As long as Lance is on his reconciliation tour, I think it’s only appropriate the tour should have its own theme song. I’m thinking of Fleetwood Mac’s “Tell me Lies”. Maybe not sweet little lies or just “one big lie” but a continuation of lies.
In a desperate attempt to do whatever he can to mitigate the damage he’s done to himself with a lifetime ban competing in sports at an elite level, Lance is reaching out to whomever will listen to him. He wants to show how very sorry he is for decimating people like me, Frankie, Greg LeMond, Mike Anderson, David Walsh, Emma, JV, Travis and USADA that he has only reached out to his former soigneur Emma – over wine and with cameras rolling just to show how sorry he really is.
And what about the rest of us?
Lance’s reconciliation tour, aka the I-really-want-to-compete-at-an-elite-level-again tour, is nothing more than a charade to back up his call for a version of a Truth and Reconciliation Committee that will exonerate him. I really didn’t get the gist of it until I talked to Joe Harris, a consultant who has applied the principles of truth and reconciliation in business, and co-authored a “roadmap” for repairing pro cycling with Steve Maxwell, an economist and contributor to VeloNews.
He explained that a truth and reconciliation process, when done correctly, is never run by the agency who will itself be investigated. In this case, the UCI. Just as MLB hired the independent investigator George Mitchell, so cycling must do the same. There must be complete autonomy from the UCI, who would have to divest all of the oversight to an independent person. Without this independence, the committee could be swayed by personal agendas, and testimony could be filtered so that certain people get preferential treatment, even if they don’t deserve it.
Where would this person come from? An agency well versed in transitional law such as the International Center for Transitional Justice in South Africa, New York University Law School’s Justice in Transition, or the Carter Foundation could recommend a legal scholar who would focus on the societal healing and international rebuilding of the immense damage caused to the sport by such corruption. As Joe so eloquently explained to me, I agree with this premise. We certainly can’t afford to have another farcical Vrijman Report. Joe and Steve’s website www.theouterline.com explains it far better than I can even begin to.
What I don’t understand, however, is why Lance needs a TRC in order to tell the truth. Nothing is preventing him from meeting with the fine folks at USADA. He declined to go under oath for The London Sunday Times and Acceptance Insurance, yet, he can still do so with SCA and the U.S. government. He’ll have the freedom to tell all; his testimony under oath is protected as long as he’s not lying. No brainer, right?
Lance would have you think that it’s all the UCI’s fault. I won’t argue that they’re at fault but where’s Lance’s culpability here? Who helped him collude with the UCI? I guarantee you, he didn’t do it on his own. A TRC unchecked with no accountability can do more harm than good. Under oath, Lance is held accountable.
Nothing changes if nothing changes. Nothing has changed with Lance. He is still desperately trying to control the narrative. The problem for him is not many are listening. I know firsthand he is trying hard to sully me and Frankie not to mention Travis, Greg, JV, and his most recent target, Alex Gibney. Funny thing is he’s going off the record hoping that by merely telling the lie the seed is planted. After all, it worked before. I can’t tell you how many people told me they thought I was crazy thanks to lance. Look at the damage done to Greg’s reputation from people who still tout him as nuts. What about Travis and usada’s famous witch hunt?
After Emma and Lance’s very public meeting, so many contacted me asking if I was next. Would I meet with him? Sure why not? As long as Travis Tygart is present and Lance is bound under oath why wouldn’t I? I actually invite him to meet with me. You think he’ll agree to those terms? I’ll stick with water or coffee and no cameras to film it by the way.
After Oprah, I was willing to give him a chance; I wanted there to be a reconciliation. I wanted nothing more than to put this behind me, use it as a cautionary tale and forge ahead touting clean sport especially for kids whether it be through USADA’s truesport.org initiative or via the media.
Let’s face it, Lance’s childhood was awful; the child within was never healed. It doesn’t excuse the monster of the person he became but it damn well helps to explain it. I was being told he was using me, Frankie didn’t hold back on that opinion. I didn’t want to listen. After all, Lance said he was sorry. I felt it was only fair that I give him a chance to prove that he meant it.
That conversation before Oprah, he told me he wanted to meet with me and Frankie face to face. He told me he’d done a lot of bad things to a lot of good people. Healing and forgiving is a process. For Lance, telling the truth or learning to tell the truth was part of that process. After Oprah, we sporadically kept in touch. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. I was slowly beginning the painful realization that his talk was cheap.
When I went to Austin in April as part of a an anti-doping panel, Lance and I had agreed to meet. I was skeptical he would actually follow through. “Are you going to skedaddle when I get to town?” I emailed him. “Please,” was his response, “I’ll be here.”
Well, as Frankie predicted, he backed out. He and the others were right: he used me. I’m embarrassed to say I fell for it. What benefit it had been for him to have his most ardent and vocal critic willing to give him a chance. In doing so, I kept quiet and I didn’t call him out on his lack of action. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt when I’d talk to journalists. Like so many Lance used for his own benefit, I too became a pawn in his reconciliation tour. Frankie being that wonderful sensitive husband he is said, “I told you so. He’s a liar. Duh!”
Consider these 3 instances:
* 3 days before we were deposed in the SCA case in October 2005, Lance calls Frankie for the first time in almost 2 years. In his deposition, Lance said he called Frankie just to say hello. Frankie testified he called to talk about our imminent depositions as well as Kathy LeMond’s deposition.
* 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 apologize. Voila! He can say he talked to us.
* The weekend before his big Monday hearing in D.C. regarding the whistleblower case (November 18, 2013), he meets with Emma – and agrees to go on camera for the world to see how very sorry he is. It just happens to be the weekend before his big court date.
Do you see a pattern here? Just the other day Lance tweeted that he has “repeatedly” told me and Frankie he’s sorry.
He’s still lying.
There’s a reason why. When a reformed kool-aid drinker, Patrick Dixon, told me he told Lance he should do what it takes to make amends with me and Frankie, Lance told him to “F@#& off!” This was just a few short months ago after Lance refused to meet with me in April. You get the gist.
Lance didn’t meet with me in April because he wasn’t authentic with me in January. If Lance could somehow understand the damage he’s done to people on a personal level, the businesseses he’s defrauded, the destruction of the sport itself on a global level, he’d realize that it’s not possible to allow him back in sport.
Any sport.
Ever.
Lance should ask a very simple question: what must I do to rectify the damage I’ve done? In our case, all he had to do was meet with us – nothing more nothing less.
He should be opening up his checkbook to SCA and asking,”How much do I write the check for?”
He should be flying to New Zealand and get down on his knees to Mike Anderson and beg for forgiveness.
Maybe with Kathy and Greg, he could tell them what Trek knew and offer to pay them for their bike company he helped destroy.
How about paying USADA back – the anti-doping agency he tried to destroy. It’s really not that difficult on what he should do.
It’s only difficult if the intent to do good is not there.
A pathological liar doesn’t all of the sudden become a truth teller. Maybe he just switches from telling one big lie to a lot of little lies.
Awesome. Lance chooses to surround himself with enablers and yes-men who continue to tell him that he is the champ and the key to his own redemption. What can the sporting world even gain from Lance at this point? Nothing. His opportunity to come completely clean and help the sport passed with the recent ousting of Pat Mcquaid. Now his opportunity is gone. I hope he loses as much of his ill gotten gains as possible and is forced to get a regular job.
Write a book, Betsy. The passion and the skill is there. And include the solutions you suggest in this blog. God knows pro cycling needs all the help it can get.
And as for Armstrong getting a real job, who would hire him?
You’re the most bitter person in this entire story. You’re sweet hubby was doing the same thing. Nobody gives a damn about your pity party, Bitter Betsy
😀 you are hilarious Bitter one. Go back to your dark little hole. Everyone cares and will keep caring until that festering sore that is called professional cycling is healed…by debridement.
Is Lance Armstrong replying here using “Bitter Betsy and mythbuster” as pen names? Sounds like it to me. Or are you both still eating the lies and deceit?
It is well publicised that Fankie Andreu took part in the doping scheme. It is also known that when he decided it was enough he was ousted from the cycling elite. Lance set up war against the Andreu’s to discredit them and shut them up.
