Russ Smith

Realize cycling isn't as big as baseball and with the Tour De France months away it's not big news yet but I sure find the timing of Lance's announcement to be interesting.

Rumors have swirled around him for years now regarding doping, he passes tests so he can claim his innocence. At the recent Olympics they adopted a new testing procedure that proved to be MUCH more difficult to beat and they had a flood of athletes pulling out of the games with mysterious injuries when they found out about the new testing. And of course numerous athletes got nailed in Sydney with the new tests as well.

Then not long after the Olympics Armstrong was the spokesman for a race in San Francisco when he announced that due an injury he was not going to race. Oddly that announcement came less than 48 hours after it was revealed they'd be using the same tests at that race, that were used at the Olympics. Remember, Lance was the KEY spokesman for the race, doing tv and radio commercials, and he was reportedly irate when he found out about the change in testing policies said he felt he was being set up to look bad if he pulled out because they knew he was injured and might not race.

One of the key differences with the new testing is that it involved testing not just AFTER events, but testing before events in what was called "out of competition" testing that could be done weeks before the Olympics. This is of course because athletes routinely cycled off before events to beat the testing. They also started using blood testing and not just urine testing in Sydney, this is because many types of cheating, such as EPO which is so common in cycling, can't be accurately tested for in urine. Until the Sydney olympics there was not a really proven test, in Sydney they were using a new Australian test done with blood, in conjunction with a new French test done with urine. IN the past they considered blood to be too "invasive" so you'd hear stories of athletes drinking water for hours trying to get enough urine to give a sample after an event.

In a remarkable coincidence in early July of 04 Armstrong announced he would skip the Sydney Olympics to "spend more time with my family". So that made 2 major events in 2004 that used the new testing procedures and Armstrong pulled out of both. note, the Tour De France did NOT use the new test procedures it took place roughly 3 weeks after Armstrong announced he would not be in the Olympics, and the Olympics were the first major event to use the new tougher doping tests.

Reportedly the 05 Tour De France WILL use the newer tests.

Call me a skeptic but I predict one of 3 things, as we get close Armstrong will pull out citing an injury or family issue. Armstrong will compete, not do well, pass the tests and say see I told you so as he rides off to "soak up the sun". or Armstrong will compete, win, and pass the tests and I'll have to post a retraction.

I admire him for his fight with cancer and his work on that front but I sure have a hard time believing that all these coincidences are really that.

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Ryanwb

I respect the guy but there are just too many questions being raised about doping. I don't consider him one of the greatest athletes of all time for that very reason

Russ Smith

Agreed, there's been too many people with connections to him that have come out and said he's doping. Dateline NBC ran a story years ago that had his former US Postal Service teammates talking about how they all got injections, including Lance. Several of the team members were now suffering mysterious ailments including cancer, which of course Lance got too.

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