
Lance Armstrong: The Road Goes on Forever - scapecast
https://www.outsideonline.com/2237386/road-goes-forever-and-story-never-ends
======
sharkweek
>You cannot see, or feel, the pain he experienced when many of his friends and
colleagues deserted him or when he was forcibly separated from his cancer-
fighting foundation.

Literal LOL on this - Oh poor Lance... I forgot the part of the story where
his friends deserted him, and not the other way around.

If you want a real glimpse into all the people he screwed over, check out the
documentary 'Stop at Nothing'

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ofoGHNTXs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ofoGHNTXs)

In all honesty, as a cyclist, and a fan of professional cycling, I'd be able
to forgive the cheating, everyone was doing it during that era. But the way he
handled everything else was a complete disgrace.

~~~
eksemplar
As a European I never understood why Armstrong had it so rough, almost every
top tour contestant from the era and going back almost 50 years have been
doped, many of them have even admitted it.

Yet Armstrong got completely fucked by it. I used to think it was because
America handles liars and cheats different than us, but looking at your
bankers and wallstreeters go free as well as Trump winning and remaining in
the White House, it seems that you're not rougher on liars and cheats than we
are.

So what was it? Was Armstrong really that much of an asshole?

~~~
kamaal
Armstrong had become some thing more than a successful athlete. He is an
inspiration for anybody who has suffered and lost everything in life and has
come back and done great things in life. He is a cancer survivor, who also won
the most grueling athletic competitions of the modern times.

He must have cheated. But I see it nothing more than those succeed due to
things like affirmative action. And he is hated for exactly the same reasons.
Other capable people do not see why he must be excused or they be made to
swallow up a loss, for a problem that is not theirs.

------
mikestew
Of what little of the article I could stomach, sounds like Armstrong is as
remorseful as ever. I just wonder why Outside magazine still picks up the
phone when Armstrong’s PR agency calls. I mean, is there anyone left that
cares?

~~~
hkmurakami
By remorseful as ever, I take it to mean "not remorseful at all", right? (Not
being facetious, this is my understanding of his attitude)

~~~
mikestew
Yes, I indeed assumed that everyone considers him to be not remorseful at all.
But there should have been a culturally-appropriate sarcasm tag in that.

------
swang
maybe if he owned up to the mistake and maybe hadn't made millions off his
deception, maybe if he actually testified about the drugs and methods he used,
maybe if he didn't fuck over people on his own team.. maybe i would feel some
sympathy.

but fuck lance armstrong.

~~~
esterly
FACT. before you get down voted for no references:
[http://www.espn.com/sports/endurance/story/_/id/8860572/form...](http://www.espn.com/sports/endurance/story/_/id/8860572/former-
employee-says-lance-armstrong-made-life-very-very-unpleasant)

[https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/th...](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/the-
small-petty-fraudulent-vendettas-of-lance-armstrong/267184/)

[http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/20/sport/lance-armstrong-
reha...](http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/20/sport/lance-armstrong-
rehabilitation-cycling/index.html)

[http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lemond-armstrong-has-been-
tr...](http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lemond-armstrong-has-been-trying-to-
destroy-me-for-10-years/)

------
deepnotderp
I genuinely have to ask, what's morally wrong with using PEDs? Instead of down
voting me, please actually respond with an argument.

EDIT: people will say "but it's not fair to those who are "clean". But there
are also people who are at a major genetic advantage. For example, Armstrong
uses EPO, but there are people with genetically higher amounts of EPO in their
body naturally, without synthetic EPO injection, no matter how hard Armstrong
trained he never would've beaten them, how is that fair?

~~~
hyperbovine
Lying about it and competing against people who aren't, duh.

~~~
deepnotderp
But there are also people who are at a major genetic advantage. For example,
Armstrong uses EPO, but there are people with genetically higher amounts of
EPO in their body naturally, without synthetic EPO injection, no matter how
hard Armstrong trained he never would've beaten them, how is that fair?

~~~
hyperbovine
What about people who cannot still compete despite the injections? Should we
allow them to affix a lawnmower engine to their bike and race the Tour de
France? The point you came here attempting to prove inevitably leads to
absurdities. Some sort of criterion is needed for sport to remain competitive
and interesting. "Make do with what you were born with" seems like the most
natural one to me.

~~~
deepnotderp
No because such devices are non-biological mechanical aids. PEDs and genetic
engineering are purely biological means. I would say that it's fair to ban
synthetic oxygen carriers and things like that.

