# Armstrong CU Interview [videos]



## Local Hero (Jul 8, 2010)

_"With all of the criticism that you've faced throughout all of these years how are you able to come into this room and still keep your head up and talk to us?" a student asked.

...

"It's been a rough couple of years for a lot of reasons, whether it's from our family's perspective, whether it's from my own personal perspective or whether it's a financial or legal perspective — it's just been a complete, colossal meltdown, let's be honest," Armstrong told the class._​
Armstrong has some regret. He regrets the doping era situation and how he treated people but not necessarily his personal decisions to dope. 

_Armstrong said he wished his career could have gone differently, but said he wasn't ready to go back home to Plano, Texas, once he'd made it to cycling's highest level.

Twice he used the analogy that cycling during the blood-doping period — *which he believes is now over* — was like a knife fight that everyone showed up to with guns.

"I wish that it was just a knife fight. I wish we were just dealing with low-octane (performance-enhancing drugs), but it wasn't," he said._

There are actually two videos during the Q&A. 
A candid Lance Armstrong reflects on his 'colossal meltdown' in CU-Boulder visit - Boulder Daily Camera​
For what it is worth, I like that he's out there answering questions. 

And I like that he is speaking candidly and calls it a meltdown. He seems detached from public image concerns. 

Too bad he still feels bitter about USADA. Maybe he's right that they were struggling for legitimacy and he was the target but so what?

Do you agree with Armstrong that the blood-doping era is now over?


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## jaggrin (Feb 18, 2011)

No I don't believe doping is over. They catch them all the time and now its proven they are using motors in their bikes.

Lance is a seven time Tour De France champion. Too bad he didn't try and win the Giro and Vuelta or race in some of the classics.


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## Aadub (May 30, 2015)

Pro sport does not want to catch the dopers. Sure they make an example of the odd lazy, foolish dude but its as rampant as ever.

Look at the UFC as an example- They hire Jeff Novitzky to be the guy to get it under control, but it's all optics. There are 2 simple tests they could do to definitively get the dopers (GH and steroid users) but they won't because they would all fail the tests

Better to do the odd random test, bust the odd guy here and there so the optics to the general public look like the dopers get caught, total sham.


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## yogidabear (Mar 4, 2014)

I wonder if Armstrong or any other high profile dopers have considered what would've happened if they chose to out the dopers rather than join them? I'm guessing the result would've been a short career and no change, but maybe not?


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## burgrat (Nov 18, 2005)

The big diff with Armstrong was he was (is?) a colossal a-hole with the way he treated people. He wasn't the first to cheat and certainly won't be the last. No I don't think it's a clean era now, nor will it ever be. The money and fame are too great. Someone will always try to cheat. I've given up believing otherwise.


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## dcb (Jul 21, 2008)

Maybe what he was saying is that the period of "high octane" doping is over? I'm just guessing at what he meant because it's hard to imagine he really thinks nobody is doping at all anymore. I would assume he means that today's pros can't fly under the radar while doping at the same levels that he and his peers did 15 years ago. 

I would also speculate that he's not going to say anything bad about today's pros because he doesn't want the flak and maybe because he just generally likes the sport and wants it to do well.


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## Flexnuphill (May 20, 2013)

I think talking about his experiences in an academic environment is a good thing. He is the perfect example of how making poor choices in the desire to succeed in pro sports (not just cycling) can destroy your future. 

He knows the current crop of cycling bucks are cheating, they just have to be smarter about it now because of him and his generation of peers. 

Do conversations like this one matter?? Maybe someone in the auditorium will get involved in cyclings future and make some meaningful changes.... and then maybe not.


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## Local Hero (Jul 8, 2010)

Flexnuphill said:


> I think talking about his experiences in an academic environment is a good thing. He is the perfect example of how making poor choices in the desire to succeed in pro sports (not just cycling) can destroy your future.
> 
> He knows the current crop of cycling bucks are cheating, they just have to be smarter about it now because of him and his generation of peers.
> 
> Do conversations like this one matter?? Maybe someone in the auditorium will get involved in cyclings future and make some meaningful changes.... and then maybe not.


At the same time, Armstrong isn't really hurting. He has an attractive girlfriend, healthy children, he plays golf, etc. Assuming that he would have been a zero without drugs, Armstrong and his ilk have succeeded _because_ of drugs.


