Armstrong to be Stripped of all 7 Titles

Australian AND a Librarian. Potent mix.

looks like one librarian is a bit over full of himself, and the capital L is not the only indicator.

I dont like it when American pharmacists refuse to dispense drugs that they dont agree with either.

Well I bow to your analysis, I certainly consider you to be expert on self-fascination.

While I'm being full of myself at Armstrong's expense - a plug for my former employer and the scarily smart Chris Gore.

AIS professor triggered red alert on Armstrong blood cells
Source
Date October 12, 2012
Michael Cowley
IT WAS the work of Australian Institute of Sport head of physiology Professor Christopher Gore that determined the chances of Lance Armstrong being clean in the 2009 and 2010 Tour de France races.

Professor Gore examined blood samples taken from Armstrong between October 2008 and April this year for the US Anti-Doping Agency - 29 samples taken by the World Anti-Doping Agency and a further nine taken by USADA.

According to the USADA report on Armstrong, a cluster of five Armstrong samples taken during the 2009 Tour and his two samples during the 2010 event contained an unusually low percentage of reticulocytes, or immature red blood cells that are created naturally by the body. When an athlete adds additional red blood cells to his circulation by transfusing his own stored blood, the body's production of reticulocytes is suppressed.

''When Prof Gore compared the suppressed reticulocyte percentage in Armstrong's 2009 and 2010 Tour de France samples to the reticulocyte percentage in his other samples, Prof Gore concluded that the approximate likelihood of Armstrong's seven suppressed reticulocyte values during the 2009 and 2010 Tours de France occurring naturally was less than one in a million," the report said.
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Professor Gore was unavailable for comment yesterday, but AIS director Matt Favier had nothing but praise for his work.

"Professor Gore has worked at the Australian Institute of Sport for more than 20 years and is the head of the department of physiology. Professor Gore earned his PhD in 1989 and has published over 130 papers,'' Favier said. ''He has two professorships and is well positioned as an internationally recognised expert.

"Given his expertise and impeccable credentials, Professor Gore has provided an evidence-based opinion on perturbation in various factors found in the blood of athletes in several anti-doping cases.

"Professor Gore was also a key researcher in work prior to the Sydney Olympic Games that provided the basis for the current process that identifies abnormal levels of markers in an athlete's bloodstream. Moreover, the basic model of the so called 'athlete blood passport' now used by WADA and USADA is built on the foundation of that 1999-2000 research project, which was funded by the IOC.''

Australia has several links to Armstrong. He made his racing comeback in January 2009 at the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, and then last year, he raced professionally for the final time in the same event.

Tour Down Under race director Michael Turtur was unable to comment on the USADA findings yesterday as, in his role as vice-president with the International Cycling Union, he cannot comment until the union has officially released its statement on the matter.

Nod.

Excuse me sir, do you have any idea how fast you were scrolling?

I quite like this piece in the Guardian I thought the anecdote at the end re: Armstrong's mother and Greg LeMond was, um, noteworthy.

A convincing 39 seconds, then back to the old Lance Armstrong
Source
The writer who memorably confronted Armstrong about doping in 2009, says watching the Oprah interviews left him laughing
Paul Kimmage
The Observer, Saturday 19 January 2013 21.59 GMT

The saddest story I've ever heard about sport was told to me in November 2010 by a man who cheated to win the Tour de France. We were sitting not in the plush surrounds of a five-star hotel in Texas, but in a sparsely furnished cabin in the San Jacinto mountains. Floyd Landis's old racing bike was standing just inside the doorway; his underwear was drying on a clotheshorse; the cupboards were bare, the carpet was worn; it had been a while since President Bush had called.

Darkness was falling on the mountain. Five hours had passed since he had begun telling his story and had covered most of the bases: his boyhood as a Mennonite, his doping apprenticeship with Lance Armstrong, his Tour de France win in July 2006 and the 12 months he spent lying after he tested positive. We have now reached the moment he knew the lying would have to stop.

It's 20 September 2007. He has just set off on a training ride from his home in San Diego when he receives a call from his lawyer, Maurice Suh. After a costly and protracted legal battle with the United States Anti-Doping Agency, the ruling on his positive test is about to be announced. "We should know in the next hour," the lawyer says.

Landis returns home immediately and waits in the garage. His wife, Amber, is sitting inside but he needs to be alone. The case has placed a desperate strain on their marriage. Every penny of their savings is riding on this call. Win, and the good times roll again. Lose, and they face ruin. Twenty minutes pass before the lawyer delivers the verdict. "We lost," he says.

Amber cries when she hears the news but Floyd burns with anger. He races upstairs to the living room and takes the most coveted prize in cycling – a beautiful porcelain bowl presented to the winner of Tour de France – from a cabinet. Amber knows what he's thinking and follows him up the stairs but he has already raised it over his head when she comes through the door.

"No Floyd!" she pleads. "It's all we have."

He smashes it to the floor.

"I had walked by that thing a hundred times [that year], and every single time I wanted to smash it," Landis explained. "It had made me into something that I wasn't. It represented a turning point in my life where I had to lie."

