Hold onto your hats, ladies:
What a dish! "Jean Vois" as he's known in France, when he was very young and very blond.
Even earlier, here he is looking slight scary in his German National Team kit:
Or he could possibly be delivering the post, I'm not quite sure.
Will this be the shortest blog entry ever made? Will I be able to resist making a comment about Lance Armstrong? No, and No.
Poor old Lance is under fire again: and I'd like to make the following point. OK the following two points.
Point One - I am not a Lance Armstrong fan. I've read two of his books, and he is amazing, and possibly the strongest person alive today (not in the weightlifting sense!).But I'm not particularly a fan, so don't send me hate mail.
Point Two: some people and some cycling press are making a big deal out of the fact that Armstrong always says something like "500 tests and never once positive". They say that "never been tested positive" is not the same as "never did drugs".
Well, they are right, it's not the same, but remember that Armstrong had cancer, he had four rounds of chemotherapy, which is about the worst thing you can do to a human body. As part of his recovery, he was put on EPO: everyone knows that, he's never tried to hide it, it's part of the medical regime. When it was no longer necessary to keep him alive, he stopped using it. It was months before he was riding and racing again.
But for the rest of his life he can NEVER make that statement "I've never done drugs". If he did, he'd have to same something like "I have never taked PEDs except for that time during and after chemotherapy but before I started racing again." Not as catchy as "never once positive", is it?
Furthermore, Armstrong has certainly investigated every legally allowable chemical/natural remedy/regime that might help: he says quite openly in one of his books that he had/has been taking some extract of calves' liver or something equally delicious-sounding ("not", as the kids say) which may or may not be banned at some point in the future.
So his statement of his drug position would have to include "and I have never taken a banned substance while it was actually banned" and people just love pulling that sort of statement to pieces, don't they?
Personally, bearing in mind he's now retired from pro cycling, I think it's time to let the whole thing drop. I know that the US government is concerned about the all the money they put into US Postal, and Certain People (Landis, I mean you) are trying to suggest that the US people have a right to know if their taxes have been used to support someone who may have got some of their victories under the influence of PEDs. But Landis only suggested this when he was unable to "get back" at Armstrong in any other way. All his other attempts to put the blame on Armstrong for his, Landis', use of drugs have failed miserably, so he decided to prod the US Government into doing it for him. What a weasel, eh? Well, that's my view.
And as for Contador: against my better judgement, I am now forcing myself to hope that he is cleared, so that Our Glorious Leader (*pause for fanfare of trumpets*) can kick his bony little butt good and proper later on this year. So there! And thanks Susanne, for that inspiring thought.
Now, do we have any less-than familiar pics of Our Glorious Leader to end on? How about this one:
Headphone guy is saying "So, I hear that you're seeing Coug?" "No, no," replies Andy "I don't know where these rumours start, we're just friends. See, you've made me sneeze now."
Isnt't there a saying "throwing good money after bad?" As U.S. citizen I'm pretty dang annoyed that my tax dollars are now being spent on investigators trotting all over the globe to get to the bottom of the did he or didn't he case with Lance. I don't think we'll ever know anyhow. Why can't we focus on making sure the current riders are clean and being supported by their teams and sponsors to be honest. Maybe the media can cover something other than what Lance might or might not have done a decade ago. Really there are some amazing U.S. Cyclists that would love some positive attention (oh and of course there are amazing Lux and Tas riders as well).
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note... Wow! Jens!
I thought Unndy was about to puke...
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Larry isn't whether or not he doped as such. Let's face it, most people did back then. The alleged cover-ups are surely the problem with this case - that has to be dealt with.
I've been influenced by my brother when it comes to cycling so I disliked Larry before I even knew what the Tour was. Now I actually know something about him and what bugs me is that people use the fact that he survived cancer as a argument for his innocence. He survived cancer, helped raise millions and therefore he didn't dope?
Jensi reminds me a bit of my dad in that picture! xD Not so much in the second picture... Well, he is from East Germany.
Awww...Jensi's got a mullet! So cute!
ReplyDeleteAndy is just looking at my number I wrote in the tissue...or could it be that he's quite upset when he found out that I fancy Jakob more than him now
The investigation into Lance's past is harmful to the sport, especially for cycling in the U.S. I wish they would bury it and move on. It was a different culture then, and fans and cyclists know it. So why drag the sport through the mud just to prove a known point? I would rather focus on the present and future.
ReplyDeleteJensi was rocking a solid "vokuhila" back in the day. :) Once a stud, always a stud.
Coug, did you know I met* Our Glorious Leader?
*using the very broad definition of this word. :P
GNASHER! Tell us more, tell us more! (*sung in style of Grease*)
ReplyDeleteOr, even better, write a post for Bananas About Bikes at http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ as hopefully it's far too long and detailed to add as a comment! Or, or, do you still have your blog? (*pause while I go to look.*)
Oh! There it is! Go, folks, go: http://trailsofangeles.blogspot.com/
Read all about the sweat-sisters! Gnasher, that's brillliant, write more!
Other responses: AGREED let it drop. Whatever happened then, it's different now.
JENSI, what a cutie, glad you all liked it!
No, Andy wasn't puking or upset (you strange people, you!) he is clearly laughing, just look at those cheekbones...
Coug (*goes off to read Gnasher's blog again, and try to become a Follower for the third time.. what's wrong with Blogger these days? Fede can't comment on her own blog, I can't Follow Gnasher's, and half the time I can't even access my own one!*)
Did you know that in Japan they believe that if you sneeze someone somewhere in the world is talking about you at that moment? I read that once somewhere and this post made me think of it xD
ReplyDeleteMullet or not, I still think Jensi is absolutely adorable! Great Blog, I'm a new follower and looking forward to reading during the Tour and love all the Andy pics!
ReplyDeleteHey Lauren, welcome to Schleckland, hope you enjoy the blog! As you have probably realised, I have 0% originality and 0% ideas, I rely on all you lot to give me suggestions.... so do feel free to suggest anything that interests you. As long as it's not too rude!
ReplyDeleteCoug
I'll try to stay on my best behavior!
ReplyDelete