The Armstrong Investigation continues to march forward. There is a rather extensive “List of doping allegations against Lance Armstrong” over at wiki. Today’s latest below.
A woman who worked closely with Lance Armstrong during the years he won the Tour de France is expected to testify before a federal grand jury as early as next week in a criminal investigation of Armstrong and his associates.
Stephanie McIlvain, who served as Armstrong’s liaison to one of his sponsors, the sunglasses company Oakley, is expected to be asked if she knows anything about whether Armstrong doped, according to a person briefed on the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity. She is also expected to be asked about the influence Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, has over the people who work in cycling. www.nytimes.com.
In case you do not remember the name Stephanie McIlvain, she is one of the people who alleged to have witnesses Armstrong’s “confession” to drug use to his physicians while undergoing treatment for cancer. (NPR piece on the subject here: www.npr.org.)
[McIlvain] testified about Armstrong in a 2005 civil lawsuit. Armstrong and his former team owner, Tailwind Sports, brought that case against SCA Promotions, an insurance company that was seeking to withhold a $5 million bonus from Armstrong because of doping allegations against him.
In the SCA case, which was settled in Armstrong’s favor, McIlvain was questioned about a time in 1996 when she and others close to Armstrong were visiting him in a hospital during his battle with testicular cancer. Frankie Andreu — a former teammate and close friend on the United States Postal Service team — and his wife, Betsy, testified that they had overheard a conversation that day between Armstrong and a doctor in which Armstrong admitted to using steroids, testosterone, cortisone, growth hormone and EPO. The Andreus are cooperating with the federal investigation.
McIlvain testified during depositions in the SCA case that she did not hear Armstrong admit to drug use. Id.
What this woman will say this time ’round, I confess I haven’t a clue. But she is, once again, being dragged in to provide testimony regarding the same alleged confession from back in ’96. This last quote will explain the title I choose for this post.
Prosecutors are expected to focus on one particular piece of evidence when questioning McIlvain before the grand jury, according to the person briefed on the case. It is a tape recording of a phone conversation between McIlvain and the three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond; they also used to work together.
The taped conversation was among the reams of records that SCA Promotions turned over to federal prosecutors in July.
LeMond, a longtime nemesis of Armstrong, has publicly stated that he believes Armstrong used banned performance-enhancing drugs. In the taped conversation from 2004, McIlvain appears to contradict her sworn testimony and Armstrong’s in the SCA case. LeMond asks McIlvain if she would tell the truth about what she heard in the hospital room if a lawsuit between LeMond and Armstrong ever arose.
“I’m not going to lie,” McIlvain is heard saying on the recording. “You know I was in that room. I heard it.”
She later adds: “If I lie, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. You know, because I, too, know quite a bit because Lance and I were close, you know. But I definitely won’t lie about that because it’s public knowledge. A lot of people know about it, you know.”
McIlvain is also heard on the tape speaking about the power Armstrong had over the people who worked with him and for him.
“For someone to have that much influence on people is scary,” she said, adding, “Well, the whole thing of it is, Greg, is there is so many people protecting him that it is just sickening, you know.” Id.
She’s up against it. We’ll see what happens.
I’m aware of society’s rules. I can feel outrage and a compelling thirst for vengeance, yet set those impulses aside in deferance to those rules. That trait, among others, sets a man like me apart from a gangbanging hood rat piece of scum like Vick. But I most definitely would stand in line to piss on his grave.
YoRo you are arguing with a person whose very use of standard rules of grammar broadcasts loud and clear that he is incapable of completing a thought.
You know, that right bgw? Ellipses signal “I cannot complete this thought.”
But boy oh boy he sure does have a lot of them.
…now if we could only get ‘yoro’ & ‘e’ to simply communicate with each other & leave everybody else out…bingo…
…but that ain’t likely to happen, so consider this a major “thank you” to you both for your major contributions here…
@BGW- little math here- as far as Vick is concerned- with what he is earning, you have to look at what he has to pay- after taxes, after lawyers, after paying back his bankruptcy- the guy has about 75G left to himself. Now, to some of you, clearing 75G might seem like heaven, but consider he has a hometown in one area, then has to rent an apt in Philthadelphia for 6 to 8 months, not including hotel stays, etc during OTAs. Hence, after everything is said and done, you’re talking probably about 50G.
