Off Topic The "Discuss Anything Else" Thread

The LiveStrong foundation and the whole cancer awareness he brought to it was remarkable, as was his 7 Tour victories with his totally full on personal presence which carried him through his whole career. And yes, I suppose you could argue that in the end he 'did' actually 'ride' those Tour victories, he didn't go missing to pop up about 100km down the road and start the ride. I mean that's real cheating isn't it - They used to do that back in the 30's & 40's. Yes, he gave us performances that when watched back again make you go 'wow, how the hell did he do that...?', 'How good was Lance over the Gallibier' etc...

BUT...

If you read into the whole story from start to finish from getting riders, doctors & newspapers to lie for him then the story starts to darken. The way he treated Greg Lemond, a very fine Tour winner, was despicable, dragging his name through more than the just the mud is very much questioned. He also got people to bring the drugs to him with the knowledge that once they did he knew they could snitch on him but then threatened them with lawsuits to counter any such claims that they would or could do. And threatened their lives should they even think about snitching. - (See Floyd Landis & Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy...)

His out right bravado towards David Walsh, a newspaper reporter who first called him to question about the whole drug issue, showed his psychotic side to which he carried on for a very long time, even after his conviction...!! See the Opera Winfrey interview if you want to see a man manage his whole disgraced downfall...!! What an egotistical megalomaniac he was on that little piece...!!

I have no problem with anyone saying 'well, they all did it, he just did it better' and there are a lot of them around back in the day, Pantini, Ulrich to name but two of the 50+ that were caught, it's just a shame that the sport to which I have a great affection for is still seen as a dodgy, drug infused sport, where no one can win any Tour without some people questioning the victory. That is the legacy that the UCI & Lance have created by not killing off the drug cheats a long time ago to which it may never go until we have moved on from this planet...

I respect your call Oddy, and Smoke, it's your thoughts, but I am as far away from your thinking as is possible here...


Just as another thought, I think, and hope, that Usain Bolt is as clean as he says he is...?? Just imagine that one of the greatest ever sprint athletes is now caught from taking drugs in the sport he so calls loves...?? Just imagine the impact it would have on sport in general...??

Lance was talked up as being the greatest cyclist ever once over...??

Also think how you, we, all of the squillions of sports fans around the world would feel if we all knew that to get to the top you just need to take drugs...?? And that debate could go on for a very long time indeed...

 

Summed my view up of Lance Armstrong and the era pretty well there Red . Yes he was a great rider but as a person he was/is terribly flawed. His treatment of some of the little people like his former physio when she gave evidence against him was reprehensible. I read his book (Not about the Bike - was he taking the p*** with that title?) long after it was published and really enjoyed it. You couldn't read it and not be moved by it and I was also struck by how madly in love with his misses he was. Less than 3 months after I finished it he was dating Sheryl Crow! As my dear ol nan would have said "he's a rum un that one".

 

"The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" is in the news again in Germany (don't think it's shown its face in predominantly Catholic Bayern, as yet, but you never know as it's a mad mad world we live in nowadays):

http://www.dw.com/en/german-courts-take-on-the-flying-spaghetti-monster/a-39943249

Also, just last year, the New Zealand branch was in the news when a pastafarian couple tied the noodly knot, with the ceremony officiated by an ordained "Ministeroni."

"A pastafarian couple in New Zealand has become the first to "tie the noodly knot" in a legally recognized ceremony officiated by an ordained "Ministeroni" from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster."

http://www.dw.com/en/church-of-the-...ducts-legal-wedding-in-new-zealand/a-19192761

 

Lord, the club has certainly deteriorated of late, but the fans have improved, for damn sure!

 

Very nice. Just as well she didn't say "Up the R's"

 

Just happened to be looking up Blue Badge, to see what it was and got this


Bloody hell, I hope the defence systems are better than that

 

"I'll have a $10.00 e/w Yankee on...................."

 

The son in law?

 

Somebody has to be the first to say it:

WENGER OUT​

Same old, same old from the Gooners – must be 5,000/1 for the title by now and it is not even September!

Must get some placards made, get down to the Emirates Stadium and sell them to the long suffering as they enter...

 

Have to admit to this being the first time I have ever read "The Papers" from the BBC website. Leave it to you to judge on the presentation of some of the stuff from the tabloids. Did watch the "Diana" feature on German TV with the recollections of this tragic event by her two sons. A couple of fine lads in every sense IMHO; she would have been justly proud of them.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-the-papers-41019537

 

Every time I see these type shows advertised, I can't help but think that producers are preying on our emotional content at the expense of Diana. It's sort of like. "Let's see if we can wring a few more bucks out of this thing."

 

Yes, sometimes it appears we have completely lost the plot?

 

Even that grinning buffoon Blair managed to get in on the act.

The whole Diana thing was a complete joke from the minute that it was announced that she was dead. The “People’s Princess” was never the brightest tool in the box and she proved it by getting in her boyfriend’s car and letting a drunk smackhead speed them through Paris to their deaths. Is it time to recycle any conspiracy theories yet?

Just to prove the mind-numbing banality of the great unwashed, they then had a day of caterwauling in the nation’s capital as her coffin was paraded past. Twenty years on they will doubtless come up with something similarly gut wrenching.

The lead item on the BBC one o’clock news was nothing more than a promotional trailer for their program on Sunday with interviews with William and Harry. Must find some paint to watch dry instead...

 

Ah, to heck with it. If that's what some people think then so be it.

 

Say, Cyc, how's this for watching Rugby League? Yours for US$10.72 from an outfit called Newchic!

Problem I have with it is the peak, looks more like a shoe insert than a peak?

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SH and Cyc - www.hutbreiter.de

 

Yes there's some chic stuff there, perfect for Rugby fans...........

Cyc's gonna have a fit when he wakes up. Think I'll go down to Salzburg tomorrow...

 

Zipfer Bierhaus?

 

I'm actually a bit of a hat man, I have about a dozen of them, although I'm not into new chic yet guys. I'm still struggling with how to wear a cap.

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