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## Flexnuphill (May 20, 2013)

Local Hero said:


> At the same time, Armstrong isn't really hurting. He has an attractive girlfriend, healthy children, he plays golf, etc. Assuming that he would have been a zero without drugs, Armstrong and his ilk have succeeded _because_ of drugs.


Yah, I know he's not really hurting in most aspects of his life, but his arrogance has taken away his passion...serious competition.


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## DrSmile (Jul 22, 2006)

He's sporting some serious grey hair. Maybe he had a stressful few years recently...


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## burgrat (Nov 18, 2005)

DrSmile said:


> He's sporting some serious grey hair. Maybe he had a stressful few years recently...


"No play for Mr. Grey..."


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## atpjunkie (Mar 23, 2002)

his regrets
A) letting anyone else know about his doping
B) treating people trying to out him so poorly

I'm sure if he'd have acted like Indurain (and stayed quit the first time) this wouldn't have happened


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## Aadub (May 30, 2015)

Let it go..


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## Local Hero (Jul 8, 2010)

atpjunkie said:


> his regrets
> A) letting anyone else know about his doping
> B) treating people trying to out him so poorly
> 
> I'm sure if he'd have acted like Indurain (and stayed quit the first time) this wouldn't have happened


Win-at-all-costs guys can be a-holes. 

_Cipollini could be warm and lavishly generous or savagely cruel. In stage five of the 2000 Vuelta, the Spaniard Francisco Cerezo rode away from a frank exchange of views with the “Lion King” nursing a black eye.
...

“He could be brutal,” says Stefano Zanatta, one of the directeurs sportifs charged with taming the beast in his brief, pre-retirement cameo at Liquigas in 2005. “He would scream at people if they didn’t do what he wanted, humiliate them, belittle them." 
...

there was also a more sinister side to his personality, times when he confused the role of alpha male with the acts of a bully. In 2004, for example, he lobbied for Filippo Simeoni to be left out of the Domina Vacanze Tour team because Simeoni had testified in court that Cipollini’s sometime coach, Dr Michele Ferrari, had advised him on doping. In common with his friend Lance Armstrong, Cipollini could indeed be less “patron” of the peloton than “padrino” - the godfather.

Miguel Martinez, the former mountain bike maestro who for three years dabbled on the road, recalls launching an attack in a race in 2002 and feeling Cipollini’s giant paw on his helmet moments later, then his skull being rotated like a joystick. “If you ever do that again, I’ll see to it that you never start another race,” Cipollini apparently threatened.
_​
Mario Cipollini: The wounded Lion King | Cyclingnews.com


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## BacDoc (Aug 1, 2011)

Local Hero said:


> Win-at-all-costs guys can be a-holes.
> 
> _Cipollini could be warm and lavishly generous or savagely cruel. In stage five of the 2000 Vuelta, the Spaniard Francisco Cerezo rode away from a frank exchange of views with the “Lion King” nursing a black eye.
> ...
> ...


Any comparison between Lance and Mario is ridiculous, although both were fierce competitors. Lance was the best doper/bike racer of that period, period!

Mario is a combination of the best doper/sprinter, James Bond, Brad Pitt and Clint Eastwood. Mario is such a unique personality, every sport needs athletes like him. Sagan is close but lacks the eye of the tiger that both Lance and Mario owned.


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## Jackhammer (Sep 23, 2014)

BacDoc said:


> Any comparison between Lance and Mario is ridiculous, although both were fierce competitors. Lance was the best doper/bike racer of that period, period!
> 
> Mario is a combination of the best doper/sprinter, James Bond, Brad Pitt and Clint Eastwood. Mario is such a unique personality, every sport needs athletes like him. Sagan is close but lacks the eye of the tiger that both Lance and Mario owned.


Yup, it's kind of like what people were saying about, Chief Jay Strongbow, Billy Whitewolf, and Superstar Billy Graham. To throw someone like Mil Mascares or Ric Flair in that mix is absurd. Lou Albano actually had a very interesting take on this when he sat down on a panel with the Grand Imperial Wizard at CU. I'll try to find a link.


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## Sumguy1 (Apr 5, 2008)

Jackhammer said:


> Yup, it's kind of like what people were saying about, Chief Jay Strongbow, Billy Whitewolf, and Superstar Billy Graham. To throw someone like Mil Mascares or Ric Flair in that mix is absurd. Lou Albano actually had a very interesting take on this when he sat down on a panel with the Grand Imperial Wizard at CU. I'll try to find a link.


A link to what? Relevance? Reality? Are these code names involved in some investigation ala Operacion Puerto?


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