five time winner Jacques Anquetil was famous for using drugs during his tours and even bragged about it off the bike! He's been quoted as saying ""Leave me in peace; everybody takes dope". Of course this was before the modern era of wide spread steroid use and mandatory drug testing in many sports.
Stripping Lance of his titles sends a message to the competitors involved in the sport but unless the organizers are willing to scrutinize EVERY cyclist in the same manner since drug testing was first invoked, it means nothing more than being a witch hunt to crucify one man. This won't stop the on going issues of drugs in sports as participants are always trying to get that extra edge against their competition.
What a waste of money, energy and time for everyone involved. No, I'm not a Lance fan and I always thought the hype around him was overrated. He is no doubt a great athlete but to me Merckx has and always will be the greatest cyclist of our era. He was the most accomplished cyclist ever. I've met Merckx, LeMond and Lance in person several times over the past 30 years. Merckx always seemed the most humble of his accomplishments in his life of the three and I have deep respect for him. He has admitted to using drugs in his career like most other cyclist's since his retirement.
At one point in his career Merckx won almost every other race he rode. Merckx won the equivalent of a race a week for six years. He won 525 races in his career!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Merck ... _victories
I don't see them stripping Merckx of his victories anytime soon...... admitted drug use or not.
WH
Was it really necessary to dredge this old horse from the depths to beat it some more?
