Lance Armstrong documentary

[Dodger]

Anyone watch this? It was on Ch4 last night.

Unbelievable stuff and shoes you how corrupt that sport is.

Personally I think that there are many many sports people of the drugs and at least he finally came out.

Who's next?

Tiger?

Do you all believe these lay offs are injury rehabs or are they really bans that have been swept under the carpet in an attempt to keep the games image clean?

 

[SaintHacker]

Unbelievable stuff and shoes you how corrupt that sport is.

Was. Cycling is now one of the cleanest sports there is, due to the sheer amount of testing that goes on, both in and out of competition. If football was suddenly subject to the same amount the sport would collapse overnight...

 

[Dodger]

Was. Cycling is now one of the cleanest sports there is, due to the sheer amount of testing that goes on, both in and out of competition. If football was suddenly subject to the same amount the sport would collapse overnight...

I am not a follower of the sport but do you believe that is truly the case? If so then that is great and the way all sports should be.

 

[patricks148]

I am not a follower of the sport but do you believe that is truly the case? If so then that is great and the way all sports should be.

back in the 90's cycling was way ahead in sports science than any other sport, this also meant that the that medical gains made in cycle sport were not detectable, such as EPO and HGH etc. money has been spent on detection and thats stopped it. its not that long ago that if a rider had to many red blood cells they had to just "rest" as nothing could be done to prove EPO had been taken.

I imagine most were on it from the late 80' though to just a few years ago.

 

[SaintHacker]

Absolutely I believe it. Over the last few years it has become the most tested sport in the world. Riders have a 'biological passport' so any abnormalities can be shown up immediatley. They are tested outside competition all the time, to the point they have to tell the authorities if they are away from home for more than 48 hours. Missing a test is seen as a fail and a ban will be applied. Compare that to Rio Ferdinands 'forgotten' test that was just brushed under the carpet a few years ago.
There will always be the odd fool who tries to get away with it but they get caught now, and are out of a job pretty quickly. Take Sky for example, you don't even need a positive test to get sacked from there, they remove anyone with even a hint of prior doping involvement.

 

[Jack_bfc]

Absolutely I believe it. Over the last few years it has become the most tested sport in the world. Riders have a 'biological passport' so any abnormalities can be shown up immediatley. They are tested outside competition all the time, to the point they have to tell the authorities if they are away from home for more than 48 hours. Missing a test is seen as a fail and a ban will be applied. Compare that to Rio Ferdinands 'forgotten' test that was just brushed under the carpet a few years ago.
There will always be the odd fool who tries to get away with it but they get caught now, and are out of a job pretty quickly. Take Sky for example, you don't even need a positive test to get sacked from there, they remove anyone with even a hint of prior doping involvement.

Rio's non test was brushed under the carpet. Really...

I recall a lengthy ban... And the rumor mill suggested a couple of lines of recreational drug (which is stupid beyond belief) but is a bit different than getting full blood transfusions to improve performance......

 

[SaintHacker]

Rio's non test was brushed under the carpet. Really...

I recall a lengthy ban... And the rumor mill suggested a couple of lines of recreational drug (which is stupid beyond belief) but is a bit different than getting full blood transfusions to improve performance......

Ban or not, the point being that if a cyclist did that he would now be out of a job, on the spot.
Recreational drug or not, any kind of stimulant is still performance enhancing. He got away with it, big time.

 

[londonlewis]

I have seen The Armstrong Lie a couple of times now as I bought it on iTunes about a month ago.
I was never a fan of the Tour de France but I thought this documentary was fascinating.
Really well put together, compelling viewing and I would definitely recommend it to cycling fans and non-fans alike.

I'm confident that drugs will almost always exist in sports as there is too much money involved and athlete's bodies are being asked to put up with so much strain. The documentary also touched on how the governing bodies are corrupt as they are able to warn athletes about things that show up on drugs tests etc...

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Believe cycling is now the sport were the competitors are tested a great deal more than any other sport.

 

[Dodger]

I have seen The Armstrong Lie a couple of times now as I bought it on iTunes about a month ago.
I was never a fan of the Tour de France but I thought this documentary was fascinating.
Really well put together, compelling viewing and I would definitely recommend it to cycling fans and non-fans alike.

I'm confident that drugs will almost always exist in sports as there is too much money involved and athlete's bodies are being asked to put up with so much strain. The documentary also touched on how the governing bodies are corrupt as they are able to warn athletes about things that show up on drugs tests etc...

Do you think that applies to Golf?

I wonder re Woods I really do. Imagine if he has been caught it would blow the golf world apart reputation wise and financially.

 

[londonlewis]

Do you think that applies to Golf?

I wonder re Woods I really do. Imagine if he has been caught it would blow the golf world apart reputation wise and financially.

I'm not sure.
I have seen a documentary on Tiger as well, I believe it was a dispatches documentary. They claim that the National Enquirer knew of his extra-marital activities long before they released the story. The documentary says that the enquirer agreed to cover it up if Tiger appeared on the cover of a sister magazine of theirs (some fitness magazine).
I'm sure there were a number of comments about how big tiger had managed to get and how quickly he managed to do it, with questions around whether there were certain substances involved.

