UKC

some of his dues:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/43832785

Prick.

Let’s just ignore the other 170 riders in the peloton then and focus on persecuting the one person then should we ?

Oh and Landis sues Armstrong ha ha ha ha ha h ah ha ha, the irony !!

I'm quite content for LA to be 'persecuted' as persecution was very much his M.O. when it came to keeping people quiet. Seems like poetic justice to me. Or maybe just justice.

Maybe the one took things to a higher level when he  sued for libel himself?

Actually if you listen to his podcasts he comes across as very reasonable.

I like the guy. He doped in bike racing in an era when doping was rife. So what. 

As for all the 'persecution', there are two sides to every story and it is very lazy to simply vilify Armstrong. 

Publically he did when he was making the Irish physio's and Lemond's lives a misery with his lies, half truths and bullying. Any goodwill I had for Armstrong is long gone.

Not to mention Christophe Bassons or Betsy Andreu. Considering he is acussed of defrauding the US Government he seems to be getting off very lightly.

The fact they settled for such a small sum suggests the prosecution case was very weak. 

As for Betsy Andreu, there are plenty of rumours that she gives as good (if not better) than she gets. (one example).

It clearly wasn’t weak. He signed an agreement with the US Postal Service that he would not dope, he doped. The issue was just the degree of personal financial liability.

I’m sure there are, Armstrong started a lot of them.

Errrr yes, it clearly was weak, or they wouldn't have settled for such a small sum. Whatever your opinion, that is the outcome and therefore the reality. 

That’s not how it works.

Sponsorship is branding and pursuing the case damages the brand.

A $5M settlement damages the brand less than a $20M settlement.

A $100M court victory is the ultimate nightmare, pyrrhic in fact.

Oh lordy, yes it is. Exactly how it works. 

???? I hope you're not a lawyer, or a brand manager (or whatever such non jobs are called)

He’s without doubt a very bad person who did some very bad things to a lot of people, but so were a lot of other people that have kept up their omertà, a lot of which were or still are still involved in the sport, Riis, Virenque, Vinokourov, etc. etc.

i can’t help thinking the professional cycling game wouldn’t be half of what it is now without the hype that Armstrong whipped up and the sponsors started falling over themselves to be involved, the progression in technology and a myriad of other improvements.

That's quite a common trait in controlling psychopaths.

Armstrong’s guilt isn’t in question. $100m was more than 3 times US Postal’s spend on the team. Claim high and settle at a level that you are happy with is very much how things work in the US. He has also had to pay Landis’s legal fees.

Is there anything about Armstrong’s personality that suggests to you that he would settle if he thought he had even the slightest chance of beating it?

Can't you imagine the possibility it being better to quietly forget about this than turn to waste the 2018 USPS marketing budget?

I concur

Its all a bit sad really - he inspired so many before the downfall.

How do you like your apples ?!

It did wreck the authenticity of a pivotal scene in Dodgeball.  

I believe Vino's fraud case - for buying the 2010 LBL - is due in court next month. I wonder if they have subpoenaed Uran's bank account details from 2012 ? 

I can't see the merit in US Postal's case. What have they suffered ? They paid for publicity and they got publicity. Did everyone who used their services at the time when Armstrong was the all-american hero claim a refund when, several years later, he revealed all ?

I'd be quite happy to see Armstrong bankrupted if the money went to those who did suffer - Emma O'Reilly, Betsy Andreu, Greg Lemond - but instead the guy who benefits is Floyd Landis - every bit as vindictive and deceitful as Armstrong, and still unwilling to be honest about his own cheating.   

In cider.

That's a bit harsh, I only posted the news!

I wasn't shooting the messenger.  

Oh for Goodness' sake, who suffered from Vino buying the LBL? Not me, I love the guy. And so does Lord Chris of the Rift. So you should be happy as well.

You omit to mention that few/no other people in cycling have done as much to intimidate and bully their critics into silence, or been as comfortable with ruining their careers if it's meant saving their own reputations. It's this which is why I dislike him as much as I do. It might be true that he raised the profile of cycling, and might be true, pretty much, that 'everybody was doing it' (there were a few people who weren't, one of whom faced unpleasantness from Lance Armstrong while competing, with Lance either intimidating him into packing it in or attempting to - in the event he couldn't compete with any chance of finishing high up enough in the field because he wasn't doping), but there's not a single professional cyclist who has purposefully done as many negative things against people who were actually telling the truth, because the longer he kept the lies going, the more he had to fight back against anybody telling a counter narrative to his own. It's for this that I dislike him, probably more than the cheating within the field of cycling, I see him as a man without a tiny bit of honour. To me it doesn't matter that other cyclists doped, because it's about what he did to other people to cover up his lies. 

Sharron Osbourne put it very poetically, I think, when talking about somebody else. 'He's a piece of shit, he's a piece of shit. He's worse than a piece of shit, shit makes flowers grow.'

I bet even the flies don't like his shit, because it's tainted with dishonour.  

Armstrong has got Future US President written all over him. Harsh I know, but he really is that bad.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-greg-lemond-20150221-column.html

This is a part of what I mean by Armstrong not caring if other people suffered in the covering up of his cheating and lies.  

It's not just the derision which came his way, Armstrong (or his lawyers) actually set out to blacken Lemond's name, and imply he had drugs problems, and had possibly conversations with Armstrong or other parties about himself partaking in doping.

I agree - I don’t really care about thedoping because it was systemic, but his bullying was just something else. I do find him interesting to listen to though, I must admit. 

And let's not forget, like Bertie, he was a very talented cyclist and a joy to watch before all the doping revelations emerged. 

knew he had to be taking something when he said he had been to the Moon.

He never stops winning.