Betsy should still be bitter after all the damage Lance made to her and others. She should try to send Lance back to the rock he crawled out off. He is a sociopath who is capable of inflicting damage to others even in his “recoil” state. A deceitful, dishonest and conniving person does not change overnight. Lance is still trying to make us believe he is sorry by manipulation. We know that everyone lies but when lies damage others the consequences shall be swift. Lance should crawl back under the rock he came out off. Good for Betsy to be the person who is pushing him back.
I would just like to say to the last person please do not pretend to speak for us all. I do give a damn and thank you Betsy for having the Bollocks some of the men around him lacked.
“Bitter Betsy” and Hans Vandeweghe, Why don’t you guys have your name and word slandered and drug through the mud for 17 years, come back with a different perspective and quit being trolls. You guys are joke…
Betsy. Thank you for being out spoken, telling the truth for all this time and shedding some light and inside knowledge to us all. It’s much appreciated.
Let the past be the past and let this go. Be at peace with yourself and live your life. People need to move forward and not live in the past. Nothing is going to change or fix what happened. Who cares if Lance gets to compete again or not. He has to live with whatever he did regardless of what is decided in court. The obsession with a single player in this entire thing needs to end. Everyone needs to take a look back at themselves and see if they want justice or if thy want revenge against Lance. How about just focusing on the future of cycling? It doesn’t sound like anyone here cares about justice or cycling. It sounds like people care about revenge against and individual which really makes them know better than him.
…it seems to me that a simple, sincere apology from Lance would do a lot. The ‘forgive and forget” lot call this “repentance”. I see no sign of Lance repenting, only regretting that he got busted.
Lance is reaping what he planted. He built up his career through positioning himself as a hero, pure and noble. He soared very high and inspired very many people. Once these people (me for example) found out that he was dirty, corrupt and presently still completely unrepentant, they developed what you call “fixation”. I think that this fixation on making Lance crash and burn, and THEN recover and soar again (if he can) is a perfectly healthy response to his legacy and the present reality.
Future of cycling will only be a future in a sense that future does not mean the extension of the past, if it is free of people like Lance and his ilk. Since they are all still active and pretty much in everyone’s faces, cycling is not able to move into the future.
as i wrote before somewhere, there has been no ‘Golden Era’ in this sport, from the point of view of a majority drug-free top level peloton. if we do this right from here on in, the Golden Era could be ahead of us.
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Patrick, that is so far from the truth that you may as well be standing on the moon looking on. it is because these people care about the future of cycling, and about the kids that take part in it, that they are talking now about ‘the past’ and seeking to understand it, to know how and why it all came about, and to prevent riders in the future ending up in the same state. all the sordid, dirty facts are coming out and people still cannot bear to look, can’t be bothered with investigating how we ended up here. and trust me, the sport is in a far deeper, darker hole still now than most think…
@bitter bully and Hans Vanderass Your comments would have some credibility if you had the balls to use your own names as it is you appear as what your are, trolling cowardly bullies (one could think you’re Lance paid apologists). To the author, as the motto of this site says, Punk On and Crank Up 🙂
Tell us how you really feel;-) Lance is a sociopath…he is mentally ill. His apologies are not genuine because he doesn’t really feel like he has anything to apologize for. That said, as much as I dislike the guy and as Betsy points out, there were many other players in the game and it is doubtful that he could have perpetuated the scam and lies without others corroborating his stories. Everyone that is close to sport knew that he, and everyone else, was doping. It’s been a part of the sport forever…remember, Alexi Grewal tested positive after the 1984 Olympics, but he was just taking some herbs (yeah, right). Just because something wasn’t on the banned list, doesn’t mean taking it or using it to enhance your performance is OK; for a very long time EPO wasn’t banned. The point I am trying to make is, Lance is a product of all of us. We (the fans, sponsors, et al) hoisted him up onto a pedestal knowing he was too good to be true and many, including the former teammates that helped “throw him under the bus” profited from their affiliation with him. Some, Floyd L., would never have had an opportunity in the pro ranks without him. It is time for all the finger pointers to look at themselves in the mirror and realize that they are as much to blame as Lance is himself. If you can honestly say, if wearing Lance’s shoes, you wouldn’t have done the same thing or something similar to protect your reputation while being held to an unreasonable standard, than you are deluding yourself. Sure, it sucks that people’s lives got ruined and reputations tainted, but what did anyone really expect with a conspiracy of this magnitude? I personally feel sorry for him, or maybe empathetic is a better word. We created the monster. We enjoyed the monster while he was winning and representing the US in cycling’s biggest race (Greg L’s contributions to the sport not withstanding). We profited from him to a much larger degree than he himself profited. And then when we were done with him, we cast him to the side and dumped all of the blame on him. Is the message we are sending the rest of the world that we, individually, should not be held responsible or accountable for our own actions? Really? I don’t begrudge anyone the right to be angry – in all rights, everyone involved should be, However, you should be angry with yourself, too. There was plenty of opportunity for everyone to come clean at any time during this ordeal. Integrity is defined as doing the right thing whether or not someone else will know and we all know what the right thing would have been. I think, for what it is worth, this entire debacle is a joke. If you are going to ban one person for life, ban everyone. If you are going to ask Lance to give back money, then everyone that earned a dime because of him should give the money back. You can’t tell me that everyone that signed their names to checks written to him didn’t know he was doping…didn’t someone earlier in the thread mention unicorns? Here is a suggestion; why don’t we all stop pointing the finger, take responsibility for our own actions and become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. To one degree everyone is right, but the flip side is everyone knew what was going on and never said anything until it was absolutely paramount that they come forward, including Floyd L. Just one old fat cyclist’s perspective.
Don’t use words you clearly don’t understand. Sociopaths are not mentally ill. That’s the whole point about sociopaths. Your inability to grasp this salient point undermines the rest of your comment, which is painfully long on opinion but short on facts.
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Colenso – Are you speaking from experience? I think many mental health care professionals would disagree with you. But, for the sake of grasping the salient point – we’ll call it a mental disorder. Additionally, I thought it was clear that my comment was opinion, hence the last sentence. Also, there was very little if anything that needed to be backed up with “fact” as it was, clearly, my opinion.
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Dave Johnson, that is a reasoned response – i’m going to re-post an older article I wrote on Pantani, about how we are all to blame – stay tuned 😉
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Dave, Floyd Landis was a huge talent and a really fun and funny guy to be around. Armstrong and Bruneel may have taught Floyd how to dope. They didn’t teach him to ride, race, win, or wheelie in the big ring at 25 mph.
-Bob
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Crankpunk-Great article on Pantani and my point was articulated much better than I conveyed it.
Bob-No doubt Floyd was/is talented and certainly I like him far more than LA. That said, regardless of how he got there…he got there and then it becomes a matter of the pot calling the kettle black. And, (my opinion) I doubt Floyd would have achieved the level of notoriety needed to lead the Phonak team had he not ridden for Postal. Say what you will about Lance, but he was a publicity/marketing machine and everyone affiliated with him (including Betsy and Frankie) profited from their relationship with him. I am not condoning what he did, in fact, I think most of it is deplorable, but unless you’ve experienced the same thing, it is hard to say whether or not you would have behaved any differently. I am merely pointing out the obvious double standard. Love him or hate him, Lance is a product of society’s need for heroes and role models. Lance did not create the legend, we did and we do so, for the most part, with eyes wide open.
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thank you Dave!
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What a shame we hear so much about the Lance Armstrong types of people in the media and not the Betsy Andreu types. She is a champion and a rare individual. She sticks to her strong beliefs and is a great example to her kids, Frankie and the rest of the world. Been praying for you and your family while I have followed the stuff that you have gone through over these many years.
There should be a special day made in honour of you and all the others that have had to endure this abuse but have stayed strong.
As a cancer survivor (same cancer almost the same time) and a cyclist, I was a strong supporter to the end. I hoped I was wrong. I was gutted. And now I feel for all those who were either taken in or steamrolled, like me. I admire the strength of Betsy and all those who stood against him, despite the crap that he threw at them. This wax my letter to lance when it all started coming out mainstream http://wp.me/p243Or-nR
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The longer the sport, and Betsy amongst others, blames its entire ills on one man it will never be able to leave its past behind. If Armstrong was such a bully, how come Landis, Hamilton, Heras and a whole host of other riders were caught after they left the Postal team? The drugs work, the vast majority of riders doped, stop blaming one person.
