According to a VeloNews article, Lance Armstrong announced yesterday that he has a scheduling conflict and won’t be doing the Leadville 100. Go Clipless thinks he’s just afraid that Floyd Landis will beat him. I think he may be right.
Maybe he should give the Durango 100 a try instead and take on a real challenge. The record finish time at the Durango 100 is 9:11 and that was before they added even more vertical. They’ve been offering a $500 bonus to the first person to break 9 hours. I know $500 isn’t anything to Lance but proving he can go under 9 hours there should be.
Of course it’s still questionable whether Landis can do the race because of his doping problems from the 2006 Tour de France. As I’ve said before, I don’t think he was doping with testosterone. I think most of the pros are using something banned and maybe Landis is too. There’s enough strangeness about his positive testosterone test to believe that it was valid.
Related Links:
- Buzz About Lance Doing the Leadville 100
- Floyd Landis to Race Leadville 100
- Views from the Top of Columbine Climb
- Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race Pictures
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Tags: cycling, Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong, Leadville 100, mountain biking
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I thought that was a little weird as well – I mean the whole “scheduling conflict” does sound phony. My guess is that Lance knows Floyd will take the UCI hit and since Leadville is a NORBA event they would have to either ban him (unlikely) or dump NORBA (likely). They guy is walking a thin wire and prolly figured to steer clear of anything that could be a controversy. But yeah Floyd might very well have kick his tail – but I wanted to see Dave Wiens show his stuff against both of those guys! That would have been a beaut.
Not to dis the Durango 100 but the course isn’t that tough when it’s dry…but it’s always wet and it becomes a muddy mess. Breckenridge 100 is the real 100-mile MTB test in my book (but I’ve heard the E100 is harder than that!)
Thx for the 508/Hoodoo 500 info btw….
“When was the last time Armstrong did someting on his own?” “Wimps out at Leadville!” “If he wants a real challenge he should do Durango”
Why you dissin on Armstrong and Leadville?? You ever think the 7 time Tour winner, Chairman of one of the worlds largest cancer foundations and co-owner of Team Discovery may have something else to do than spend 3-4 days in Leadville??
The reason everyone thinks that Armstrong wimped out (and I agree) is because he “conveniently” came up with a scheduling conflict about two weeks after he announced in fact he would be spending “3-4 days in leadville”. Just so happens that during those two weeks, Landis announced that he would be doing the race. I don’t believe in that much of a coincidence. I think he got scared Landis (a former pro MTB’er) was going to kick his ass.
Sure Lance has something else he could do, that was true BEFORE Landis announce too.
The guy may have won 7 tours, but until he ever comes up with something other than “I’ve never tested positive”, he’ll get no respect from me.
Uhmmmmm,,What if,… what if, what if it’s all a ploy to take the pressure off the race? The media cools off, all the shaved pretty boys stay home…then… when everyone thinks he’s not showin… BAM!… he’s your neighbor at the friggin Super 8!
leadville, breck, durango, beaver creek … who gives a shit. Thier all cheese-dick races after winning 7 tours.
In his time, when he cared to, when it mattered, against the best in the world, on a global stage, Lance won consistently for 7 years.
So now he is retired and enjoying life after winning races since age 13, fighting cancer, and coming back.
If he doesn’t want to deal with Landis, the media hype, and mostly arm chair bloggers, thats his choice. I applaud his good judgement.
And challenge is in the eye of the beholder, be it an Iron Man, Iditarod, swimming the English Channel, climbing Everest, or winning an Olympic medal in stepple chase. It seems pretty self centered to claim Lance can only be challenged if he does a race ultrarob did. BFD
Lets turn that around – if UltraRob wants a real challenge maybe he should try the La Ruta de los Conquistadores, or run the Western States 100, or …
Hey bitter boy…
A little advice for you – forget about posting to blogs and get a GED!
Not only did you use the WRONG word (you meant “they’re” – as in “they are”), you spelled the WRONG word WRONG (“their” NOT “thier”).
The rest of your post was just as ignorant.
Lance was the one that said he wanted to do Leadville. Rob didn’t challenge him to do it. Then Lance chickened out. He should be called for it.
Dolt.
Easy now big fellers, I think anybody who spells conquistadores correct gets an A in my book.
Do you all really think Armstrong gives a shit if Landis beats him? Do you think Landis gives a shit if Armstrong beats him? I think they both have more important things to worry about. Unless you train like Weins nobody would beat him anyway. Armstrong got beat by 800+ people at the NY marathon, didn’t seem to bother him. How’s MY spelling nerdo
Not bitter, just pointing out the facts albeit without about running a separate spelling check. Perhaps the ignorant part is assuming something about somebody’s education for a blog posting that doesn’t matter. But if you can look past the spelling, which part was ignorant?
Lance being a great athlete and overcoming adversity?
Ultrarob posting twice that if Lance wants a real challenge he needs to do Durango?
That there are many challenges in life, and challenge being in the eye of the beholder?
My point is that Carmichael probably got him hyped on it after his mediocre performance last year, and as he watched to things unfold he decided he didn’t want to deal with it. To me there are seasons of life, and Lance has moved on.
I think the response to one of the anonymous commenters was a bit harsh and for the most part not ignorant. He’s entitled to an opinion different than mine. I agree he’s moved on to a different stage in life but I still think getting beat by Landis would matter to him. The NYC marathon wasn’t in his sport and he wasn’t going against a former teammate.
The one part of the comment I think shows some ignorance is about what makes for a challenge. It seems to imply I don’t think Leadville is tough because I haven’t done it. I’ve started and finished it 4 times with my best time being 8:18. I’m not going to win with a time like that but compare that to a record of 9:11 at the Durango 100.
I seriously considered doing La Ruta de los Conquistadores the year my friend and my coach did it. I spent a while talking to the contact in the US. I’ve had issues with the heat to the point that I was worried that I could have a heat stroke or something. After doing RAAM last summer, I’m not as worried about it since I don’t think I did much worse in the desert heat than most of the other riders.
Now running the Western States 100 is a totally different story. I think it would be really cool to do a 100 mile running race just to say I did one but I only run if something big and scary is chasing me.
…I still think it’s a ploy and he’ll still show up, call me naive, a helpless romantic, an Armstrong fan, maybe I just like dopers…Hamilton, Landis, Basso, Pantani, Miller, Ullrich..I luv em all
Thanks for acknowledging there can be different opinions. If nothing else we have set a new high water mark for comments on this blog and spiced it up. In the end, that’s what it is all about.
Also I have no ignorance about utrarob doing Leadville either. It has been mentioned many times in the blog. I have also also participated.
I’m out of here. Long live dopers. They will always do it so I accept it as a part of the sport. I want to see them passing the motorcycles up the hills, and shredding harley chains 🙂
In closing, IMHO, Perhaps the biggest reason Lance is backing out is he doesn’t want to be a part of the amateur freak show. All the posers wanting a piece of him at the already dangerous start, Velonews paparazzi in the trees on the powerline waiting to get a shot of him taking a leak, called responsible for $200 a night bunks, and starry eyed ascenders drifting into his descent line on Columbine. Slam – shattered pelvis, broken collarbone.
That’s my vision of Leadville 07 with Lance. Now I wait for Floyd to come to the same conclusion.
Over and out