~~~
hyperbovine
Which is no more or less arbitrary than saying that PEDs ought to be banned
because they are unnatural. So it's a moral issue, not something that can be
settled by logic. The question becomes, where do we draw the line? Most people
seem to agree that "play the hand you're dealt in life" is acceptable.

~~~
deepnotderp
Not really, because most PEDs have no continuous effect in the body that's
synthetic, they all synthetically _induce natural effects_. For this reason I
say that synthetic oxygen carriers should be banned, since you cannot
naturally acquire that.

------
tryingagainbro
Sure he is sorry--that all his lies and manipulations didn't work. He also
tried to ruin the lives of those that told the truth, so screw him.

~~~
Caballera
you mean those that told the truth after they got caught? Or those that told
the truth after claiming for YEARS that they weren't cheating, and then later
confessed, and threw everyone under the bus? Those people?

~~~
gammarator
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christophe_Bassons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christophe_Bassons)

------
eadmund
> A month later, he reached an agreement to do podcast coverage of the
> Colorado Classic stage race, but concerns raised by USADA prompted
> organizers to cancel the deal.

That seems pretty awful. Sure, he's banned for life from cycling, but should
he be banned for life from commenting? That seems too much for me, too much by
far.

> His WeDu partner is a former professional racer (once part of the U.S.
> Postal team) and Silicon Valley executive named Dylan Casey. “To be a good
> cyclist, you have to love suffering,” says Casey, who until recently worked
> for Yahoo.

I'm sorry, I know it adds nothing to the conversation, but seriously … I
snickered. There's no way the reporter didn't do this on purpose.

~~~
astrodust
> That seems too much for me, too much by far.

Oh, you know, he only came to represent the worst excesses of doping and
covering up, so let's give him a pass and welcome him back as a _literal_
spokesperson for the sport!

At this rate Bill Cosby will be hosting the Oscars.

------
bronz
what the hell is going on with this web site? this is the most perfect news
web site i have ever seen in my entire life. there is not a single false note
in their entire presentation. after a video is done playing, a white border
tastefully wraps around the next video to play. all of the visual design looks
great. there are no annoying pop ups or weird pop down banners or anything
like that. and the content is really nice too, all done very well. it is
almost strange to come across a site where there are no glaring errors of
presentation or execution. i really have to commend these people.

------
bitmapbrother
I often wonder if Armstrong could have avoided all of this had he simply made
the decision not to return to the Tour De France after his retirement.

~~~
hndamien
He could have avoided it by being a nice person.

------
olivermarks
I sat a few feet from Armstrong at the 2012 SAP/ASAUG Sapphire conference as
he was performing his keynote speech. This was before his admissions around
doping and at the height of the livestrong wrist bracelets etc, but I sensed a
fakeness, particularly in his eyes as he spoke.

If Armstrong is worth 100 million as this article suggests he will have no
trouble funding a pr campaign of the type this article smells of. At least
Bell Pottinger have gone out of business, but there are many other pr firms
that will do anything for money. Never underestimate the power of money and
the media machine [https://youtu.be/-glDd70H5os](https://youtu.be/-glDd70H5os)

It's disappointing to see Outside peddling this sort of positioning.

------
bronz
i knew a guy in highschool who was really into bicycles. one time i was
talking to him about lance armstrong and he commented on how he has met him
one time, and that he was a complete asshole. then he said that lance
armstrong was using steroids during all his races and that he employed special
techniques in order to evade the drug tests. this was in around 2007.
obviously i thought that my friend was completely full of shit.

------
kdamken
Oh no! The bad man cheated at bicycling! How will the world ever recover?

On a serious note, I'm always surprised when people are surprised that top
level athletes, businessmen, etc resort to cheating and unethical actions to
stay on top. At that level, you basically need to be a sociopath who is
willing to win by any means necessary.

------
Overtonwindow
I've forgiven him. He got me off the sofa and onto the bike as a kid and has
been a great inspiration ever since. Everyone doped, and I believe including
Greg LeMond. Let the man get on with his life.