Its a no brainer, John. Armstrong is the only one who made it his mission to do whatever it took to perpetuate his lie. Sure, Landis raised a bunch of money to defend his lie, but that is insignificant in comparison to Lance’s transgressions. He’s the only one who hasn’t come completely clean. If he’s told the entire truth about his doping, then why is it now his mission to keep from testifying under oath. Another no brainer: he goes to jail, because he’s still lying.
What goes around comes around and Lance is getting his due. Thank you, Betsy for your determination and commitment to the truth
There are two narratives at work, firstly the people who want justice for having their reputation slayed at the hands of a confessed cheat and secondly the need for Cycling as a sport and an industry to be seen to punish those who bring it into disrepute. Whether we look back with disappointment or not; Lance was the poster-boy of cycling for many years, the hero in the face of adversity. He got more people into cycling than any other individual – whilst the accolades and cheques were rolling in he was happy to be there, sponsorships, contracts, endorsements. The flip side to being the well remunerated global figurehead is that if you dupe the very people who put you there, expect some consequences. The reason why Betsys commentary is so relevant is because she is not only qualified with the truth and she was one of the most heavily hit by Lance’s lies – she is entitled to be seriously angry.
As for letting it sink away without a fuss – screw that! We need to identify these people as the liars and cheats that they are. I am a cyclist and know how difficult it is to get up and train my arse off for tiny increments in results and performance. All the people who have have missed places, contracts or pride by losing out to dopers need to have these people identified in six foot high letters. The message from the UCI and the cycling community at large should clearly be ‘there is no place for cheats within this sport, ever’.
Too late for the “there is no place for cheats within this sport, ever” sentiment. UCI, WADA, USADA have all decided that you do get a shot at redemption, whether you deserve it or not. It even applied to Lance, except that he blew them off, believing he was too big, too important, to have to pay for his crimes. Levi’s still out there, riding people into the ground in local races. George traded in his ill-gotten race success for an apparel business. A whole host of others conveniently choose to “confess” past the statute of limitations. Riis manages a team. Vaughters provides a safe haven for dopers-past.
We conveniently ignore the large number who have doped and haven’t been caught, and carry on. We will always have a place for cheats in this sport, as long as they don’t step forward and confess their past & present. I wait for that “I am Spartacus” moment, the day someone steps forward without indictment, within the statutes of limitations, and says “I doped.” And inspires others to do the same, And soon we see a vast army of dopes, every bit as important as those caught and punished.
But it will never happen. And for that reason we will never see a clean sport. As long as scores continue to lie, to carry the secret, it will continue.
Lance is a distraction to fixing this problem. We really need to recognize that dealing with Lance does little to deal with doping in sport. Lance should be dealt with not because of his doping per se, but for the lies and the lives he destroyed to promote those lies. Those he wronged deserve to be made right, at his expense.
But don’t kid yourself that dealing with Lance fixes doping. More likely we’ll make it worse. We can’t appropriately deal with the doping issue as long as we oh-so-carefully try to construct a T&R system whose rules first and foremost are designed to keep Lance from racing again. Burn Lance at the stake in the civil courts. Force him to turn over his ill-gotten gains to those he wronged. Just do it. And then design a “blind” T&R system as if Lance never existed. It’s litmus test should not be whether Lance could possibly race again. –Mike–
Jody: re: “lance got more people into cycling”
Perhaps this is a valid statistic measured w/an uptick in new bikes sold and new racing licenses taken out. It is only slightly offensive to those of us who rode, raced, and followed the Tour de France years before the epo-era which crowned armstrong as its king. Much more offensive to me was the action of Trek Bicycles against Greg Lemond because they sided w/ armstrong. Trek had to know or at least strongly suspect armstrong was doped but as long as he kept winning on Trek, they were happy and willing to side with a cheater. Friends don’t let friends ride Trek.
From 2002-onward, I don’t think anyone, anywhere, believed that you could win the TdF without doping. It was inconceivable that Lance could win clean against a field that was known to be doping. That was the game being played at the time. And regarding crowning Armstrong king and how offensive that is, knowing that he doped, what about Anquetil? What about the French in general, recalling it was Charles de Gaulle who was asked about Anquetil and doping, to which he replied “What does it matter, if the Marseille is played on foreign soil?” It’s ludicrous for any of us to act shocked and surprised, after the first couple of years. –Mike Jacoubowsky, Trek dealer, attendee of 12 of the past 13 TdFs.
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Hey Betsy, I sent you (well, Frankie actually) an email years ago telling you how much I admired and respected you guys. You’ve earned even more of my respect these days, and I love what you’ve written here. It’s healthy to hear the truth. Lance has a problem; he just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t know HOW to be completely honest, without trying to gain some sort of victory for himself. He’s just never learned. He doesn’t get that sometimes you have to loose it all in order to really winto win. Sadly, he’s about to find out
Oh, Betsy!! Can you please talk to your husband? Please really talk to him!! I ask that you just once apply the same cynicism to Lance as your “sensitive husband”. Can’t you once realize you’ve been snowed by him just as much as Lance??? Either you truly know how implicated Frankie was or you choose to ignore it. Either way, find out who the true pied piper was… maybe you owe the general public an apology because your 15 minutes are really up. Stop being so bitter and let everyone, including yourself take the blame!!
Joe..Look at where Lance finds himself now. Clearly, he has been lying to us for years and Betsy has been telling us the truth.Have you allowed someone to cloud your judgement?
Franky is caught, franky save his own skin by betraying others including Lance Armstrong.
Don’t try to be something your not. Franky and yourself are part of the Dope era. Your both just as guilty of doping as others.
Only difference between you, your husband and all who testify against Lance Armstrong and Lance himself is that you did it to save you own skin.
Lance Armstrong might not be a nice person but punishment should be equal to all men/women.
Do you live in cloud cuckoo land. Betsy and and Franky testified to Lance’s doping long before the USADA-case. Already in SCA-deposition they both told about the infamous hospital bed confession by Armstong. And you better believe that Franky has already received an earful from Betsy well before the USADA-case. Get your facts straight!
Keep telling the truth, Betsy! Your point about the timing of Lance’s so-called contacts/apologies is very pertinent. As is the idea of a completely independent body for T and R. Lance has played by his own rules for far too long…. he has to learn that there is an authority greater than him! Wonder if Emma feels she was ‘used’ in the latest Daily Mail meeting?
I have never met a more sincere and moral person as Betsy Andreu.
Having known several players in this incredible saga, and being sucked-in for years because of the “I want to believe” syndrome, I never had a reason to doubt the immense respect I have for Betsy (and Frankie) and Greg.
I was in conflict, and am saddened by the revelation of the facts, but glad I still have heroes in these three; And can rest assured the truth will prevail when there are people like you, Betsy.
Thank you.
Attacking the source…ah yes. When have we seen that before? The paid interns and the defenders of fraudulently earned wealth are at it again. Keep plugging away giuys, hopefully for at least minimum wage in Texas.
Likely the greatest punishment you could heap on Lance Armstrong is to ignore him, to marginalize him, to assign him a high level of irrelevance. Lump him in with all the other guys who doped, drop’em in the dust bin of history and move on as if they have no bearing; *give* them no bearing from here on out. Let’s start talking about the up-and-comers, who’s gonna be good in the spring classics, and hey how about some ongoing publicity for the first Limey in yellow in Paris? 🙂
I think Betsy needs to move on with her life. She is reaching the point where I have about as much respect for her as Lance. I feel bad that she is such a bitter person.
Well Bill, since the rebuilding in cycling is important to many of us, and Betsy is one of the big players in that rebuilding process, I am very much interested in what she has to say. Her truths have stood the tests well.
It’s entertainment. They have no obligation to play clean. They are there to sell a product. Some people sell information. Some sell sex. Some sell their bodies.
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Some collect huge “appearance fees” at cancer charity fundraisers.
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Why is this person a hero to so many? Her claim to fame is ratting someone out after hearing him say something to his doctor. That’s kind of low in my book, true or not.
PEDs in cycling are bad, but so prevalent, it can’t be pinned just on Lance Armstrong. Who knows how all the other cyclists would have behaved if they had received the scrutiny Armstrong has received? That said, I don’t understand why the wife of a cyclist who finished last on the USPS team continues to be so bent out of shape about something that happened 15 years ago. If her husband isn’t this wound up about Armstrong, then I have no idea why she is.