Lance Armstrong reached that turning point in 1999 but he's not living in a shed in the San Jacinto mountains, and he hasn't broken any porcelain yet. For the first 39 seconds of his interview with Oprah Winfrey, he was utterly convincing …

Winfrey: "Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance?"

Armstrong: "Yes"

Winfrey: "Was one of those banned substances EPO?"

Armstrong: "Yes"

Winfrey: "Did you ever blood-dope or use blood transfusions to enhance your cycling performance?"

Armstrong: "Yes."

Winfrey: "Did you ever use other banned substances, such as testosterone, cortisone or human growth hormone?"

Armstrong: "Yes."

Winfrey: "In all seven of your Tour de France victories, did you ever take banned blood substances or blood dope?"

Armstrong: "Yes."

And then it was back to telling jokes.

"I looked up the definition of cheat and the definition of cheat is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe that they don't have. I didn't view it that way. I viewed it as a level playing field."

"I never tested positive."

"Michele Ferrari is a good man."

"I don't like the UCI."

"I care a lot about Christian [Vande Velde]."

"I'm not going to lie to you or the public."

"I think I deserve it [to compete again]."

"When I was diagnosed [with cancer in 1996] I was a better human being after that."

Or my favourite, hilarious: "The last time I crossed that line [doping] was 2005."

Armstrong has always shown a talent for pulling rabbits out of hats, but this was magic. He did not dope during his comeback in 2009 and 2010. Why not? Why would a guy who had doped with impunity, who didn't even regard it as cheating, suddenly decide he was going to do it clean? Wait, he explains it…

Because Kristin, his ex-wife, "believes in honesty and integrity and the truth" and asked him "never to cross that line again." And "I never would have betrayed that with her"?

Is this the same guy who dumped his wife for Sheryl Crow? Is this the same Kristin who, according to witness statements given to Usada, wrapped tablets in tin foil for Armstrong at the World Championships in Valkenberg? Who told a team-mate, Jonathan Vaughters, they kept EPO in the fridge? Who watched her husband vilify Betsy Andreu and did nothing?

But the best act came last.

"It's an epic story," Winfrey said. "What's the moral to the story?"

But moral (adj: 1 concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour) is not a word he has ever looked up. "I don't have a great answer there," he replied, and started faffing.

"You know what I hope the moral to this story is," Winfrey said. "I hope the moral to this story is what Kristin told you in 2009: 'The truth will set you free'."

"Yeah," he replied. "She continues to tell me that."

Cue piano music and the credits.

Here's my bottom line.

In the autumn of 1993, Greg LeMond and his wife, Kathy, were sitting at home in the suburbs of Minneapolis, when they received a visit from Linda Mooneyham, the three-times Tour de France winner has recalled. Her 21-year-old son, Lance Armstrong, had just become the world champion and she had travelled from her home in Texas for advice.

"What does he do now?" she asked. "What does he do with his money?"

"Well, let him find an agent – a good one with an attorney," LeMond replied. "And one word of advice – just be his mom."

They sat on the porch for a while and then moved inside to the kitchen. Linda had something else on her mind: "How do I make him less of an asshole. He doesn't care about anyone."

"Well," LeMond replied. "I can't help you there."

I always suspected LeMond wrote his own lines, too.

Lance Armstrong complains of 'massive personal loss' in doping fall-out

I haven't seen any widespread forgiveness of Armstrong in the public mind. I wondered how history would look back on him. Not well is my verdict.



Straight away I thought 'transparent'; that'd be like even thinner than 'paper-thin' honesty.

Legislation regarding performance enhancing substances is a licence to print money for people who never do anything beyond sitting on their arse and spout indignant mantras.

What's Oprah Winfrey ever done? I can break taboos and act emotional. It's easy if you don't go very far into taboo.

Well, guys that stick up convenience stores also feel a sense of 'massive personal loss' - especially on their way to prison.

Lance Armstrong agrees deal with Acceptance Insurance over bonuses

But didn't AI get the publicity it paid out for?

Maybe drugs should be allowed in all sports to level the playing field?

No maybe about it Romeo. If Nigella can do it with Class A drugs then a guy who won 7 Tours should be able to. Pratting about in a mock kitchen as high as a kite producing multi-coloured shite is a damn sight easier than Mr Armstrong's feat.

I think those who pillory Mr Armstong are looking for a victim to pillory.

He cheated the public and all the other competitors who were trying to do it clean. Even if those are few enough in the world of cycling. And lied consistently for years while collecting plaudits. honours and money.

Nothing too bad can happen to him.

Same for Nigella then and all the other performers who have used PEDs. And still do.

Nigella relied on being as high as a kite in order to produce her provocative performances. She's a nice Jewish girl when she comes down which might be why she seems to have avoided ever coming down.

And as for evolutionists what can anybody say? What possible objection can a scientific evolutionist offer to Mr Armstrong's actions?

Your prose, Mac, is enhanced by you drinking tea and coffee. As a water drinker it would be unreadable. Anthony Burgess used six tea bags per cup and a lot of cups. I tried it once.

You should read what some of those famous French artists used in the late 19th century. That makes Mr Armstrong look like he was on rusks.

I do all my stuff pie-eyed on absinthe, but it's not illegal and I don't lie about it.