However, this is going off on a totally diff topic, but just wanted to make light of the reality of the numbers
“YoRo you are arguing with a person whose very use of standard rules of grammar broadcasts loud and clear that he is incapable of completing a thought.”
We have to use standard rules of grammar on this here Internet now ?
Damn.
The Nuns have taken over.
Bitches.
Anyone comes at me with a ruler I’m going mid-evil(sic).
…somehow, bikescag & perhaps this leaves me in the “heartless bastard” category but i can’t get too worked up about mr vick’s finances as regards his supplemental living situation…
…but this much i know…he definitely stays in comped hotel & gets per diem expenses for food whilst on the road & it wouldn’t surprise me if the eagles (sorry, gianni, but they keep bring the team up, not me) cover his philly digs during the season but he also gets the benefit of a “training table”, ie: food, drinks, whatnot during training & game days…
…i just wish jeff garcia was given a better shot…played a short time for the ‘9ers (49ers) & i know that dude gives his heart & soul on the field as well as being one classy guy…
…but don’t take my word for it, because yoro doesn’t seem to think i have much credibility due to his different & i’d guess, higher standards of what’s believable & what’s not…
…& i apologize for being “incapable of completing a thought”…
…just sayin’…
@54-Boo freakin’ hoo. Let the slimeball eat Gravy Train.
There are absolutely no parallels that can be drawn between LA and Vick. One is a convicted felon who has paid his debt to society. He’s square with Uncle Sam regardless of his standing with you. The other has not (yet) been convicted of a crime. However…
Uncle Sam is the baddest of gangstas and he doesn’t like it when you lie to him and you don’t pay him his money. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hBg80CZMJ4
It can only end one of four ways for our erstwhile hero:
1. He’s completely exhonerated.
2. He’s found to have doped BEFORE cancer and his time with Postal. Guilty but not guilty.
3. He’s found not guilty but a mountain of circumstantial evidence uncovered haunts him the rest of his days and destroys all credibility and ability to leverage said credibility for wealth or charity.
4. He’s everything some of you think he is.
The point is, you can lie and lawyer your way around WADA and the other impotent organizations of the world but it is significantly more difficult to do it to the law. Like it or not, there will be a legal version of the truth after all of this is said and done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCtToN9Ixpw
For all you haters out there, relish this thought: pleading the 5th will keep him out of jail but it will destroy his credibility.
No matter how you slice it, Tex will get dirty. Still, I detect a strong “I hated Lance before it was cool to hate Lance” vibe on this site and that sucks. If he raced and won clean he deserves all he’s gained from it. If he hasn’t, he’s worse than a bad person (see #9 “Hello..”), he’s evil and deserves everything the gangsta has in store for him.
Lastly, to the NASKKKAR jackhole, you’re a bigot dude. A hateful, stereotyping, bigot. You’re just the same as the people you thought you were talking about and the world could use a little less of that BS.
iketaylor, close but you miss the point about the 5th. He can plead the 5th, be granted immunity, then forced to testify. At that point he has 3 choices…tell the truth or lie or be in contempt. If he lies he will most likely face perjury charges. It will be interesting.
So you’re saying Lance is a suspected scumbag, but the slimeball Vick is a convicted scumbag. Looks like we’re on the same page.
it would appear that is the case.
…ike taylor…you, sir make a lot of good & valid points & the “big worm” analogy is nicely humorous (with a creamsicle orange impala convertable, no less ???…wow !!!)but i’d suggest that while ‘el jefe’s’ comment might have been, shall we say, insensitive due to the ‘naskkkar’ inference, i don’t believe the man can honestly be called a “A hateful, stereotyping, bigot.”…uh, uh, not at all…
…1 out of 3 perhaps but the word choice would be ‘stereotyping’ & i don’t remotely believe for a fucking minute the man is ‘hateful’ nor do i believe ‘bigot’ applies, whatsoever…nada, no way…
…if anybody needs be called to the carpet, i’d suggest ‘yoro’ passed on a lotta unanswered points i originally brought up about his posts before we devolved into the michael vick scenario…
bgw, give it up. You simply want to support liars and cheaters in whatever capacity you can…pathetic. I’m sure you hung on to the Floyd fantasy as long as you could. Keep holding on to your fantasy, the facts will come out over time.