She has continually made two (of many) claims against Armstrong which are ridiculous. “He forced her husband to dope,” and “he ruined his career because he wouldn’t.” She quietly has admitted that her husband raced clean for USPS in the last year of his contract so Armstrong picked him for the TDF roster even though he wasn’t doping. Hardly “forcing” her husband to dope. I don’t doubt that Armstrong strongly encouraged him to dope, and perhaps he pushed because he knew her husband had doped on another team in the past. But when push came to shove, he wasn’t shoved into doping.
Her husband finished 110th out of the 125 who finished the TDF in the last year of his contract. He was turning 35 years old which is “old” for any pro cyclist so the demand for his services was clearly declining. What she doesn’t mention is that Armstrong hired her husband as the assistant team director for the next two years. That is a great opportunity to launch the next phase of his cycling career… a team manager. Hardly “ruining” his career.
This isn’t about her husband’s career, this is about her ego and what happened in court. Every time I see her in the media having a “nuttie” about Armstrong, I visualize Carrie Fisher in The Blues Brothers movie.
Armstrong’s comments about her appear to be spot on…
Yes and then came the SCA-deposition and all of a sudden Frankie couldn’t get employment in cycling anymore and Besty was called a fat, crazy b****. If you are so hung up on facts why then do you list them completely. Pathetic!
He has been a team director pretty much every year since the 2006 deposition, so it’s not “pathetic” to challenge the statement his career was ruined by Armstrong. “Ruined” means he can’t land a job… “Ruined by Armstrong” means Armstrong is the reason why he can’t get a job. To my original point, doping was, and still is prevalent in pro cycling and his more recent tone on doping (while admirable) isn’t what the cycling world wants to hear. If he is getting marginalized in the European race world, blaming Armstrong may make the Andreu’s sleep better at night but it flies in the face of the facts.
It’s been seven years since the deposition and 13 years since andreu raced for Armstrong yet his wife continually puts herself in front of any media outlet that asks her to say something angry. Racing has moved on… even Armstrong has moved on… time for betsy to move on to..
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Mr. Armstrong is a piece of garbage. I strongly support a lifetime ban for him, not only from competing in cycling, but all sports.
I do to.. as long as they also do a lifetime ban of all the other cyclists who took PEDs. As far as “piece of garbage,” he started a huge cancer non-profit organization that has helped millions and no one else in cycling (and pretty much all other sports) has even remotely done anything like. Not the Andreu’s… not Jan Ullrich (placed 2nd to Lance in the TDF all those years and doped)… Nobody…
I’m not saying he deserves preferential treatment, but I can’t stand hypocrisy. Hypocrisy by the cycling race leadership… the cycling media… Betsy Andreu… and anyone else. He vigorously defended his illegal PED use and the sport has never seen anything like it. He raced in a pro cycling world where all of the top racers and a good amount of the rest of the field took PEDs. The husband of the “holier than thou” Betsy Andreu husband took PEDs years before on another race team. All of the non-hard core cycling people who act like Armstrong is evil are like those people who get upset when they find out there is gambling at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. Yes… there is gambling at the Tropicana.. and the MGM, and the Luxor, and the… and the…
Huge, I’m fully aware of LiveStrong and the good they’ve done. Although it was funded with Armstrong’s ill gotten gains, and gained status through his name, there are many other people who deserve the credit for its success and the good that it does.
I’m not going to reply to the rest of your opinions. Everyone who had anything to do with Armstrong (even before his cycling career) knows what an egotistical jerk he is.
I stand by my assertion, Mr. Armstrong is garbage.
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Could you please list al the good livestrong.org have done, other than make the owners of livestrong.com and Armstrong a heap of money. The cancer whiled was nothing more than that, a shield! Just check how much money was spent on cancer research and how much on cancer awareness. And how many lives have been saved by caver awareness?
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It’s too bad Lance took so many along for a ride. I can understand the rationale of a pro-athlete looking for any means to win, but when it’s at the expense of so many others, it’s a real character flaw. But…. I am still amazed he did what he did. I never read comments to that effect. The dude was riddled with cancer, came back from the dead, and kicked some ass. Chemically assisted ass, but he still rode an incredible come back. Besides his sheer determination, what amazes me is that it could be physically done – consistently. That is a testament to the power of pharmaceuticals, legal and otherwise. Simply amazing drugs, I can’t help but think. Missing the point, I know, but remarkable nonetheless.
PROFESSIONAL sports are entertainment. Athletes are entertainers. Get off your soap box. They have no obligation to play clean. They are paid to win, sell, and entertain. Get over it Betsy. You just can’t handle the truth.
Betsy and Lance both live in binary worlds, which is rarely a good thing. Shades of gray are the norm. The inability to bridge the gap between them is excessively polarizing and eliminates the possibility of agreement with anything but the most-extreme views. Or you say they’re both nuts and move on. But, there’s no question that Betsy is “right” and Lance is “wrong.” There’s no question that Betsy doesn’t have any requirement to move the needle at all, to accept anything other than total agreement with her view of how things went down. She has that right. But her insistence on Lance seeing things her way, acting the way she expects, stops everything in its tracks. Normal people can’t come to terms with this.
And of course you can argue that it deserves to be stopped in its tracks. That there should be no conversation about Lance and his future that doesn’t include his unwillingness to do what Betsy asks. But if that’s how this continues, if we can’t move past Lance for a bit and focus on the rampant doping, the rest of the world has missed an opportunity to change the future for the better. Until we see Lance as a piece of the doping puzzle and not the King, we won’t get anywhere. And we can’t get there from here as long as nothing can move forward until Lance does what Betsy demands.
Betsy=Lance (both binary people)
Lance=Seriously evil person willing to do anything to keep the lie going
LanceAll Things Doping
OK, so you can’t use the “not equals” symbols here. So what I meant to say is-
Lance does not equal All Things doping
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Bitter Betsy, oh god STFU… Who do you exactly think you are anyway? Pretty sure your husband was doping before Lance was and I’m sorry how many races did he win? Did Lance have super special dope that your husband didn’t have access too, I don’t think so.. And exactly what have you done with your life and career? How much money did you raise for cancer? You and your husband are two nobodies. Get on with your meaningless life like the rest us and realize that no matter how much drugs any of us took 99.99% of us could never achieve 1% of what Lance did. Just ask your husband he tried and failed, just like everyone else…
Think again! Although Lance does claim he was only on “low octane” doping prior to his cancer. he was definitely already doping. He probably was doping well before when he was still doing triathlons. As for the rest of your ramblings, you really don’t understand anything of what has transpired, do you?
Bassons also said that he believed that the overall classification of the Tour would not have changed without doping. “I believe that you have physical and psychological qualities that are outside the norm,” he told Armstrong, before adding “That you are here today, for me, is more impressive than having won seven Tours.” so shut up Betty!!!
Could someone please tell me what the point is. I don’t think there is a
human being on this planet that does NOT KNOW Lance was lying.
But the continuous outcry by his former friends & teammates is growing old.
You were screwed over – we get it. He lied & cheated – we know it – he told us on national TV.
But this obsession with trying to justify your actions by making movies & writing articles about
the Lance Armstrong era does not make you any better than he is.
You are just as greedy & just as obsessed with getting public sympathy as he is.
IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON PEOPLE.
Do something to help the sport of professional cycling instead of telling us how FUBAR it is.
Quit whining. Get back on the BIKE AND RIDE.
haha too true. ‘can someone please tell me what the point is’…. please read the article and others on here. if your ears are shut you ain’t gonna hear nuffink!
Another take on Mr. Armstrong’s coming clean has fascinated me–how each confession still played him as a “hero”. ‘I told my ex wife I would never dope again–and I wouldn’t break that promise to her’. Then–‘my young son asked me if the doping rumors were true, and I just couldn’t lie to him…’
I’m sure my wording is not exact, however; I do remember exactly the inference that was meant to be taken away; that somehow Mr. Armstrong had realized the gravity of his errors and, as only a true hero-champion-(inject title of choice) could accomplish, he was taking the highest form of repentance and honor,–not able to betray those who had real meaning in his life, and unable to break a promise made. (really?)
