The press screws it up again, trying to bring down Lance Armstrong!

[keith the dem]

In a statement today, Frankie Andreu contradicted published reports that claimed he took EPO for the 1999 TDF to support Armstrong. His confession was that he took EPO only for himself and took it before it was a banned drug. (EPO was very much banned by 1999.)

Link: http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/10853.0.html

Lance Armstrong is far from the nicest person on the planet, but deserves better than this.

Why are there so many drug problems in cycling? The main reason is that, along with track and field, it tests far more and far more completely than any other sport. So you here about it.

The other reason is that the sport is so difficult. The drugs of choice are taken for pain relief and not purely for performance enhancement. Just think where you would be without that coffee or that Ibuprofen you need to get you through the day. Now multiply that by about 120 times for every mile per day for 3 weeks.

It looks like the currently running Tour of Spain, now in its third week, is being ridden clean. I say that because the attrition rate is greater than any grand tour that I remember. the mind can only take so much pain.

[k_jerome]

1. It seems everyone on the team...

used drugs except Lance.

[jakefrep]

2. Armstrong may be the one athlete in professional sport...

...who had legitimate reason to take EPO (if he indeed took it). I have no doubt, that in the course of dealing with his cancer, Lance Armstrong took all sorts of drugs that the anti-doping idiots have deemed to be "performance-enhancing."