Bikeradar - The world is for riding

quite simply to all these people having a go at him *cough* you do better?! *cough*

and well done him for managing to finish a marathon in under 3 hours and for raising awarness for livestrong

I was wondering how to write a decent flame.

Hope the foam coming out of your mouth and the steam from your ears didn't bust your computer Aurelio!

I also hope you're on track for winning the Tour de France without doping, and that you break the world record for the marathon at Beijing this summer too.

LOL at you and your bile!

Oops! I of course meant to say that Armstrong failed to finish 3 of his first 4 Tours. He had a good year in 1995, managing to finish 36th, 'only' one and half hours down on the winner, Miguel Indurain!

Armstrong a 'natural'?!!! I guess that's why, unlike people such as Merckx, he didn't even mange to finish any of his first four Tour de France's! OK he had a certain talent as a one day-rider but never showed any sign of being a potential Tour winner, even in 1993 when he won the world RR championships and so was probably already pretty much 'on top of his game' he was only 81'st in the prologue, lost 6.04 in the 59 km Lac De Madine TT, lost 21.42 on the 10th stage from Serre Chevalier via the Galibier, lost a whopping 28.47 on the 11th stage which finished at Isola 2000 and then on the next day's flat stage to Marseille either did not finish or did not start. In 1994 he lost 6.23 in the 64 km TT to Bergerac, was 65th and lost 7.03 on the finish at Hautecam (the only climb of the day), lost 20.09 on the 12 th stage to Luz Ardiden via the Tourmalet, was 114th and another 5.56 down on stage14 to Montepelier which had only one climb and failed to finish the next stage to Carpentras via Ventoux. Some 'natural' Tour winner!

As to Armstrong never having 'done drug's. How about his positive for steroids, those 6 retrospective positives for Epo in the 1999 Tour and the claims of so many in the Armstrong camp that he did dope, including his former team mates, soigner, mechanic and team doctor? How about the comments about the use of "800 ml of packed cells" within the Discovery team? How about Armstrong's bullying and persecution of those who spoke out about doping such as Bassons and Simeoni? How about the fact that Armstrong worked with the king of doping doctors, Michele Ferrari, for so many years? How about Armstrong's own admission of doping, as witnessed by people such as Stephanie McIlvain who, despite her later denial when faced with the sack from Oakley if she insisted on speaking the truth, openly admitted that yes, she did hear Armstrong admit to doping with EPO, steroids, testosterone and all the rest?

http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2132106/m/gregstef.mp3

To return to Armstrong's marathon performances, they are pretty feeble for a supposed genetic freak, being on a par with what any reasonably dedicated club runner should achieve within a couple of years. I also don't see what Armstrong's recovery from cancer has to do with anything, other than he came back to cycling intent on making the most of his survival (a common attitude in those who have escaped death) and filled with a desire to do ANYTHING necessary in order to humiliate those he felt had written him off and to 'pi-ss off' The French for questioning how he achieved his wins.

I get the feeling you would benefit from reading the following! ;-)

http://www.amazon.com/Lance-Landis-Inside-American-Controversy/dp/034549962X

Aurelio think before you type, the winner did it in 2:07, almost 30 seconds short of setting a new record. Its impossible to expect a sub 2 hour marathon for someone who started SERIOUSLY running a few years ago. In Tour de France he has a team to help win it, here in a marathon he is all by himself. I admire him as running is a physically demanding sport to the knees, and about the doping, 7 times its a IN YOUR FACE champion that he is born a natural. He has never done any drugs, also lets not forget he survived testicular cancer, simply a unique human being, one of a kind.