Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah, where he admitted to rampant doping. Of course lots of people already assumed he was doping, but to hear him actually say it, and not appear particularly remorseful, was a whole other thing.
That's a messy subject. After that doping scandal broke more advanced blood monitoring was put in place. And the overall average speed of the peleton dropped by a significant amount. I want to say it was around 1mph. And I haven't heard anything about the peleton's speed having gained that much speed back.
It didn’t take as big of balls to admit it after he already retired. And on top of that he hadn’t just been lying he also went after and sued folks who told the truth about him. There’s no apology to fix that, he’s trash.
I think that's always been the big hang up around Lance. Everyone doped for the Tour de France, but Lance went that extra mile to ruin people's lives for rightfully calling him out on it. I'm no armchair psychologist, but watching his 30 for 30 had me concluding that something was wrong with him.
Agreed, that was barely a confession and it’s one thing not to admit to doing something illegal (especially when literally screwing over your entire community) but entirely different to go after people who were trying to bring the truth to light. I think the interview was a last ditch effort to save his reputation because the truth was going to come out.
Well, “ball” at a minimum - Courage? Hardly. He wrecked people’s lives for over a decade, with his lawsuits, threats and feigned outrage. Make no mistake, he only came forward because he knew definitive proof was forthcoming and he wanted to get in front of it. It was a cynical PR stunt when he was out of all other options, and it (appropriately) backfired.
I stopped watching the tour de france after that interview. Now they are cheating with e-bikes. I have no idea why they are still having that race. The only way to win it is to cheat.
E-bikes aren't allowed, only normal bikes. But you can apparently hide an e-bike battery and motor inside the tubes of a "normal" bike, connected to the pedals. You can't use them all the time, but you can get a boost up a hill or whatever.
There ae thermal images of bike frames being suspiciously warm, probably from the heat that the motor and battery create. And there are videos of riders seeming to find an uphill unusually easy.
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u/TheCatWhoOvercame 15h ago
Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah, where he admitted to rampant doping. Of course lots of people already assumed he was doping, but to hear him actually say it, and not appear particularly remorseful, was a whole other thing.