Yeah unfortunately he's a Wigan fan. However the good thing is his son also plays rugby

i don't care if he is a hull kr fan as long as he wins the tour

Whats the latest with the Armstrong case, im not well informed of american court cases!

I still hope he's innocent but the lifetime ban of his doctors and team coach have me in bigger doubt than ever.

He has been charged on various counts by the USADA. He has until Saturday to either accept the charges (and lose his titles & prize money) or challenge them at an independent 3 person tribunal (which he argues is far from independent). To avoid both avenues, he filed an injunction against USADA saying they were unconstitutional but this was rejected by a US judge. He can refile that complaint if he so chooses to attempt to avoid the charges.

Which he has now done.

My opinion is that Armstrong must have doped. It is impossible for him to have been that succesful in an era where all his competitors have since admitted they were doped up too.

I wouldn't judge Armstrong (the cyclist) too harshly. How on earth was he meant to compete clean? Everyone around him would have been pushing him towards it. Starting off with the odd injection to recover and before you know it he's on the EPO and blood transfusions. I'm pretty sure the UCI is implicated in his story too.

Then there is Armstrong (the cancer survivor) who gives hope to so many people when they are facing up against this terrible disease. OK the story changes a bit. Maybe not quite as spectacular as him doing it clean but again I don't see how this work has been cheapened as a result of him doping.

As for Armstrong (the brand) I think the c-bomb by Bradley Wiggins in the press conference the other day would be well used here. I just don't like him.

He's gone too far to back down. He's flung too much mud at others to then say he was at it too. He will never admit to doping which is a shame because he could do so much good for the cause.

My problem with him is his arrogance and what sounds like he believes he is untouchable because of the work he has done for cancer. He has even brought this up to a certain extent when being questioned
The guy has made a fortune from the fact he's come back from cancer and won the tour 7 times.
He is a multi millionaire because of this. Most Americans are totally ignorant to the fact doping was the norm in cycling, only watching the tour once a year to cheer on the good ole U S of A . So for him to have won by cheating and not by the good grace of god could potentially destroy him.
All he has to do is say yep I did it. I'm truly sorry please forgive me and fickle America would do it.


However no matter what happens I don't think this would destroy livestrong.

Apparently so from reading cycling news today. He's saying it goes against the 5th amendment and he could potentially to trying to win counter damages against USADA.

I wonder what the uci would say if he admitted it and then explained the reason for the 500,000 payment he made to them. If the rumours are true that they covered up his doping.

Breaks everywhere on the Colombier. The peloton has completely broken apart, but the Sky diesel locomotive keeps ploughing on.

What beautiful shots as it looked back down the valley. It's this type of thing that makes me love being out on the bike.

Race is going well from a sky point of view.