I’m neither for or against Mr. Armstrong, but I certainly CAN guarantee that people who simply leave their image control it at: ‘ya know? I lied, I’m a screw-up, I’m sorry and I’m going to try to change” are liked SO much better than, “The great and mighty me, could never betray a promise made to my loved ones”. right. Kinda hard to step out of the light of being ‘the great and powerful one’ isn’t it? Of course it is, but a person is never truly known until you see him under stress; and the strength is shown in humility.
as for Ms. Chovie, I agree with most of what you are saying, except that in the entertainment world, generally the injured are also part of the entertainment, however, the victims in the case appear to be human casualty.
Again, no offense meant, I do not believe Mr. Armstrong did any more doping than anyone else, but his trail of destruction appears to be a real issue. Everyone needs to be able to stand up for their own actions. If I am big enough to do the deed, then I need to be big enough to face it also.
That is what Mr. A. appears to want, to still be held in honor, which would not be hard for him, act honorably, come clean, move forward. I think that a sincere effort would give him what he wants, what others want, and put him back into sports like any other athlete who learns from their mistakes. I think the whole issue went further than he wanted, and he is (like the rest of us would), having a hard time dealing with that part. As far as I can tell, the doping isn’t the biggest issue, but many are put off by his attitude. Thank you for reading.
With how Lance has behaved in the past and how is now so contrite. Do many think the same as me, in that if I was on the wrong end of his crap, you would never tire of hitting him?
Forget the lies, forget the doping ‘allegations’, forget the disgrace he brought to the Tour de France as well as the sport of cycling, forget the millions of fans he repeatedly deceived, forget the fact that a pathological liar rarely becomes the voice of reason,discretion,honor or truth, forget the stripped titles and the lifelong ban, the controversy over his return to cycling, the friendships he destroyed and his absolute (or not) candor during the Oprah interview… After watching the film and staring at him up on the big screen with vacant eyes of steel, a smirk that infuriates and a smart ass ‘in your face’ attitude, I think the more relevant concern is whether he has the demonic ‘666’ inscription concealed atop his big,fat head. Sorry…that sounds a bit harsh and immature but I’d be the liar that he is if I didn’t admit that the thought crossed my mind.
‘If you really felt it like that, then i am sorry.’ LA to Bassons. not an unequivocal ‘sorry’, but one with conditions. ‘if you aren’t lying, then i’m sorry.’ he is so disingenuous, and yet people lap it up…
Awesome. Lance chooses to surround himself with enablers and yes-men who continue to tell him that he is the champ and the key to his own redemption. What can the sporting world even gain from Lance at this point? Nothing. His opportunity to come completely clean and help the sport passed with the recent ousting of Pat Mcquaid. Now his opportunity is gone. I hope he loses as much of his ill gotten gains as possible and is forced to get a regular job.
Write a book, Betsy. The passion and the skill is there. And include the solutions you suggest in this blog. God knows pro cycling needs all the help it can get.
And as for Armstrong getting a real job, who would hire him?
The tobacco industry? The asbestos industry?
You’re the most bitter person in this entire story. You’re sweet hubby was doing the same thing. Nobody gives a damn about your pity party, Bitter Betsy
Sorry, Lance, trolling the comments on this article doesn’t count as contacting Betsy.
😀 you are hilarious Bitter one. Go back to your dark little hole. Everyone cares and will keep caring until that festering sore that is called professional cycling is healed…by debridement.
It’s ‘your sweet hubby’ you halfwit.
Is Lance Armstrong replying here using “Bitter Betsy and mythbuster” as pen names? Sounds like it to me. Or are you both still eating the lies and deceit?
It is well publicised that Fankie Andreu took part in the doping scheme. It is also known that when he decided it was enough he was ousted from the cycling elite. Lance set up war against the Andreu’s to discredit them and shut them up.
Betsy should still be bitter after all the damage Lance made to her and others. She should try to send Lance back to the rock he crawled out off. He is a sociopath who is capable of inflicting damage to others even in his “recoil” state. A deceitful, dishonest and conniving person does not change overnight. Lance is still trying to make us believe he is sorry by manipulation. We know that everyone lies but when lies damage others the consequences shall be swift. Lance should crawl back under the rock he came out off. Good for Betsy to be the person who is pushing him back.
I would just like to say to the last person please do not pretend to speak for us all. I do give a damn and thank you Betsy for having the Bollocks some of the men around him lacked.
Maybe Lance and Betsy can visit a shrink together? She needs it as much as Lance.
Your brand of kool-aid is awesome. See many unicorns too?
“Bitter Betsy” and Hans Vandeweghe, Why don’t you guys have your name and word slandered and drug through the mud for 17 years, come back with a different perspective and quit being trolls. You guys are joke…
Betsy. Thank you for being out spoken, telling the truth for all this time and shedding some light and inside knowledge to us all. It’s much appreciated.
Earl
You’re an inspiration Betsy and are 100 times better than Lance. I know you won’t give up thw fight and millions of us ordinary people are behind you.
Betsy, You will not be happy until you have Lance’s other ball to add to your collection (you already have both of Frankie’s). Get over it woman!
Oh cut out the sexist crap just for once can’t you?
Awesome Betsy, I agree. There’s always only been one person in Lance’s life: Lance. Damaged goods, big time. Lifetime ban, full stop.
Let the past be the past and let this go. Be at peace with yourself and live your life. People need to move forward and not live in the past. Nothing is going to change or fix what happened. Who cares if Lance gets to compete again or not. He has to live with whatever he did regardless of what is decided in court. The obsession with a single player in this entire thing needs to end. Everyone needs to take a look back at themselves and see if they want justice or if thy want revenge against Lance. How about just focusing on the future of cycling? It doesn’t sound like anyone here cares about justice or cycling. It sounds like people care about revenge against and individual which really makes them know better than him.
…it seems to me that a simple, sincere apology from Lance would do a lot. The ‘forgive and forget” lot call this “repentance”. I see no sign of Lance repenting, only regretting that he got busted.
Lance is reaping what he planted. He built up his career through positioning himself as a hero, pure and noble. He soared very high and inspired very many people. Once these people (me for example) found out that he was dirty, corrupt and presently still completely unrepentant, they developed what you call “fixation”. I think that this fixation on making Lance crash and burn, and THEN recover and soar again (if he can) is a perfectly healthy response to his legacy and the present reality.
Future of cycling will only be a future in a sense that future does not mean the extension of the past, if it is free of people like Lance and his ilk. Since they are all still active and pretty much in everyone’s faces, cycling is not able to move into the future.
as i wrote before somewhere, there has been no ‘Golden Era’ in this sport, from the point of view of a majority drug-free top level peloton. if we do this right from here on in, the Golden Era could be ahead of us.
Patrick, that is so far from the truth that you may as well be standing on the moon looking on. it is because these people care about the future of cycling, and about the kids that take part in it, that they are talking now about ‘the past’ and seeking to understand it, to know how and why it all came about, and to prevent riders in the future ending up in the same state. all the sordid, dirty facts are coming out and people still cannot bear to look, can’t be bothered with investigating how we ended up here. and trust me, the sport is in a far deeper, darker hole still now than most think…
@bitter bully and Hans Vanderass Your comments would have some credibility if you had the balls to use your own names as it is you appear as what your are, trolling cowardly bullies (one could think you’re Lance paid apologists). To the author, as the motto of this site says, Punk On and Crank Up 🙂
The same thought occurred to me.
