RAGBRAI LI Route Announced on Jan. 27!

How would Lance Armstrong be recieved at RAGBRAI?

In a positive manner, in light of all his work in fighting to raise money for the fight against cancer? Or negatively as someone who cheated in the sport we all love and then tried to manipulate people to cover up his actions?

As I see it: Sometimes bad people do good things, and good people do bad things. Whether Lance is good or bad is not to be decided by me, but the work of Livestrong certainly deserves to be acknowledged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZISrrME0Aaw

90 Replies

indianafrank, January 15, 2013 at 11:13 am

If I could ban words, the first phrase I would ban this year would be human garbage. I’m personally pretty sick of the hyperbolic, self-righteous ranting already. I wonder whether people hold the same vitriolic hatred for all the other winning pros of the last 25 years who were caught doping, including Merckx. Just remember, after Armstrong was stripped of his titles, the tour decided they wouldn’t name any new winners because everyone close to the top was also doping.
But I don’t think we have to worry about Armstrong showing up at Ragbrai. He’ll ride by himself, the way most of us do.

#468479

Frisky77, January 15, 2013 at 11:24 am

Good thing its a free country and you don’t have the right to ban words. Because I couldn’t think of a more apt description for this person. I don’t think he is garbage for cheating. However if any of the other “winning pros” from the past twenty-five years tried to ruin as many lives as Armstrong did I will call that person the same thing. So yes, its more so the bullying that leads to my description. Did you bother to read the article about what he did to Emma O’Reilly? Do you have any sympathy for her or only sympathy for how her perpetrator is being called out on a message board?

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ts, January 15, 2013 at 12:33 pm

Personally, I would not welcome Lance unless he gave assurances that he was totally clean of PEDs. RAGBRAI is not the place for anyone using performance enhancing drugs. Performance reducing drugs, on the other hand, are not only welcome, but almost required. I would be happy to buy Lance a beer as a way to start him down the path to redemption.

#468500

Michrider !!!, January 15, 2013 at 12:45 pm

I don’t believe Lance is relevant to RAGBRAI! I was there in 2006 & 2007 when Lance rode. His presence did little except to increase the crowds!!! Let Lance get acceptance & his publicity someplace else!!!!!

#468501

Jboz, January 15, 2013 at 12:58 pm

I would welcome Emma O’Reilly on RAGBRAI. With open arms. And I would buy her a beer. I would even let her massage my aching quads.

#468502

Iceman, January 15, 2013 at 4:11 pm

How would I receive Lance at RAGBRAI? With respect for an incredible athlete, but not with reverance or disdain. My disdain is reserved for the egocentric jerks at USADA.

We’ve all heard the cliche about “burning down the barn to get rid of the rats.” That’s what we have had here on the Lance deal. Yes, Lance doped. Yes, it was wrong. No, he does not deserve any favors or special treatment. But the extent to which USADA went to get him tells me there was another political agenda going on – I’d be curious to “know who they know.” And in the process, professional bike racing took a hit from which it will have a hard time recovering. USADA burned down the barn to get rid of the king rat and ironically I think they are the real villains here. Lance’s public career was pretty much over anyway by the time the USADA deal hit full force. They could have have cut a deal with him privately to effectively keep him from ever showing up again on any podium – as a participant or as an awards giver – and concurrently start up the mother of all drug programs for pro bike racing. But no – they chose to humiliate Lance in public (which alone would have been fine with me) but in the process they have totally screwed bike racing. Now we have seen long time sponsors like SaxoBank drop out. I expect more. How much will the viewership of the Tour drop this year, especially in North America? How many less Treks will be sold? How many local bike shops will be affected. USADA blew through all this with not a care in the world for the bike racing public which, ironically, they were supposed to protect. Lance started it but USADA finished it with a nuclear bomb that was just not necessary.

#468519

RonB, January 15, 2013 at 4:34 pm

For some reason I can’t quote, so hope this gets posted. A few points:
1) My how the tone has changed here over the past few weeks. Many LA apologists are now flaming him. It’s about time!
2) SFC JKL2 – “A great day for liberal America”. I didn’t realize that outing a liar and cheater was a liberal stance, but now that I think about it, perhaps it is…..I suppose you mean the conservative would prefer to keep the cover on. BTW – Lance is a Republican, don’t know about a RWNJ, but at least a Repub.
3. Iceman – “My disdain is reserved for the egocentric jerks at USADA”. Really, well there is certainly one egocentric jerk in this whole mess and I ain’t talking about TT! The man (LA incase I’m not clear) ruined countless lives and deserves everything that is taken from him, regardless of how the info/confession was obtained.

