Now Armstrong Buys ASO?

[hockinsk]

http://boulderreport.bicycling.com/2008 ... ong-b.html

Please no, Armstrong & Verbruggen owning ASO. Could it get any worse for cycling?

[tymon_tm]

[mdeth1313]

Methinks if this happens, Euro will be looking for a bridge to ride off.

[CaptainWilier]

How much would that cost? Let's pass around a collection plate for the "WW de France."

[Danton]

The idea that ASO is going sell the Tour de France to Hein Verbruggen and Armstrong belongs to the morning of 1 April.

[Sprinter]

Methinks if this happens, Euro will be looking for a bridge to ride off.

I'll be joining EURO on that bridge.

Seriously, could things get any worse? This means the death of our sport.

[Steponas]

The French would nationalize ASO to prevent that happening , were it ever a possibility.

[Leviathan]

Indeed - probably comes under the "Danone Law" where French govt can block any purchase as being not in the French "Strategic Interest", god bless em...

[HammerTime2]

Are you telling me the French will object when it's renamed the Walmart Tour de France, brought to you by Bank Of America?

[ScienceIsCool]

Heh. Bank of America... As if it'll still be around in the next few weeks. Good one. Seriously, though. Who thought leveraging sub-prime loans at 100:1 their value was a good idea?

Oh, and Lance owning the Tour would be so awesome. Cycling would become such a farce that it would be pure entertainment.

John Swanson

[BenCousins]

Anyone for Golf?

[Tapeworm]

I can't watch golf anymore. It's so obvious that those pros like Tiger are doped up to the eyeballs. How else can they play a full 18 holes, driving the ball the distances they do? The sooner they crack down on golf and all the cheats the better.

On the plus side though, no one questions the aerodynamics of the dimples on golf balls.

[BenCousins]

You are wearing your naive hat again.

Gary Player, 2007

"I know that there are golfers (taking performance-enhancing drugs), whether it's HGH (human growth hormone), whether it's creatine, or whether it's steroids, I know for a fact that some golfers are doing it,"

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnis ... ayer_N.htm

[Danton]

More seriously, cycling as a sport has a lot of its image set by what the pros do, not by a local race. But Armstrong can buy the entire pro tour for all I care, I'll still smile when descending fast, my sweat will burn in the eyes like normal on a hot day and cycling will always be as hard.

It'll just mean I go off pro cycling a bit more and maybe some friends who make a living from cycling will slide a notch or two further towards show business than pure sport.

[CharlesM]

The idea that ASO is going sell the Tour de France to Hein Verbruggen and Armstrong belongs to the morning of 1 April.

There have been, for the last two years, several groups interested in not only ASO but the other multiple race owners.


I'm not for Armstrong owning it, and I am absolutely not for Hein owning it. But I would love to see a top flight orgaization in control of the primary races in pro cycling and in governing the sport.



Sure there are biggoted, ignorant nationalists (in both the real world and these forums) that would be against some ownership simply on face value.

Stupid petty racism / nationalism aside, I'm not sure that anyone feels that pro cycling has been properly run for the last decade or more...


I would love to see another organization in charge of cycling that could simply get rid of the back room bullsh!t and power struggle that exists because of the sport and it's organizers general and relative weakness.