As for the things you want to go back to that I said, they where from recollection and perspective, I didn’t claim they were hard facts.
Keep trying to hold on to that last shred of what you got from the last pathetic decade in cycling history. It sucked, it sucked to watch, it sucked to see what a few pathetic people could do to a sport.
…you really grasp at straws, dude but you haven’t got a fucking clue…
…you use the word “pathetic” ???…point the finger back where it belongs…
…think you can play this all to your advantage ???…you’ve got nothing & you keep proving it through your insubstantial reiteration…
…leave me out of it if you’re just gonna keep trying to worm out of anything but your self righteous bullshit…
…thanks…
ike, so you’re a NASCAR fan? Maybe you don’t fit the mold. Loosen your panties up. Go watch some real racing: Formula 1.
I hope I’m still in Austin when that comes to town:
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/01/austins-f1-track-gets-laid-out/
This was the first hit. A washed up nobody, but rape, meth, and a high speed chase…
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/former-nascar-driver-neal-arrested-for-drugs-third-recent-arrest-.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29
I’m just fuckin’ with you…
come on this is too easy. Texas Goodhair we’re gonna whine and threaten to secede now has a NASCAR (car? sounds repetitive like ATM machine). I know Kinky had one too but really?
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-perrycar_07pol.ART.State.Edition1.4cc6cf8.html
@el jefe— I’m already assembling my posse for the 2012 USGP in Austin… Formula 1 makes NASA look like middle school science projects.
I am not a huge fan of auto racing, but I will do everything I can to attend. I know the area they are putting the course in, and it’s rolling hills, nothing too steep so there won’t be any corkscrews like at Laguna Seca. It should be great for spectators, a challenging course, and the speeds should be high. They’re thinking 200mph on main straight, and 180mph by the grandstands… Fuck yeah. Little carbon bullets. Have they set the dates yet? Last I read it was going to be sometime close to Montreal (which is in June, right?), but that puts it in the middle of summer. That’ll be rough on drivers, cars and spectators…
Also plan on bringing your bike (mtb if you’ve got one). Get my contact info from bj when it gets down to it, and I’ll take you on a tour.
@el jefe— yes, the USGP is likely to be either before or after Canada in mid-June. (Another fantastic event, Montreal is a cool city and they go NUTS for the Grand Prix.) Tickets are spendy, but there literally ain’t anything like seeing a 1300-pound car making 20K RPMs. My first GP was in Phoenix AZ and I still remember watching Ayrton Senna taking 90-degree downtown corners at almost 100 mph— I thought he’d crash every time through. Austin is a long way from Seattle but I will try to drive & bring bikes. Awoo.
I was at a conference in Montreal a few years ago. Amazing city (even if it is expensive). Friendly people, great food. If they didn’t have such brutal winters it might beat SF as my favorite city. The whole French-English historical fight by monument proxy is pretty funny, too. Cleanest red light district going…
…i grew up on that shit…F1 & the big bore sports-racing cars pre can/am…mosport in canada, watkin’s glen in the usa…
…still in my blood but it was so much more accessible in those days (late ’50’s, early 60’s)…i had the autograph of every top driver in the world when i was a kid & that came about by climbing over fences & being able to bullshit my way past security…
“uh, dan gurney (or jim hall) is my dad & blah, blah, blah…hey, thanks, mister”…stuff you’d never get away with nowadays but to a kid it was the coolest thing ever…
…I went to HS with Dan Gurney, Jr….
… What a fucking dick…
…Clearly inbred….
…what the fuck was I sayin?…
…just sayin’…
This seeming obsession with bgw’s writing style is amazing.
Talk about sweating the petty shit.