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Papa T, January 15, 2013 at 5:58 pm

The fact is, we still have no way of detccting PED;s or blood doping in cycling races.
Until there is, cycling will never be a major sport.

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SFC JKL 2, January 15, 2013 at 6:02 pm

frisky- This is all just really about him wanting to compete and make money again

It’s really about people with an ax to grind and triathletes worried an old man is going to kick their a$$.

What purpose is being served by punishing someone who isn’t competing? Pointing your finger at Lance does nothing to improve the sport or change the past.

#468532

SFC JKL 2, January 15, 2013 at 6:15 pm

RonB- Liberals love the idea of “nobody wins” which is now what we have for a decade of the TdF. Everyone gets a juice box and a perticipation ribbon. We’re all equal and noone is better than anyone else.

If at first you don’t succeed, file a lawsuit to regulate the winners down to your level!

#468533

shaniko, January 15, 2013 at 7:22 pm

Besides all his former teammates suing him, including Floyd Landis for “whistleblowing” and all the journalists he sued and sometimes won….here is the good part: Lance is threatening to implicate all the judges and officials involved in the TdF and other races who knew but turned their head away.

Just a few short months ago if that long, a bunch of you were all but saying Lance could do no wrong, including loading pics here showing you with Lance at whatever event.

Finally, it turns out that less than 40% or $40 of every $100 ever goes to cancer research for “Livestrong”….

Whatever, as Bob Dylan once sang so out of tune ” don’t follow leaders watch your parking meter”….

#468548

flyinbrian, January 15, 2013 at 10:04 pm

RonB- Liberals love the idea of “nobody wins” which is now what we have for a decade of the TdF. Everyone gets a juice box and a perticipation ribbon. We’re all equal and noone is better than anyone else.

If at first you don’t succeed, file a lawsuit to regulate the winners down to your level!-
-SFC JKL2
All the people with this us vs. them mentality kill me. You sound ignorant when you lump an entire group of people together as though they all feel the same way. Liberal and Conservatives both do that sh*t too. Both my conservative and liberal friends believe in winners and losers. Why do you feel the need to be so decisive? Do you need someone to rail against to feel better about yourself? This is a bicycle forum!

#468570

velomel, January 16, 2013 at 7:29 am

I still think that this issue is about way more than Lance. Lance is just the conduit to the real problem, a governing body that is complicit to the doping culture. I think it is just about to heat up for real as Lance starts rolling over on Fat Patty (UCI) and all of the other enablers.
If your going to have rules, you must enforce them. If the enforcers refuse to do so, then they must go.

Mel

#468591

Iceman, January 16, 2013 at 11:11 am

Velomel: Exactly. There’s much more than meets the eye.

I’m simply saying do all this in private. Fire all the UCI guys in private and institute whatever new rules for testing the new guys at UCI decide are needed. But get all this negative stuff out of the press. Pro cycling is going to have a terribly difficult time trying to recover from this and having a full fledged, multi-juridictional legal battle over about a three to five year period may just kill cycling altogether.

I’m afraid the vultures at networks like NBC will hover over the inevitable Lance trials (all money reimbursement related)in order to appeal to the most gruesome court watchers in our society.

Parenthetically, I am sickened by many of our citizens who have become a nation of “rubber neckers.” By that, I mean they are the kind of folks who just cannot resist slowing down to look at an auto wreck. It carries into their lives and they just love to watch tv shows and read tabloids that report on nothing but bad and add nothing constructive to our world. Get a life and do something constructive, ok?

#468602

ts, January 16, 2013 at 2:13 pm

“What purpose is being served by punishing someone who isn’t competing? Pointing your finger at Lance does nothing to improve the sport or change the past.”

Why should you prosecute someone accused of murder? After all, nothing you do to the perpetrator will change the past and bring the victim back to life. The answer, or course, is twofold: prevention and deterrence. In Lance’s case, even though he’s retired now, who’s to say that he wouldn’t want to race again? After all, he retired once before. Also, people need to know that they will be held accountable for their wrong-doing. Just because Lance “got away with it” at the time, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be held accountable for his actions at a later date.

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