Tour de France: Go Armstrong!

[Aristotle]

Since our sports forums seem to have a mythical power to control results in the sporting world, I thought a thread about the Tour de France would be good.

Lance Armstrong got off to a really good start in the prelude, finishing 2nd.

Armstrong second in opening event

Making an emphatic if not victorious start to his record-chasing Tour de France, Armstrong dealt key rivals a psychological blow by leaving them in his wake in the debut time trial on Saturday.

The Texan, seeking to become the first six-time Tour winner, cast off the stress and murmurs that he is past his prime by speeding to second place in the 3.8-mile prologue race against the clock in Liege, Belgium.

...

Armstrong was 15 seconds ahead of his main rival Jan Ullrich and left contenders Tyler Hamilton and Iban Mayo far behind, too. His performance was a strong start to what he fears will be his hardest Tour yet.

He's going for 6 in a row, a record.

[Gadiantor]

Armstrong is a machine, he can't be stopped. The only way anyone can beat him is with a stick...while he sleeps. (figuritively speaking of course, we don't want any Tanya Harding antics here!)

[Nikira]

I heard a report that if he does win he'll retire from the race out of respect for the riders before him who each won 5 in a row.

I don't know a thing about cycling except that I own a bike, but is that altruistic or all PR?

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by Nikira
I heard a report that if he does win he'll retire from the race out of respect for the riders before him who each won 5 in a row.

I read that also, but the source of that is the New York Times which is always suspect. Furthermore, I have to wonder how it shows respect for the other 5 time winners to beat them with 6, not not more than 6???

Originally posted by Nikira
I don't know a thing about cycling except that I own a bike, but is that altruistic or all PR?

I don't think it is either. I think Lance just wants to figure out what he wants out of the rest of his career.

Furthermore, he has committed to ride in the Tour at least one more year (probably to help the new sponsor, Discovery Channel, which is taking over for the USPS).

He might not ride in 2005, but he says he will ride in at least one more Tour.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1844916


Incidentally, Lance is kicking ass. He currently has a 4 minute, 9 second lead over the next rider with only 2 more stages to go (and the final one is mostly ceremonnial).

[Gadiantor]

Lance will almost certainly win.

I hope he doesn't retire. He's dominating, so I have no doubt he can win a seventh. Of course there is always the thought of going out on top and avoiding the possibility of something going wrong next year.

[Frobozz]

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1845109

fuck yeah Armstrong

[Aristotle]

Lance Armstrong is The Man.

He is up there with Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, and Babe Ruth in my opinion.

[Falix]

So I'm watching ESPNews and I'm about 30-something minutes into a segment on Lance, since the TDF is over and he won again. YAY!! They reported that cyclists are some of the most tested athletes, when it comes to banned and illegal substances, and that every single test ever for Lance, has come up clean. Fuck everyone who wants to keep bringing it up just to try and cloud what an amazing achievement this is. Lance is awesome and I'm extremely happy to see him win again, and I really want him to win more, while still coming up clean on all tests in the future.

Also, just to show what kinda guy Lance is, he hasn't keep his winnings from the TDF the last few years, and won't be this year either. He divides it up amongst his teammates, which works out to a cut of $50k a piece. ON TOP of that, Lance also gives them $100k a piece, out of HIS OWN pocket. At first I thought this might have been some sort mistake, thinking that maybe it was only $10k a piece that he gives them, but I did a bit of research and found out that Lance makes roughly $14 million per year in endorsements alone, and is 3rd on a list of athletes who's endorsements make consumers much more likely to buy. Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are 1 and 2. Lance deserves to be up there. He rules. On and off the bike.

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by Falix
Lance deserves to be up there. He rules. On and off the bike.

No doubt. He is extremely generous and is just an all around awesome guy.

Do you know what else rules?

The sports forum.

Our power is growing. Once again, we caused the Right Thing to happen.

Most importantly, this proves that we not only have the power to destroy (Lakers), but also the power to create (Armstrong).