Well Greg Lemond An actual Tour winner was never thought of as an asshole. He is American. The Europeans loved him. Was successful until Lance destroyed his company through Trek. He is respected in cycling. Survived being shot point blank with a shot gun…
The difference is that Lance lied to the public, lied to the press and committed purjury in court. Anyone who told the truth of what they new if simply questioned or through subpoena was then ruined through his power, influence or money. Lance should have been charged and tossed in jail. Is it any coincidence he went on Oprah and confessed shortly after time limits ran out on all the purjury he had done earlier.
Lance is not hated by many because he is American. He is not hated because he doped. He is hated because of the person he was and is. He has not done one thing to make things right with any organization he screwed or ripped off. He went on Oprah and cried some alligator tears and said he doped… He never took responsibility, and sure as hell never apologized to anyone he ruined.
It was a PR tv stunt to move on and say I am a good guy now… Honest… Why would I lie… I am CLEAN!!!
It is the media side of it that actually bothers me the most…Paul Sherwen was the PR guy at Motorola when Lance got started. Phil Liggett was knee-deep in his relationship with Lance. Don’t even get me started on Bob Roll…
On the print side, guys like John Wilcockson just rolled along because it got them access to the biggest name in the sport.
The fact that they all “tsk-tsk’d” once the truth came out was the height of hypocrisy.
He called almost everyone??? According to Lance right? I have not seen a list of people he called. He didnt call Greg Lemond or David Walsh… Did he call that insurance company he ripped off for 10 million or whatever it was? Did he give the money back? If I am wrong I am wrong but I have seen no evidence. In fact if I remember in the Orpah interview Lance would not even respond on Betsy. I see your response now. Ill have to look at it thanks. Wonder if he gave Betsy and Frankie a few million for ruining his career?
Lemond was a tough competitor who would do what it took to win. Big difference to being an ahole phsycopath.
you said “he never apologized to anyone he ruined”, when in fact he did. it is widely documented that he called the Andreaus, the Memonds, Shelly Verses, Simeoni and others.
But now you are moving the goal posts by saying he never paid money back, etc.
The fact that I pointed out your mistakes does not mean I am defending him…it just means you are factually wrong.
I did not equate the two…you said he was never thought of as an asshole, when, in fact, many thought he was. Again, you are misrepresenting what I am saying. Just because I point out you were wrong does not mean I am equating Lemond and -7.
“Speaking about Armstrong’s televised confession, she said: “The day before he tapes Oprah in January 2013, he starts his reconciliation tour by calling people. Frankie and I are the only ones who spoke with him. Of course, Oprah asks him if he’s called people to apologise. Voilà! He can say he talked to us.”
Also I don’t think Lemond was thought of as an asshole by the cycling public. He ingratiated himself to European’s by trying to learn the languages and he also has a french name. In what I have read I have not seen asshole used. I have seen a hard and tough competitor. But then asshole is in the eye of the beholder is it not?
Ill stop now as I don’t need another attack. I will not respond again.
Exactly, but the media and sponsors knew they had a great thing going with an ultra-successful cyclist who had reach far beyond any other cyclist. How much of the Trek & Lance vs Lemond saga was driven by one man’s pettiness and preservation of his image, and how much was driven by millions of dollars of profit?
Even a decade after his last competition and all the horrible things are revealed he’s still the biggest name for cycling in America. The media still knows there is money in tsk-tsk’ing Lance.
Hell, that’s why we’re here right now in this thread. I don’t support or respect Lance, but just think there are a lot of people trying to get a free pass pushing the idea that Lance personally was the problem with this era.
How could we possibly forget “the chicken”?! This picture is burned into my brain. Maybe now yours too. . (I wonder if I still have my Rabobank jersey? What a disappointment)
So this one exchange did not contain an apology…so therefore he never apologized?
Weird how there is this…
This week, though, before the two-part Winfrey interview was shown, the Andreus received a phone call from Armstrong, who offered an apology. Frankie Andreu spoke to him for 10 minutes and said that Armstrong “sounded sincere,” but that he still did not trust him.
And then there is apology to Bassons…
Armstrong countered: “But if it was felt like that, I’d truly like to say sorry. That’s not surprising, you know, I harmed a lot of people.”
Or his apology to Simeoni…
There was no lack of bad blood between Armstrong and Simeoni , … listened to his apologies that were sincere and heartfelt,” Simeoni said.
But please…tell us some more about how Armstrong “never apologized”.
Again, you seem to think that I am defending him. I am not…but don’t misrepresent the facts.
So we are playing semantics now? Because that word was never used, that means Lemond was universally liked?
The fact is that while he was certainly popular, it was far from universal…many saw him as an interloper into what was a very European sport. Many didn’t like his brashness, his rejection of traditions / cycling culture, etc. These are just facts.
I’m not attacking you by pointing out your errors…but from the guy who called me racist (even though I was agreeing with you), that is kinda ironic.
My favorite part of streaming the tour on roku / peacock. Which of these identical looking feeds isn’t Bob Roll and CVV? 50/50 shot each time and I felt like I missed every time.
Great point. In no way was Lance personally responsible for this era. He was not the first and was not the last. He was the most prolific, successful and the LOUDEST I am clean ahole there was.
I also don’t know of any other cyclists who personally ripped off more people/companies or who did more to damage the sport. Just my opinion…
Unfortunately Lance made himself a larger than life target for that era and also kept all those millions in ill gotten gains.
Here we go again. Your response in that thread I found convoluted. I did not call you a racist in any way. I put up information that you CHOSE to interpret that I called you a racist. I apologized to you in the thread. I apologized to you via pm. You CHOSE not to even respond.
So he did respond to some? You said he called everyone and apologized to them before the Oprah interview. You still going with that?
Also untrue. We had a good exchange the first time you incorrectly attacked me (calling me racist). It was after the third unwarranted attack that I did not respond to your PM.
I am now completely understanding why some forums ban “Lance discussion”. There is discussing factual information (whichever side you fall on), and then there is taking fractions of the same information and developing opinions to be vocal about.
I’ve never actually participated in one of these before, but now I get it.
That’s news to me and I have followed his career since the beginning. Hinault, Tapie, and Guimard probably thought he was an asshole for not playing their game.
I don’t remember lots of people hating on Lemond when he was at his height (other than the Hinault fans), but when he retired and started speaking out, there was a lot of negative talk about him. In my eyes, it was people attacking the victim, but there were a lot of people who thought he was hurting the sport (more than he was helping) by speaking out and accusing other riders.
. (I wonder if I still have my Rabobank jersey? What a disappointment)
same