Lance Armstrong accepts drugs charges

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Armstrong is one of the greatest athletes ever. Here is some data on his V02

VO2 max results vary greatly. The average for a sedentary individual is close to 35 ml/kg/min. Elite endurance athletes often average 70 ml/kg/min. One of the highest recorded VO2 max results (90 ml/kg/min) was that of a cross country skier. Cyclist Lance Armstrong's VO2 max was reported at 85 ml/kg/min.

He is a Superman.

ruveyn

I don't dispute those numbers--but I do question how they got to that level.

Look at someone like Ryder Hesjedal. He has a lung capacity of 8.3 litres. A normal human male's is about 6 litres, and Lance Armstrong's is 7. So when Ryder's VO2 max is measured, and then normalized for lung capacity, you wind up with a very different figure than Armstrong's.

But lung capacity isn't the whole VO2 max equation. It doesn't matter how big your lungs are if you have anemia; and inversely, if you have more red blood cells in your circulatory system, then they can pick up more oxygen from your lungs. If an athlete is using EPO, or transfusion to increase his red blood cell supply, then a smaller lung capacity is going to be able to transfer more oxygen, because there are more red blood cells able to pick it up.

Which is why Lance Armstrong is innocent since has has never been proven guilty. And even if he did dope himself, he is medically certified as Superman. He has one of the largest VO2 max measurements ever made (not the largest, but pretty close).

ruveyn

To me, something isn't right with the anti-doping agency here. If they say they're anti-doping, then why are going after L.A.? It seems that they're on a power trip and a lot of jealous people wanting to see him fall.

Agreed, they violated their own statute of limitations for starters. They are bound and determined to render a guilty verdict, it doesn't matter how flimsy their case is.

Seems like that to me too. Why after all these years? How many years has he been retired now?

Not so. When Armstrong chose to resume riding, he placed himself under their jurisdiction anew.

Except for the fact they were still going after him while he was in retirement too...

It's a witchhunt pure and simple.

You have them breaking their own statutes of limitation, retroactively applying rules and regulations that didn't exist at the time these "violations" took place, etc.

If this were a legal case, it would be tossed right off the bat because you can't apply a law retroactively.

Not quite, Inuyasha. You cannot apply a criminal law retroactively.

The United States Supreme Court has been very clear about the meaning of the ex post facto prohibitions. There are all manner of civil laws, administrative regulations, and tax laws that have been applied retroactively with the approval of the courts. Even within the realm of the criminal law, the prohibition is not absolute. The registration of sex offenders is an example of an approved ex post facto application of law that is wholly contained with the criminal jurisdiction.

So in other words if they decided to bar Asprin tomorrow they can start invalidating people's wins because they took an Asprin for muscle aches, and you don't see the problem with that...

The list of banned substances is always going to be behind the chemists who are coming up with new ways to evade detection.

While your aspirin (sp.) example is facetious, I am quite content with invalidating results based on the detection of performance enhancers that could not be detected using the technology of the time. EPO is one of the definitive examples of this.

Assuming he was actually taking those to begin with... You ever hear of false positives, there are certain prescription medications that will make a drug test light up like a Christmas tree...

This is still a witchhunt even after Armstrong retires. His reputation is already smeared for good thanks to these beauracrat.

Which is why the backup samples exist. And the French are perfectly willing to test Armstrong's older samples, but he is unwilling to agree.

Now, I don't dispute that he is perfectly entitled to refuse to permit retesting of the samples in the custody of the French. But we are perfectly entitled to draw inferences from that refusal. This isn't a criminal matter, Armstrong is not protected from self-crimination, and the burden of proof is the balance of probabilities.

Armstrong has done great things for cancer research, and even if those great things were predicated on EPO enhanced wins of the Tour de France, I am prepared to recognize him for those. But not for the Tour de France wins or his Olympic medal.

Lance Armstrong is one of the greatest athletes whoever breathed. His VO2max rating ( the rate at which the body can process oxygen) is one of the highest ever measured (not the highest) but Armstrong is in the 99 th percentile. He is frakking Superman.

See http://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm

ruveyn

And you too can be Superman with the correct cocktail of EPO, transfusions and anabolic steroids.