Betsy was willing to give Lance the opportunity to make amends and he blew it. Repeatedly. The guy doesn’t deserve friends.
hopefully lance will get cancer again and die. he deserves to rot in jail with fellow scumbags jerry sandusky and aaron hernandez. Go Betsy Go
Tell us how you really feel;-) Lance is a sociopath…he is mentally ill. His apologies are not genuine because he doesn’t really feel like he has anything to apologize for. That said, as much as I dislike the guy and as Betsy points out, there were many other players in the game and it is doubtful that he could have perpetuated the scam and lies without others corroborating his stories. Everyone that is close to sport knew that he, and everyone else, was doping. It’s been a part of the sport forever…remember, Alexi Grewal tested positive after the 1984 Olympics, but he was just taking some herbs (yeah, right). Just because something wasn’t on the banned list, doesn’t mean taking it or using it to enhance your performance is OK; for a very long time EPO wasn’t banned. The point I am trying to make is, Lance is a product of all of us. We (the fans, sponsors, et al) hoisted him up onto a pedestal knowing he was too good to be true and many, including the former teammates that helped “throw him under the bus” profited from their affiliation with him. Some, Floyd L., would never have had an opportunity in the pro ranks without him. It is time for all the finger pointers to look at themselves in the mirror and realize that they are as much to blame as Lance is himself. If you can honestly say, if wearing Lance’s shoes, you wouldn’t have done the same thing or something similar to protect your reputation while being held to an unreasonable standard, than you are deluding yourself. Sure, it sucks that people’s lives got ruined and reputations tainted, but what did anyone really expect with a conspiracy of this magnitude? I personally feel sorry for him, or maybe empathetic is a better word. We created the monster. We enjoyed the monster while he was winning and representing the US in cycling’s biggest race (Greg L’s contributions to the sport not withstanding). We profited from him to a much larger degree than he himself profited. And then when we were done with him, we cast him to the side and dumped all of the blame on him. Is the message we are sending the rest of the world that we, individually, should not be held responsible or accountable for our own actions? Really? I don’t begrudge anyone the right to be angry – in all rights, everyone involved should be, However, you should be angry with yourself, too. There was plenty of opportunity for everyone to come clean at any time during this ordeal. Integrity is defined as doing the right thing whether or not someone else will know and we all know what the right thing would have been. I think, for what it is worth, this entire debacle is a joke. If you are going to ban one person for life, ban everyone. If you are going to ask Lance to give back money, then everyone that earned a dime because of him should give the money back. You can’t tell me that everyone that signed their names to checks written to him didn’t know he was doping…didn’t someone earlier in the thread mention unicorns? Here is a suggestion; why don’t we all stop pointing the finger, take responsibility for our own actions and become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. To one degree everyone is right, but the flip side is everyone knew what was going on and never said anything until it was absolutely paramount that they come forward, including Floyd L. Just one old fat cyclist’s perspective.
Don’t use words you clearly don’t understand. Sociopaths are not mentally ill. That’s the whole point about sociopaths. Your inability to grasp this salient point undermines the rest of your comment, which is painfully long on opinion but short on facts.
Colenso – Are you speaking from experience? I think many mental health care professionals would disagree with you. But, for the sake of grasping the salient point – we’ll call it a mental disorder. Additionally, I thought it was clear that my comment was opinion, hence the last sentence. Also, there was very little if anything that needed to be backed up with “fact” as it was, clearly, my opinion.
Dave Johnson, that is a reasoned response – i’m going to re-post an older article I wrote on Pantani, about how we are all to blame – stay tuned 😉
Dave, Floyd Landis was a huge talent and a really fun and funny guy to be around. Armstrong and Bruneel may have taught Floyd how to dope. They didn’t teach him to ride, race, win, or wheelie in the big ring at 25 mph.
-Bob
Crankpunk-Great article on Pantani and my point was articulated much better than I conveyed it.
Bob-No doubt Floyd was/is talented and certainly I like him far more than LA. That said, regardless of how he got there…he got there and then it becomes a matter of the pot calling the kettle black. And, (my opinion) I doubt Floyd would have achieved the level of notoriety needed to lead the Phonak team had he not ridden for Postal. Say what you will about Lance, but he was a publicity/marketing machine and everyone affiliated with him (including Betsy and Frankie) profited from their relationship with him. I am not condoning what he did, in fact, I think most of it is deplorable, but unless you’ve experienced the same thing, it is hard to say whether or not you would have behaved any differently. I am merely pointing out the obvious double standard. Love him or hate him, Lance is a product of society’s need for heroes and role models. Lance did not create the legend, we did and we do so, for the most part, with eyes wide open.
thank you Dave!
What a shame we hear so much about the Lance Armstrong types of people in the media and not the Betsy Andreu types. She is a champion and a rare individual. She sticks to her strong beliefs and is a great example to her kids, Frankie and the rest of the world. Been praying for you and your family while I have followed the stuff that you have gone through over these many years.
There should be a special day made in honour of you and all the others that have had to endure this abuse but have stayed strong.
All I hear is ‘I want to jump your bones Lance’
Wow, classy comment!
To the Lance Armstrong Supporters,
There is one shred of truth you can hang on to, the
Kool-Aid y’all are still drinking will always freshly squeezed, not from concentrate.
Great article, especially given Lance has the weight of the PR machine by him, it’s nice to read the counter and real facts. Thanks Betsy.
front page of the Telegraph too 😉
As a cancer survivor (same cancer almost the same time) and a cyclist, I was a strong supporter to the end. I hoped I was wrong. I was gutted. And now I feel for all those who were either taken in or steamrolled, like me. I admire the strength of Betsy and all those who stood against him, despite the crap that he threw at them. This wax my letter to lance when it all started coming out mainstream http://wp.me/p243Or-nR
The longer the sport, and Betsy amongst others, blames its entire ills on one man it will never be able to leave its past behind. If Armstrong was such a bully, how come Landis, Hamilton, Heras and a whole host of other riders were caught after they left the Postal team? The drugs work, the vast majority of riders doped, stop blaming one person.
Its a no brainer, John. Armstrong is the only one who made it his mission to do whatever it took to perpetuate his lie. Sure, Landis raised a bunch of money to defend his lie, but that is insignificant in comparison to Lance’s transgressions. He’s the only one who hasn’t come completely clean. If he’s told the entire truth about his doping, then why is it now his mission to keep from testifying under oath. Another no brainer: he goes to jail, because he’s still lying.
What goes around comes around and Lance is getting his due. Thank you, Betsy for your determination and commitment to the truth
AMEN
Over and over and over again you have to have this explained to you?
There are two narratives at work, firstly the people who want justice for having their reputation slayed at the hands of a confessed cheat and secondly the need for Cycling as a sport and an industry to be seen to punish those who bring it into disrepute. Whether we look back with disappointment or not; Lance was the poster-boy of cycling for many years, the hero in the face of adversity. He got more people into cycling than any other individual – whilst the accolades and cheques were rolling in he was happy to be there, sponsorships, contracts, endorsements. The flip side to being the well remunerated global figurehead is that if you dupe the very people who put you there, expect some consequences. The reason why Betsys commentary is so relevant is because she is not only qualified with the truth and she was one of the most heavily hit by Lance’s lies – she is entitled to be seriously angry.
As for letting it sink away without a fuss – screw that! We need to identify these people as the liars and cheats that they are. I am a cyclist and know how difficult it is to get up and train my arse off for tiny increments in results and performance. All the people who have have missed places, contracts or pride by losing out to dopers need to have these people identified in six foot high letters. The message from the UCI and the cycling community at large should clearly be ‘there is no place for cheats within this sport, ever’.
Exactly.
agreed!
Too late for the “there is no place for cheats within this sport, ever” sentiment. UCI, WADA, USADA have all decided that you do get a shot at redemption, whether you deserve it or not. It even applied to Lance, except that he blew them off, believing he was too big, too important, to have to pay for his crimes. Levi’s still out there, riding people into the ground in local races. George traded in his ill-gotten race success for an apparel business. A whole host of others conveniently choose to “confess” past the statute of limitations. Riis manages a team. Vaughters provides a safe haven for dopers-past.
We conveniently ignore the large number who have doped and haven’t been caught, and carry on. We will always have a place for cheats in this sport, as long as they don’t step forward and confess their past & present. I wait for that “I am Spartacus” moment, the day someone steps forward without indictment, within the statutes of limitations, and says “I doped.” And inspires others to do the same, And soon we see a vast army of dopes, every bit as important as those caught and punished.
But it will never happen. And for that reason we will never see a clean sport. As long as scores continue to lie, to carry the secret, it will continue.
Lance is a distraction to fixing this problem. We really need to recognize that dealing with Lance does little to deal with doping in sport. Lance should be dealt with not because of his doping per se, but for the lies and the lives he destroyed to promote those lies. Those he wronged deserve to be made right, at his expense.
But don’t kid yourself that dealing with Lance fixes doping. More likely we’ll make it worse. We can’t appropriately deal with the doping issue as long as we oh-so-carefully try to construct a T&R system whose rules first and foremost are designed to keep Lance from racing again. Burn Lance at the stake in the civil courts. Force him to turn over his ill-gotten gains to those he wronged. Just do it. And then design a “blind” T&R system as if Lance never existed. It’s litmus test should not be whether Lance could possibly race again. –Mike–
Yes, exactly.
