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Old 06-08-20, 02:45 AM
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canklecat
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Originally Posted by BillyD
I'm not excusing his behavior by any means, he was an arrogant, entitled, nasty dick by any measure.

But ya know, I have to say . . . how many of us in his position would not have done similar? Here's a guy that finds himself in possession of immense talent and success, and one day you come to realize that the only way to compete in your sport is to cheat like everybody else. Now you find yourself on top of your sport and on top of the world where the lights are brighter and the rewards richer than anything you have ever imagined. Unbelievable fame and fortune. It's intoxicating. It is utterly surreal.

Now you come to realize that in order to maintain this fame you have to lie, of course. And when you see people endangering your position you decide you must discredit them to save yourself. It's either you or them . . . and you pick you. How many people wouldn't do the same in his position. My guess is at least 50% of us would, we don't know, because we have never been in his position of possessing incredible, mind boggling talent and fame. And riches. My argument is that lacking a true appreciation of what that's like you cannot predict what you would do or how far you would go to protect your interests. You THINK you do, but you really don't. Many of us would do it for the riches alone, and go to church routinely on Sunday like nothing happened.

Is he the worst person walking the earth? Far, far from it. (***** is. lol) I just have always thought the Lance hate was just a bit over the top compared to a lot of the creatures walking around disguised as human beings. He cheated in his sport and made a mess of trying to cover it up. We can look around us and find individuals doing things a lot worse every day. And given the opportunity, I'd bet at least half of us would do the same thing.

Just saying.
I finally understood at least part of what motivated Lance after I got cancer. Between that, an injury and long recovery, I realized that I'd probably take anything I could get my hands on to heal quicker and get stronger again.

I don't have his ruthlessness to destroy the lives of people around me. But I could see myself justifying doping at that age and level of ability to get back into the game, knowing it's rigged and everyone else is using PEDs. Heck, Indurain probably did but nobody cares because he's such a nice guy and didn't screw over teammates and business associates.

That was a revelation. I was pretty cynical about Armstrong until I was in a similar situation.

Heck, I take all kinds of over the counter stuff now that's legal to buy and use but would probably be banned even in some amateur competitions. I eat beef liver that's probably swimming in hormones. At 62 I'm not competing so it's irrelevant. I was just willing to try anything legal that I could afford to get back to the condition I was in before the injury and illness. I kinda doubt it helps much, but who knows.
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