Thanks Francois.
I figured this temptation would arise as I was typing "1999
Sestriere". We could debate for weeks and months our perspectives
and beliefs about if he did or if he did not and we would not make
any progress other than our own personal angry charge. It should be
nice to be humbled when our speculations change, but I see a world of
quick pointing fingers, and partial truths being taken out of
context. I'll be the first to say "my mind has changed" when I see
Lance submit his bowing head in front of media cameras admitting his
guilt.....and I'll be the first to give to his LiveStrong campaign
immediately after. I don't get any extra points until Lance admits
his guilt, himself. For in the bad, I seek the good....in the good I
find inspiration and a model for my life. Lance can EPO all he
wants, but for me I seek the good in the bad....even it is just a
picture of climbing domination that I can attempt to capture in my
own arena.

I was not there with Lance during the 1999 tour, so I cannot say for
certain that he was. I'm not dumb enough to believe that he was not
doping. I ask myself "I wonder if he was?" when I watch that stage.
For me personally, I just love his attacks and it inspires me to work
hard and climb faster. Short, sweet and simple as that. If I knew
for sure, then obviously I would have a different perspective, but I
do not know for sure.....and I really do not think that any of us do
100% that we would bet the life of a family member on our certainty.

I'm not quick to judge......and when I am quick to judge.....I get
dropped.

I am certian that you and I love to ride our bikes. So, ride on my
friend!

-Frank

--- François Siohan <francois.siohan@...> wrote:

> > > From: Frank Obusek
>
>
>
> > > What else? I've been watching some old Tour tapes. I'm still
> >> convinced that my favorite Lance stage is the Sestriere mtn top
> > > finish in 1999.
>
>
> Hi Frank,
> Can you still look at such tape with the same eye after knowing
> that
> L.A. samples were positive for EPO that day, AND the next AND still
> 3
> days later?
>
> As for myself I had looked at that stage finish live with utter
> disgust, my hopes of a cleaning up of the cycling world after the
> dramatic and terrible 1998 TdF were shattered on the way to
> Sestrières : it was possible to win without breathing.
>
> LeMond and Hampsten must have felt the same way .
>
> A fitting but sad coda to this and the previous Tour should be
> mentioned. In 2004, in an interview in the French newspaper Le
> Monde,
> Greg Lemond said, "In 1990 I won the Tour and my team [Z] won the
> top-team classification. One year later, not one of us could follow
>
> the pace in the pack. There had been a radical change." He went on
> to
> note that when he when he was winning, his VO2 Max (maximum oxygen
> consumption, the basic measurement of an athlete's aerobic
> capacity)
> was tops among professional racers. Today, Lemond said, he would be
>
> in the 51st percentile. In other words, the Greg Lemond of 1990 who
>
> won the Tour de France would be sent back for water bottles today.
>
> Commenting on this interview in an open letter, Andy Hampsten
> wrote,
> "Like Greg, I, too, saw what I believe were the effects of EPO when
>
> it entered pro cycling in the early '90s. In the first years it
> grew
> from a few individuals reaping obscene wins from exploiting its
> 'benefits', to entire teams relying on it, essentially forcing all
> but the most gifted racers to either use EPO to keep their place in
>
> cycling, quit or become just another obscure rider in the group."
>
> Quote from our sponsor
> http://www.torelli.com/raceinfo/tdf/tdfhistory1990.html
>
> Cheers
> François
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>




__________________________________
Yahoo! Music Unlimited
Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.
http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/