Jody: re: “lance got more people into cycling”
Perhaps this is a valid statistic measured w/an uptick in new bikes sold and new racing licenses taken out. It is only slightly offensive to those of us who rode, raced, and followed the Tour de France years before the epo-era which crowned armstrong as its king. Much more offensive to me was the action of Trek Bicycles against Greg Lemond because they sided w/ armstrong. Trek had to know or at least strongly suspect armstrong was doped but as long as he kept winning on Trek, they were happy and willing to side with a cheater. Friends don’t let friends ride Trek.
From 2002-onward, I don’t think anyone, anywhere, believed that you could win the TdF without doping. It was inconceivable that Lance could win clean against a field that was known to be doping. That was the game being played at the time. And regarding crowning Armstrong king and how offensive that is, knowing that he doped, what about Anquetil? What about the French in general, recalling it was Charles de Gaulle who was asked about Anquetil and doping, to which he replied “What does it matter, if the Marseille is played on foreign soil?” It’s ludicrous for any of us to act shocked and surprised, after the first couple of years. –Mike Jacoubowsky, Trek dealer, attendee of 12 of the past 13 TdFs.
Hey Betsy, I sent you (well, Frankie actually) an email years ago telling you how much I admired and respected you guys. You’ve earned even more of my respect these days, and I love what you’ve written here. It’s healthy to hear the truth. Lance has a problem; he just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t know HOW to be completely honest, without trying to gain some sort of victory for himself. He’s just never learned. He doesn’t get that sometimes you have to loose it all in order to really winto win. Sadly, he’s about to find out
Oh, Betsy!! Can you please talk to your husband? Please really talk to him!! I ask that you just once apply the same cynicism to Lance as your “sensitive husband”. Can’t you once realize you’ve been snowed by him just as much as Lance??? Either you truly know how implicated Frankie was or you choose to ignore it. Either way, find out who the true pied piper was… maybe you owe the general public an apology because your 15 minutes are really up. Stop being so bitter and let everyone, including yourself take the blame!!
Cool story Bro.
Joe..Look at where Lance finds himself now. Clearly, he has been lying to us for years and Betsy has been telling us the truth.Have you allowed someone to cloud your judgement?
Joe c: lay off the kool-aid
Franky is caught, franky save his own skin by betraying others including Lance Armstrong.
Don’t try to be something your not. Franky and yourself are part of the Dope era. Your both just as guilty of doping as others.
Only difference between you, your husband and all who testify against Lance Armstrong and Lance himself is that you did it to save you own skin.
Lance Armstrong might not be a nice person but punishment should be equal to all men/women.
Trek employee?
Do you live in cloud cuckoo land. Betsy and and Franky testified to Lance’s doping long before the USADA-case. Already in SCA-deposition they both told about the infamous hospital bed confession by Armstong. And you better believe that Franky has already received an earful from Betsy well before the USADA-case. Get your facts straight!
Keep telling the truth, Betsy! Your point about the timing of Lance’s so-called contacts/apologies is very pertinent. As is the idea of a completely independent body for T and R. Lance has played by his own rules for far too long…. he has to learn that there is an authority greater than him! Wonder if Emma feels she was ‘used’ in the latest Daily Mail meeting?
I have never met a more sincere and moral person as Betsy Andreu.
Having known several players in this incredible saga, and being sucked-in for years because of the “I want to believe” syndrome, I never had a reason to doubt the immense respect I have for Betsy (and Frankie) and Greg.
I was in conflict, and am saddened by the revelation of the facts, but glad I still have heroes in these three; And can rest assured the truth will prevail when there are people like you, Betsy.
Thank you.
Attacking the source…ah yes. When have we seen that before? The paid interns and the defenders of fraudulently earned wealth are at it again. Keep plugging away giuys, hopefully for at least minimum wage in Texas.
Likely the greatest punishment you could heap on Lance Armstrong is to ignore him, to marginalize him, to assign him a high level of irrelevance. Lump him in with all the other guys who doped, drop’em in the dust bin of history and move on as if they have no bearing; *give* them no bearing from here on out. Let’s start talking about the up-and-comers, who’s gonna be good in the spring classics, and hey how about some ongoing publicity for the first Limey in yellow in Paris? 🙂
Way to go, Betsy. That was great!
If someone did to me the kind of damage that the scum bag did to you, Frankie, Greg and everyone else I wouldn’t be as kind to him as you are.
Nailed it. Thank you for continuing to speak out, Betsy.
Too late for an autonomous process. The UCI has already appointed an Olympic insider to manage the investigation. Cookson wants control.
I think Betsy needs to move on with her life. She is reaching the point where I have about as much respect for her as Lance. I feel bad that she is such a bitter person.
Well Bill, since the rebuilding in cycling is important to many of us, and Betsy is one of the big players in that rebuilding process, I am very much interested in what she has to say. Her truths have stood the tests well.
Rebuilding cycling? ROFL
It’s entertainment. They have no obligation to play clean. They are there to sell a product. Some people sell information. Some sell sex. Some sell their bodies.
Some collect huge “appearance fees” at cancer charity fundraisers.
Why is this person a hero to so many? Her claim to fame is ratting someone out after hearing him say something to his doctor. That’s kind of low in my book, true or not.
PEDs in cycling are bad, but so prevalent, it can’t be pinned just on Lance Armstrong. Who knows how all the other cyclists would have behaved if they had received the scrutiny Armstrong has received? That said, I don’t understand why the wife of a cyclist who finished last on the USPS team continues to be so bent out of shape about something that happened 15 years ago. If her husband isn’t this wound up about Armstrong, then I have no idea why she is.
She has continually made two (of many) claims against Armstrong which are ridiculous. “He forced her husband to dope,” and “he ruined his career because he wouldn’t.” She quietly has admitted that her husband raced clean for USPS in the last year of his contract so Armstrong picked him for the TDF roster even though he wasn’t doping. Hardly “forcing” her husband to dope. I don’t doubt that Armstrong strongly encouraged him to dope, and perhaps he pushed because he knew her husband had doped on another team in the past. But when push came to shove, he wasn’t shoved into doping.
Her husband finished 110th out of the 125 who finished the TDF in the last year of his contract. He was turning 35 years old which is “old” for any pro cyclist so the demand for his services was clearly declining. What she doesn’t mention is that Armstrong hired her husband as the assistant team director for the next two years. That is a great opportunity to launch the next phase of his cycling career… a team manager. Hardly “ruining” his career.
This isn’t about her husband’s career, this is about her ego and what happened in court. Every time I see her in the media having a “nuttie” about Armstrong, I visualize Carrie Fisher in The Blues Brothers movie.
Armstrong’s comments about her appear to be spot on…
Yes and then came the SCA-deposition and all of a sudden Frankie couldn’t get employment in cycling anymore and Besty was called a fat, crazy b****. If you are so hung up on facts why then do you list them completely. Pathetic!
He has been a team director pretty much every year since the 2006 deposition, so it’s not “pathetic” to challenge the statement his career was ruined by Armstrong. “Ruined” means he can’t land a job… “Ruined by Armstrong” means Armstrong is the reason why he can’t get a job. To my original point, doping was, and still is prevalent in pro cycling and his more recent tone on doping (while admirable) isn’t what the cycling world wants to hear. If he is getting marginalized in the European race world, blaming Armstrong may make the Andreu’s sleep better at night but it flies in the face of the facts.
It’s been seven years since the deposition and 13 years since andreu raced for Armstrong yet his wife continually puts herself in front of any media outlet that asks her to say something angry. Racing has moved on… even Armstrong has moved on… time for betsy to move on to..
Mr. Armstrong is a piece of garbage. I strongly support a lifetime ban for him, not only from competing in cycling, but all sports.
I do to.. as long as they also do a lifetime ban of all the other cyclists who took PEDs. As far as “piece of garbage,” he started a huge cancer non-profit organization that has helped millions and no one else in cycling (and pretty much all other sports) has even remotely done anything like. Not the Andreu’s… not Jan Ullrich (placed 2nd to Lance in the TDF all those years and doped)… Nobody…
I’m not saying he deserves preferential treatment, but I can’t stand hypocrisy. Hypocrisy by the cycling race leadership… the cycling media… Betsy Andreu… and anyone else. He vigorously defended his illegal PED use and the sport has never seen anything like it. He raced in a pro cycling world where all of the top racers and a good amount of the rest of the field took PEDs. The husband of the “holier than thou” Betsy Andreu husband took PEDs years before on another race team. All of the non-hard core cycling people who act like Armstrong is evil are like those people who get upset when they find out there is gambling at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. Yes… there is gambling at the Tropicana.. and the MGM, and the Luxor, and the… and the…
Huge, I’m fully aware of LiveStrong and the good they’ve done. Although it was funded with Armstrong’s ill gotten gains, and gained status through his name, there are many other people who deserve the credit for its success and the good that it does.
