Lance folds on drug charges

and 6 former USPS team mates who are still riding have also now been suspended for 6 months

"Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp), David Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp), Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp), Michael Barry (Sky) and George Hincapie (BMC) have subsequently been suspended. All actively race but ended their seasons in September. Any ban may be backdated meaning if a suspension of six months is ratified then each rider could return to racing by the time of Paris-Nice, next Spring."

Hincapie's statement - http://www.georgehincapie.com/news/Statement-from-George-Hincapie/

bit late George isn't it??  you've been a duplicitous bastard just like LA.

USADA are just doing what they need to do with them Dave irrespective of their current racing status.  it's procedural.

I wonder how Phil & Paul are taking it.  Not sure of the reach of ITV commentary but Phil was quite happy to vouch for Lance over the years.  He never mentioned the business interests he apparently has with Lance.

Wonder if Jens will be up next.  I hope not.

Another sad day, watching more of my boyhood hereos and people that motivated me to get into cycling come out and say they doped.

Does this mean Johan Bryneel (sp?) is implicated

Reminds when Dave Duffield bombed out some viewer for suggesting that Marco Pantani was doping. Embarrassing in the light of things. Mind you I feel sad about Marco. I won a substantial bet down the bookies for backing him each way to win the T de F. 

Now if Jens Voight were to be implicated, that would be a death kneel to all the heroes of the recent past/present (bearing in mind he's still going strong at 40 something!)  Oh please, no!

From Hincapie's blog:

"Early in my professional career, it became clear to me that, given the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them.

...I have competed clean and have not used any performance enhancing drugs or processes for the past six years. Since 2006, I have been working hard within the sport of cycling to rid it of banned substances. During this time, I continued to successfully compete at the highest level of cycling while mentoring young professional riders on the right choices to make to ensure that the culture of cycling had changed."

That's all very well George, but what about the young professional riders of your era who had to give up on trying to make it as a pro because they had higher moral standards than you did?  Your 'we were all at it' defence stinks - no doubt there were those who chose not to dope but as m'learned crustacean friend points out, we've never heard of them because you and your doping mates made it impossible.

Bruyneel is more than "implicated", there is a 9 page section detailing the evidence against him. From the Reasoned Decision:

"The overwhelming evidence in this case is that Johan Bruyneel was intimately involved in all significant details of the U.S. Postal team’s doping program..... He was on top of the details for organizing blood transfusion programs before the
major Tours, and he knew when athletes needed to take EPO to regenerate their blood supply after extracting blood.  He was present when blood transfusions were given.  He even personally provided drugs to the riders on occasion.
Most perniciously, Johan Bruyneel learned how to introduce young men to performance enhancing drugs, becoming adept at leading them down the path from newly minted professional rider to veteran drug user"

I know nothing on how this all works.but it seems like everyone apart from Lance has admitted now to using drugs........

could this be linked to his healthcare bill............if he actually admits that he was taking them.but didn't disclose that at the time he was having all the cancer treatment etc...could the medical company demand he repays all the bills because he hid vital information from them that could have affected their assessment of paying the original bill...............I would think that would amount to millions over there

or am i totally off track on that one

Seren. Several people who were in his room during cancer treatment have testified that he admitted to doctors in the room he had used epo, testosterone, growth hormone, corticosteroids etc.

He then said they were making it up and hounded them out of the game.

doesn't look as if Nike have given up on LA yet - they're still supporting him via Livestrong - http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nike-show-continued-support-for-armstrong-after-usada-report

Maybe Nike "think" they're distancing themselves from LA by choosing the Livestrong thing but frankly if they think that, they need to do a reality check.  

I think there are some cyclists who have raced clean through that era that we've heard of.   Everyone seems convinced Moncoutie has never taken banned substances - even Millar picks him out in his autobiography as someone that never gave in to that temptation.    No doubt there will be some others, and probably quite a few that did dabble but weren't habitual cheats, though I'm sure the majority were at it as part and parcel of the job.   

Seren - I don't think you are that far off track - not that he'll have to pay back medical bills but he made contracts and collected bonuses which were conditional on him not being doped - I don't follow it that closely as my interest is in the racing rather than the politics but I think he stands to have to pay millions and possibly even face criminal proceedings for fraud - maybe others can confirm that ?