RobbieTunes

I've actually been asked more about LA and doping than I've ever been asked about cycling or bikes in general.

rhm

I would rather tell them what Coppi is said to have said.

Q. Did you ever use "the bomb" (amphetamines)?
A. Only when necessary.
Q. Was it often necessary?
A. It was always necessary.

shoota 

^^ This. The whole LA thing was such a witch hunt

repechage

I live in the greater Los Angeles area, so LA is just a place.

In Southern California the local blogs mention as fact that many masters class racers are amped up, train like the pros you know. If you look at these guys at the races one does wonder how so many guys in their middle 50's got to what appears to be single digit body fat.

Nobody asks.

Refresco

Not directly, no. But the only "insult" or name drunk Penn State students know to shout out their car windows or from the sidewalk is "YEAH, YOU GO LANCE!" They think they're being original, but I hear that one three times at least on the average friday night

Chrome Molly

I "work" as an indoor group cycle instructor on "livestrong" bikes as my "fun job". The topic comes up constantly.

I have no horse in the race, but really try to shift the focus to the psychology of LA and people like him (as in we're better than that - so it becomes a conversation where both of us can assume a moral high ground). I tell people if they really want to learn how to ride, watch the youtube videos of the TDF from the mid 80's (back when cadence wasn't in the stratosphere). We deal with it often because it's become a conversation starter for people that wouldn't really have much to ask a GC instructor.

bobbycorno

I have three observations for those who ask.
1) It fits with his approach to the sport: he had the best teammates, the best organization, the best equipment, the best training program, of course he had the best dope.
2) He's a pro athlete. You combine that kind of money with than kind of egos, what do you expect?
3) Pro athletes as role models? Oh, please. We pay them to entertain us because they're very good at what they do. It's not as if what they're doing actually MATTERS.

SP
OC, OR
yes, I very much enjoyed watching Lance smoke the opposition for those seven years. He doped? Oh, well.

sykerocker 

Yep. I've gotten the feeling that at least half the people asking me about Lance are doing so for the entertainment value of watching me squirm. And they're surprised with my vehement attitude that Lance STILL won seven Tours de France, yes he cheated but so did everybody else - so he did nothing more than put himself on a equal footing with all the other contenders. And I'm not expecting a saint if nobody competing is willing to try for sainthood, either. If someone is expecting to see me squirm in embarrassment, they've hit on the wrong person.

Then again, I'm a baseball fan, so as soon as I mention Mark MacGuire, Barry Bonds, etc., nobody questions my attitude.

sykerocker 

Then again, up in Happy Valley they can take pride at trying to diffuse a untenable situation by blaming it all on a dead man. Welcome to another "tarnished" hero that I'll happily defend. With more vehemence than Lance.

ThermionicScott 

In my case, it's people harmlessly trying to make small talk. They heard the news, their brain goes "hey you're a cyclist", and so the dots are connected.

It rarely goes very far, because I wasn't interested in cycling during the Lance era, and don't have a horse in that race. So to speak.

rhm

+1
I sometimes reply that since W didn't really win the 2000 election they're taking his first term of office back as well. Which, to me, makes about the same amount of sense.

Refresco

Amen. Although I have to admit, I am glad I am one of the few in this town that doesn't like football. Or pick up trucks. Or buzzing cyclists from their pick up trucks.

eschlwc

had no idea armstrong was now more popular than the nation's second largest city, overtaking its designated abbreviation. well done, lance.

calstar 

Yeah, I was surprised when the topic wasn't about Los Angeles.

and


Bobbycorno: "Pro athletes as role models? Oh, please. We pay them to entertain us because they're very good at what they do. It's not as if what they're doing actually MATTERS".

Unfortunately I have to agree with this cynical point of view.

Nitram612

Over the years I have gotten pretty used to random people on the street yelling out "LANCE ARMSTRONG!" when they see me riding along. Lately I have been hearing "JIMMY JOHNS!" more and more, especially when I am close to the university.

auchencrow

No one asks me about LA.
What would I know about LA?
I'm not from LA, never been to LA.

AZORCH

"Lance" as a conversation starter or nickname is always a dead end. Fact of the matter is that it's simply an easy way for non-cyclists to make some sort of connection. But it really is ultimately a dead end, because the extent of their knowledge really does boil down to: "Lance Armstrong Tour de France doping." Then awkward silence because they have nothing else to contribute beyond uninformed opinion. I'm good with that.

Velognome 

Are they gonna have to walk up some of the hills this year?

puchfinnland

Im honestly getting tired of the L A bashing,

why is no one bashing coppi anymore?

OK Lance was so harrased about it that he just got fed up and said "you win-leave me the fxxk alone!"

how many others did NOT take drugs?

why dont they test the entire 1-20th place and try to look for an innocent person.

no matter what he still finished the TDF in front of all the other drug takers 5x.

Poguemahone

Mostly, non-cyclists (if they talk about cycing to me at all) complain that no cyclists ever obey traffic laws, pay any taxes, and are generally low life scum.

Then they peel off, run a few stop signs at high speed, and celebrate that they're driving a vehicle on the gubbamint dole.

LA, never.

EBH

Am not really being asked that much about him, but...
C*nt of a man he is. His arrogance and threatening behavior towards whistleblowers and such was just unreal. That's the thing about LA that really sticks out for me, compared to all other cheats.

RobbieTunes

I just say that as far as I can tell, it was normal, and there is an effort to change that.
I truly only know what I've read, and no one's answered my questions.

I really can't say much else about it. There are so many side issues, front issues, back issues.
Now, if they want to sit and drink and talk about, I'll see what I can do.

I only watched the events, and they were amazing, always are.

Gravity Aided

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9YL04v-J5U

Kind of covers the waterfront, but Bill Burr makes some good points.

Italuminium

So often in fact, that I wrote a 1000 word essay on my position in the Lance case. No, not translated yet, still in Dutch, but the main drift is that the major sin of Lance is not the doping, but turning cycling into a vehicle for "the good cause", and thus introducing the American, evangelical moral hypocrisy in a dirty Catholic European game, and in the end getting busted under the conditions he created himself. MAybe I'll translate it one day.

rootboy 

Sometimes. But I direct them to Portland instead. Or even Poughkeepsie.