11/05/24
December 15, 2006
Is cancer performance enhacing? : Robin Parisotto, a former Australian Institute of Sport researcher, takes issue with claims that Lance Armstrong's testicular cancer actually helped him during the Tour de France
I don't believe for a second that cancer itself helped Armstrong.(Only an idiot belives that).However,the treatment (particularly the drugs used to fight the infection)may well have contributed to his remarkable Tour successes.As a side light,being slightly superstitious I would never run an ad that starts"Hey Cancer, remember me?....)
posted by sickleguy at 09:27 AM on December 15, 2006
I think I'll pass on the cancer and just remain the average schmoe that I am.
posted by Desert Dog at 10:11 AM on December 15, 2006
Cancer didn't directly help Armstrong win the TdF, but rather what it did to his body. Prior to the cancer Lance had the build of a sprinter or a one-day Classics-type cyclist, after (and because of) the cancer he lost quite a bit of weight (especially upper body mass) and became much more of a climber and stage race general classification contender.
posted by JohnSFO at 10:22 AM on December 15, 2006
He can win all the TdF he wants but he'll never get that nut back.
posted by BornIcon at 10:40 AM on December 15, 2006
Wait...I just figured it out!!! It wasn't the cancer, or the cancer drugs...it was the lead pellets that are still lodged in his backside from that unfortunate hunting "accident". You know...lead poisoning makes people crazy, right? Crazy people have inhuman strength and endurance, right? Yeah...that's it! He really only won those last three TDF's because he was cheating by injecting himself with lead pellets!!! Someone better tell Dick Pound! WADA can finally prove that Armstrong is a cheat!!! Oh Joy! Oh sweet Joy! Vive La France! Vive La FRANCE!!!!!! ....er...umm...I mean...yes...we better alert WADA...gotta keep things fair and such.
posted by True Blue at 12:47 PM on December 15, 2006
I think no one has quite hit the mark yet. Perhaps the cancer drugs and weight issues had some effect on his performance, however if you actually take a second and think about it... The biggest effect that cancer had on Armstrong was to remove fear and pain from his vocabulary. Once you have gone through chemo and lost a nut, pushing your body to the limit would seem like an everyday thing. Also, just the sheer joy of being alive and surviving a deadly disease would give Armstrong more internal motivation than anyone else could invent. He lost the ability to do the thing that he truly loved and when he got the chane to do it again, he decided to stop cutting corners. He focused on winning the Tour and only the Tour. He did some insane trainig and turned his body into a machine. It's pretty sad that some losers have to go this far to explain themselves. It seems that cycling has the biggest babies of any sport. No race can end without some allegation of "cheating". This sport needs a serious make-over before it falls off the map.
posted by yay-yo at 01:10 PM on December 15, 2006
It seems that cycling has the biggest babies of any sport. No race can end without some allegation of "cheating". This sport needs a serious make-over before it falls off the map. You must not follow cycling much. Cycling has a huge problem with doping, and while it does need a serious make over, the reason is not because they're babies. I would hope you recall Jan Ullrich, a big favorite going into the 2006 Tour de France, who was suspended for doping and was unable to partcipate.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 04:33 PM on December 15, 2006
You must not follow cycling much. You're correct in that assumption, however I am well aware of the doping problems (as is anyone with a TV who enjoys watching ESPN). Regardless of the reason for all the whinning, this sport has reached the point where winning just doesn't mean anything anymore. These guys are going to be like painters. No one will ever know how good they really were until we figure out how to test for EVERYTHING, and by that time they will all be dead.
posted by yay-yo at 05:29 PM on December 15, 2006
I give it two weeks until we read some story about high school kids and their parents agreeing to have a nut removed to improve his chances to make the team. The Media has once again shown it can amaze us all.