I’m not going to reply to the rest of your opinions. Everyone who had anything to do with Armstrong (even before his cycling career) knows what an egotistical jerk he is.
I stand by my assertion, Mr. Armstrong is garbage.
Could you please list al the good livestrong.org have done, other than make the owners of livestrong.com and Armstrong a heap of money. The cancer whiled was nothing more than that, a shield! Just check how much money was spent on cancer research and how much on cancer awareness. And how many lives have been saved by caver awareness?
It’s too bad Lance took so many along for a ride. I can understand the rationale of a pro-athlete looking for any means to win, but when it’s at the expense of so many others, it’s a real character flaw. But…. I am still amazed he did what he did. I never read comments to that effect. The dude was riddled with cancer, came back from the dead, and kicked some ass. Chemically assisted ass, but he still rode an incredible come back. Besides his sheer determination, what amazes me is that it could be physically done – consistently. That is a testament to the power of pharmaceuticals, legal and otherwise. Simply amazing drugs, I can’t help but think. Missing the point, I know, but remarkable nonetheless.
PROFESSIONAL sports are entertainment. Athletes are entertainers. Get off your soap box. They have no obligation to play clean. They are paid to win, sell, and entertain. Get over it Betsy. You just can’t handle the truth.
Rubbish!
Betsy and Lance both live in binary worlds, which is rarely a good thing. Shades of gray are the norm. The inability to bridge the gap between them is excessively polarizing and eliminates the possibility of agreement with anything but the most-extreme views. Or you say they’re both nuts and move on. But, there’s no question that Betsy is “right” and Lance is “wrong.” There’s no question that Betsy doesn’t have any requirement to move the needle at all, to accept anything other than total agreement with her view of how things went down. She has that right. But her insistence on Lance seeing things her way, acting the way she expects, stops everything in its tracks. Normal people can’t come to terms with this.
And of course you can argue that it deserves to be stopped in its tracks. That there should be no conversation about Lance and his future that doesn’t include his unwillingness to do what Betsy asks. But if that’s how this continues, if we can’t move past Lance for a bit and focus on the rampant doping, the rest of the world has missed an opportunity to change the future for the better. Until we see Lance as a piece of the doping puzzle and not the King, we won’t get anywhere. And we can’t get there from here as long as nothing can move forward until Lance does what Betsy demands.
Betsy=Lance (both binary people)
Lance=Seriously evil person willing to do anything to keep the lie going
LanceAll Things Doping
Supposed to be LanceAll Things Doping at the end of my missive.
OK, so you can’t use the “not equals” symbols here. So what I meant to say is-
Lance does not equal All Things doping
Bitter Betsy, oh god STFU… Who do you exactly think you are anyway? Pretty sure your husband was doping before Lance was and I’m sorry how many races did he win? Did Lance have super special dope that your husband didn’t have access too, I don’t think so.. And exactly what have you done with your life and career? How much money did you raise for cancer? You and your husband are two nobodies. Get on with your meaningless life like the rest us and realize that no matter how much drugs any of us took 99.99% of us could never achieve 1% of what Lance did. Just ask your husband he tried and failed, just like everyone else…
Think again! Although Lance does claim he was only on “low octane” doping prior to his cancer. he was definitely already doping. He probably was doping well before when he was still doing triathlons. As for the rest of your ramblings, you really don’t understand anything of what has transpired, do you?
Jason: Your post already indicates your level of stupidity and we all know (except Jason) what Mark Twain said about stupid people.
Bassons also said that he believed that the overall classification of the Tour would not have changed without doping. “I believe that you have physical and psychological qualities that are outside the norm,” he told Armstrong, before adding “That you are here today, for me, is more impressive than having won seven Tours.” so shut up Betty!!!
Floyd Landis is the man. Respect, bro.
Could someone please tell me what the point is. I don’t think there is a
human being on this planet that does NOT KNOW Lance was lying.
But the continuous outcry by his former friends & teammates is growing old.
You were screwed over – we get it. He lied & cheated – we know it – he told us on national TV.
But this obsession with trying to justify your actions by making movies & writing articles about
the Lance Armstrong era does not make you any better than he is.
You are just as greedy & just as obsessed with getting public sympathy as he is.
IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON PEOPLE.
Do something to help the sport of professional cycling instead of telling us how FUBAR it is.
Quit whining. Get back on the BIKE AND RIDE.
The point is he’s still lying and cheating. You’re a skim-reader right?
haha too true. ‘can someone please tell me what the point is’…. please read the article and others on here. if your ears are shut you ain’t gonna hear nuffink!
Another take on Mr. Armstrong’s coming clean has fascinated me–how each confession still played him as a “hero”. ‘I told my ex wife I would never dope again–and I wouldn’t break that promise to her’. Then–‘my young son asked me if the doping rumors were true, and I just couldn’t lie to him…’
I’m sure my wording is not exact, however; I do remember exactly the inference that was meant to be taken away; that somehow Mr. Armstrong had realized the gravity of his errors and, as only a true hero-champion-(inject title of choice) could accomplish, he was taking the highest form of repentance and honor,–not able to betray those who had real meaning in his life, and unable to break a promise made. (really?)
I’m neither for or against Mr. Armstrong, but I certainly CAN guarantee that people who simply leave their image control it at: ‘ya know? I lied, I’m a screw-up, I’m sorry and I’m going to try to change” are liked SO much better than, “The great and mighty me, could never betray a promise made to my loved ones”. right. Kinda hard to step out of the light of being ‘the great and powerful one’ isn’t it? Of course it is, but a person is never truly known until you see him under stress; and the strength is shown in humility.
as for Ms. Chovie, I agree with most of what you are saying, except that in the entertainment world, generally the injured are also part of the entertainment, however, the victims in the case appear to be human casualty.
Again, no offense meant, I do not believe Mr. Armstrong did any more doping than anyone else, but his trail of destruction appears to be a real issue. Everyone needs to be able to stand up for their own actions. If I am big enough to do the deed, then I need to be big enough to face it also.
That is what Mr. A. appears to want, to still be held in honor, which would not be hard for him, act honorably, come clean, move forward. I think that a sincere effort would give him what he wants, what others want, and put him back into sports like any other athlete who learns from their mistakes. I think the whole issue went further than he wanted, and he is (like the rest of us would), having a hard time dealing with that part. As far as I can tell, the doping isn’t the biggest issue, but many are put off by his attitude. Thank you for reading.
Lance should truely come clean and write a book…..”I’m an as#h#le; get over it”.
Then the public would understand, and we can all move on.
Lance sounds like a bit of a sociopathic twister that only leaves destruction and anguish in his wake.
With how Lance has behaved in the past and how is now so contrite. Do many think the same as me, in that if I was on the wrong end of his crap, you would never tire of hitting him?
i never even met him and i take it all personally…!
Forget the lies, forget the doping ‘allegations’, forget the disgrace he brought to the Tour de France as well as the sport of cycling, forget the millions of fans he repeatedly deceived, forget the fact that a pathological liar rarely becomes the voice of reason,discretion,honor or truth, forget the stripped titles and the lifelong ban, the controversy over his return to cycling, the friendships he destroyed and his absolute (or not) candor during the Oprah interview… After watching the film and staring at him up on the big screen with vacant eyes of steel, a smirk that infuriates and a smart ass ‘in your face’ attitude, I think the more relevant concern is whether he has the demonic ‘666’ inscription concealed atop his big,fat head. Sorry…that sounds a bit harsh and immature but I’d be the liar that he is if I didn’t admit that the thought crossed my mind.
yes, to all the above. and how about this gem?
‘If you really felt it like that, then i am sorry.’ LA to Bassons. not an unequivocal ‘sorry’, but one with conditions. ‘if you aren’t lying, then i’m sorry.’ he is so disingenuous, and yet people lap it up…
Get a life!
Hear hear!