Out of control busy this week so just a few links for you regarding Lance Armstrong. Things seem to be deteriorating extremely rapidly for him, and while we’ll stick with innocent until proven guilty, we have pretty strong suspicions about how this is going to end up. The words of convicted drug cheats Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton are bad, though not necessarily 100% damning, but if Armstrong’s longtime close friend George Hincapie, one of the most stand-up guys in the peloton in recent times, really has corroborated their testimony before the Grand Jury, then…
It’s an extraordinary set of circumstances, with a federal investigation in the US ongoing against Armstrong and his team. The charge they’re being faced with is one of fraud, not doping, which the government has no jurisdiction over (more or less). But because it was the US Postal Team that they were riding for, they are now being investigated because they misused government funding, by buying drugs rather than, say, bikes or helmets.
The case is much better explained here, and the 60 Minutes interview with Tyler Hamilton can be viewed here. A very technical but damning summation of the likelihood of Armstrong using the banned substance EPO can be read here (and if you can wade through some of the medical terminology used it seems to be a very very incriminating interview), and one more summary of the case here.
We’d honestly like to believe that none of all of this is true, or even half-true, but increasingly that seems to be a head-in-the-sand perspective. We shall see.
We’ll pad things out today with a couple of submissions, starting with this from correspondent Geeza Bowman on football:
been a bit of a sour season for us this year so I'll be sour.
No surprise that the top three richest clubs came in 1st to 3rd whilst the poor clubs struggled.
FIFA continue to be corrupt to the point of the useless English FA actually making a mini stand of not voting for either FIFA candidates (they would'nt have worried if they got 2018).
some saving graces here:
- The Chairboys promotion to League One
- Brighton and Southhamptons promotion to Championship
- AFC Wimbledon (proper Wimbledon) being promoted to the football league (2) moving up 6 divisions in 9 seasons (after forming in a local boozer), despite opposition from the FA and having the local council shut their old ground down, ground sharing with Palace and finally having their club sold off as a francise and relocating to Milton f*&ing Keynes. I love what this club has done, two fingers to the facist b*&strds that put them in such dire straits
- Even when The Arsenal disgrace themselves, there's still spineless Sp*rs up the road.
-Geeza
And this on the NBA from Simon The Big Man Garret:
I was in Chicago last month and managed to get tickets to the Bulls vs New Jersey Nets which was the Bulls last game before the play-offs. Only one word to describe it: unbelievable! I have been fortunate enough to attend numerous sporting events all over the world and the only thing that has topped it is going to watch the (once) mighty Arsenal at Highbury. Say what you want about American major league sport and their “world’ series, they certainly do know how to put on a show. It was a fantastic spectacle with Noah dominating the first half before going off injured. The Nets came back in the third quarter and it looked like they might win until Derrick Rose who had done nothing for the first three quarters completely destroyed them in the final quarter to lead them to victory. The crowd was mental the whole game as well and Rose (being a local boy) is an absolute hero in Chicago. They certainly see him as the new Jordan.
Needless to say I am all over the NBA now, these guys are phenomenal athletes and so agile for such big men, if you ever get a chance to go to an NBA game do it – you will not regret it.
-Simon Garret
Thanks for that lads, and apologies for the brevity of this week’s piece, but we should be back early next week with things back to usual. Cheers.
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