…just sayin’…
…i remember back when i was a kid…
…they closed down the airport for a weekend…
…nothing beats the sensation of being just beyond the haybales at the apex of a turn when a 427 Cobra goes slamming past…
…what were we talking about?…
“…nothing beats the sensation of being just beyond the haybales at the apex of a turn when a 427 Cobra goes slamming past…”
@Joe— with all due non-ellipsical respect, watching A. Senna slam past in a 900-hp Honda-McLaren beats it quite handily. The shock wave just about rips your sunglasses off.
…been there, done that, joe…many times over & loved every ear-splitting, gut twisting minute of it…
…apples n’ oranges, gentlemen & when i was growing up, they were both part of a well rounded diet…
Mikey, this was 1964. A Honda was a motorcycle, and not a very big one.
Honda came to F1 in 1965, although best known for the early 90s, 3.5 liter V10s that won handfuls of world championships.
And none of that crappy old pot metal holds a candle to 300 HP per liter of motor displacement coupled to the kind of downforce you can only buy with a full-scale, high-speed, rolling floor wind tunnel. They have aero diffusers for the exhaust over the rear deck, for chrissake. F1 is the shiznit, you gotta see it to believe it.
…Never try to give an old man a history lesson…
I’m gonna’ go with apples and oranges. F1 for the tech, but the 427 Shelby Cobra may well be the most beautiful car ever made.
Jeez you guys, spoken like someone that’s never stood at the chicane during a Grand Prix, smelled hot carbon and nitromethane and thought, jesus that guy’s gonna die as your sunglasses fly off. You gotta see it to believe it. Austin ’12, yo.
I mean seriously, Cobra 427, grandpa did you carve that motor yourself?????? (NOTE: ATTEMPTED HUMOR.)
Well mikey, (settles back in rocking chair, uncorks jug of moonshine) it was nineteen sixty-something. Our little mountain town didn’t get much excitement. Truth be told, most liked it that way.
But every May for one weekend they closed down the airport and folks came from all around to race their sports cars. Best I remember these were amateurs in the truest sense-They did it for the love of the sport. Don’t remember hearing anything about no factory teams. The only open-wheeled cars I can recall were Formula V. And that was a long time ago. A long time ago. And I swear, I was only twelve or thirteen years old at the time and frankly, quite overwhelmed by the color, the noise, the excitement. So much to see. Had I known that I’d be getting cross-examined almost fifty years later by some snotty little intardwebnet commando that hadn’t even been born yet, I’d have taken more pictures and kept better notes.
Almost forgot-How’s that^^^for humor?
I’m sure the track went uphill in all directions and it was waist deep in snow as well…
Sonny boy, you don’t know the half of it. Men was men, and wimmen was danged glad of it. Now get the hell off my lawn…
soo is McIlvain lying to the grand jury?
“She confirmed,” her attorney Tom Bienert told the Los Angeles Times, “she had no personal knowledge of Lance Armstrong using or taking performance-enhancing drugs.”
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5762/Armstrong-supported-in-investigation-by-friend-McIlvain.aspx
…that was my take on it also…clearly wonderin’ wtf ???…
…perhaps a nice ‘little’ well hidden deposit was made so a certain forgetful young lady can enjoy a real nice vacation once the shit has been wiped of the fan…
…chick ought to live in belgium, become a ‘waffle’ maker at cycling events…
maybe she was just drunk and in the pocket of Oakley, making it all okay.
…yoro…you really like to portray yourself as a foolish & insubstantial human being, don’t ‘cha ???…
..if you had read what was printed on the screen, you would know i was basically repeating the written statement of someone directly involved, not justifying anyone’s actions…
…you have no idea where i really stand on the issue because you won’t invest the time to understand & yet you’re willing to denigrate me…
…again…if you wish to deal in unsubstantiated material, please leave me out…thank you…
…in other words, i’m tired of your weak sauce, dude…
…btw, yoro…lemme save you some time & another foolish reply…i’ll reiterate my position so you don’t have to put your foot in your mouth…again…
……”i think the lance-ster was wrong to use enhancement despite it’s rampant use throughout the peleton…i also think he’s wrong to lie about it & withhold the truth…”…
…could i be any clearer…