gut;1366568 wrote:That's very debateable. He destroyed, or tried to, a number of people that got in his way, some who had been close personal friends (such as the LeMonds, not to mention cheating on his wife). And as far as colleagues on the bike go, he was widely regarded as a Class A prick (not just because he kept winning, but a lot of it did stem from his global thermal nuclear defense of his "clean" reputation).

My point only is that people are complicated and the stories we hear are rarely accurate. I'm sure he did do despicable things to cover his lie. THat's the problem with lying. I'm sure he has done some wonderful things for people as well. One doesn't make him a dispicable person and the other doesn't make him a saint.

My friend had testicular cancer and was really depressed for the first month or so. Then Lance Armstrong came to the hospital and one of the nurses asked him to talk to my friend because she knew he wasn't really "trying" to beat cancer and was really depressed. After his talk with Lance his whole attitude kinda flipped. He became his old self and really changed his attitude from I hope I can win this battle to I'm going to win this battle. I'm not sure what he told him but for my friend he helped him win the battle, for that I will always view him as a hero.

Raw Dawgin' it;1366384 wrote:How many people has LiveStronged helped? I'm sure the people his foundation has helped don't give a **** that he doped. How about his sponsors and foundation give back all the money they've made because of his doping.

livestrong raises money for "awareness" of breastcancer only...it really doesnt "help" anyone from my understanding. If you want to donate to a fund for research you need something like stephanie speilman fund. It would be interesting to see where that money goes and what qualifies as awareness. that being said i like the group and have a bracelet..that ive been wearing for about 4-5 years. awareness alone may have saved some people i guess or convinced more people to donate to breast cancer causes which in turn helps.

Livestrong is a pretty awesome website. It's loaded with all kinds of exercise and nutritional information.

But the fact remains the guy built his brand and his empire on a lie. He became iconic and one of our all-time greatest athletes based on a lie. Has nothing to do with a level playing field. It disgusts me a little bit when people excuse that because of the perceived good he has done - a lousy example to follow and not an acceptable standard.

The sad thing is the steroids probably made his cancer grow faster. He probably had a pretty good idea that the steroids caused it to grow faster and he still went back to them after he recovered.

He has done some great things but still a cheater so yes think differently about him

I don't think of him at all, so I guess my opinion hasn't change. I'm a little annoyed that the media won't shut up about it.

The more and more you hear about the stuff he did the bigger asshole he seems. He ruined alot of people along the way, and his past interviews, of one that was show on eSPN this morning where he declares his innocense, is such BS and makes him look awful

thavoice;1367067 wrote:The more and more you hear about the stuff he did the bigger **** he seems. He ruined alot of people along the way, and his past interviews, of one that was show on eSPN this morning where he declares his innocense, is such BS and makes him look awful

I'm well aware of a lot of that crap - I've followed him pretty closely and been a big fan the last 12 years.

Sounds like he might be throwing UIC (governing body of cycling) under the bus, as well. I think it was Tyler Hamilton I saw on tv the other day making those claims. Apparently there is a lot of corruption, and they helped Lance and his team avoid the testing and cover-up failures when needed (the Lance anti-fan boys on cycling boards railed about at least two widely speculated cover-ups of failed tests).

So, yeah, when you have the sanctioning body on the payroll it's kind of hard to fail a test. I'd add a number of Lance's former teammates failed tests when they went to new teams. Tyler Hamilton said it WAS NOT a level playing field...obviously beside the resources and money to have the best and latest, Lance's teams were given preferential treatment.

As I said, a lot of it stems from his obsession to maintain his image as being clean and crushing anyone who suggested otherwise. But then he was also just generally a self-absorbed ass. A lot of his haters in the cycling community (and France) also had to do with not liking how he changed the sport, building dominant teams and focusing almost exclusively on the TdF. I don't begrudge him for that, but I always wished he would have competed much more seriously in the other two major tours (the Giro and Vuelta)...I think he only even rode those a few times.