But there would be an argument that this wouldn't necessarily give a golfer an advantage, especially when you look at the physiques of some golfers that do win on tour e.g. Jimenez, Stadler (almost win on tour), Carl Petterson, Dufner etc... They aren't exactly gym rats.

 

[Dodger]

I'm not sure.
I have seen a documentary on Tiger as well, I believe it was a dispatches documentary. They claim that the National Enquirer knew of his extra-marital activities long before they released the story. The documentary says that the enquirer agreed to cover it up if Tiger appeared on the cover of a sister magazine of theirs (some fitness magazine).
I'm sure there were a number of comments about how big tiger had managed to get and how quickly he managed to do it, with questions around whether there were certain substances involved.

But there would be an argument that this wouldn't necessarily give a golfer an advantage, especially when you look at the physiques of some golfers that do win on tour e.g. Jimenez, Stadler (almost win on tour), Carl Petterson, Dufner etc... They aren't exactly gym rats.

As opposed to Tiger who is a proven Fanny rat.

 

[londonlewis]

As opposed to Tiger who is a proven Fanny rat.

Keep on point Dodger!!!

 

[BoadieBroadus]

i'm not a fan of his, but i don't think that the speed of tiger's muscular development was anything particularly exceptional so i doubt that he has indulged in anything PED wise.

you want to see physical development that is highly questionable - look at an old photo of Linford Christie from the days when he was mince.

i'm halfway through the Armstrong documentary and find it a very well put together film with a variety of points of view put forward. looking forward to finishing it tonight provided no extra time in the footie.

 

[Stuey01]

If you enjoyed the documentary I highly recommend reading The Secret Race, it is by Tyler Hamilton (ex teammate of Lance) and a journo who he worked with and who featured in that doco as a talking head.
It really gives a good insight into what Lance was up to.

I believe cycling is relatively clean now, they still have the occasional cheat but they are regularly caught and banned.

When Cadel Evans and then Wiggins won the tour, that was a watershed in terms of clean riders being able to compete (in my opinion)

 

[MegaSteve]

Don't believe the real truth of it all will ever be known...

Still a bit uncomfortable by the fact that some of the proven 'cheats' returned to the sport after serving a relatively short ban...

 

[lex!]

I found it very interesting to watch. I liked the bit about Landis, and about when he asked for a job on back the team and they told him to go away because he was tainted by the doping scandal. He was not a happy chappie, as he knew all that all the rest of them were up to it so he then decided to blow the whistle.

 

[USER1999]

Most men get to a certain size, and then it's hard work to get any bigger, without using something a tad unusual.

Operation Puerto exposed a number of cyclists, Jan Ulrich being one, and then went very quiet, and the Spanish authorities buried it, and ordered it to be shredded. There were circa 150 people on the books, of whom only the 35 or so cyclists got pinged. There were rumours of involvement from the top teams in LaLiga, among others.

A certain Spanish tennis player seems to be getting smaller every year also, since this was wrapped up. Not many sportsmen get smaller as they head towards 30. Except one.

 

[Alex1975]

Most men get to a certain size, and then it's hard work to get any bigger, without using something a tad unusual.

Operation Puerto exposed a number of cyclists, Jan Ulrich being one, and then went very quiet, and the Spanish authorities buried it, and ordered it to be shredded. There were circa 150 people on the books, of whom only the 35 or so cyclists got pinged. There were rumours of involvement from the top teams in LaLiga, among others.

A certain Spanish tennis player seems to be getting smaller every year also, since this was wrapped up. Not many sportsmen get smaller as they head towards 30. Except one.

Very interesting, just been reading all about it.

 

[c1973]

Most men get to a certain size, and then it's hard work to get any bigger, without using something a tad unusual.

Operation Puerto exposed a number of cyclists, Jan Ulrich being one, and then went very quiet, and the Spanish authorities buried it, and ordered it to be shredded. There were circa 150 people on the books, of whom only the 35 or so cyclists got pinged. There were rumours of involvement from the top teams in LaLiga, among others.

A certain Spanish tennis player seems to be getting smaller every year also, since this was wrapped up. Not many sportsmen get smaller as they head towards 30. Except one.

Rumour was that a certain pint sized world class player was given growth hormones with the clubs knowledge when he was a kid as there were concerns if he would be big enough. True or cobblers? Who knows, without evidence it's just gossip.

With the correct diet and workout and having a nutritionist, dietician and personal fitness instructor on hand I'd imagine lots of people could get buff pretty quickly (decent genetics would help too).

I think performance enhancers are here to stay and I'm pretty sure someone will be working on a way round the testing no matter how stringent it is. Pity, as it's outright cheating when all's said and done. Mind you, who wouldn't want to see the 100M sprint won with a sub 3 second time.

Regards operation Peurto, I've always been intrigued that Spain had so much talent coming through in numerous sports.......a bit like the Chinese perhaps?