Did I actually say that former 3 time Tour de France champion, Greg Lemond (Photo: AFP), would have his opportunity to "rant" in the Floyd Landis hearing? Apparently, I was way off base, misunderstood, misconstrued, misread, misjudged, miscalculated, and just plain mistaken.
Someone should have told me, tapped me on the shoulder, or at least given me a suggestive wink (a nod's as good as a wink to a blind man, say no more) to inform me that "rant" actually means "bomb" in these proceedings.
In retrospect, the essence of Lemond's testimony, based on a personal phone call from Landis and message board fodder, could have been at most construed as being a "he said, he said" argument. But thanks to Floyd's buddy and manager, "Bad Will Phoning" Geoghegan's call of intimidation, Lemond's words came off sounding like doctrine.Imitating the uncle who sexually abused Lemond before his stardom (a fact brought out in Lemond's testimony and in confidence during the prior phone call with Landis), Geoghegan came off like one of the idiots on "Cops - San Diego." He effectively turned the proceedings into a Jerry Springer Show, made Landis' defense look like a group of ambulance chasers, and turned Mr. Suh (one of Landis' lawyers) into Donald Trump proclaiming to the panel in reference to Geoghegan, "You're Fired!"
Is all lost for Landis? It remains unclear. Hopefully, the case will be judged on the scientific evidence and not on the sensationalism that surrounded the end of day 4.
The one good (if you can call it that) thing to come out of today is that Will Geoghegan may just have revived the careers of the Jerky Boys.
Now somebody stop me before I throw out another bad television or radio reference...
MORE:
--Trust but Verify: Hue-Lemond Recap
Oude Granny's Floyd-o-meter:
5 comments:
This is the best analysis on the internets of what happened today. I think everywhere else the commentators were too vested in the outcome to be able to look at the insanity today and inject some much needed levity. Excellent!
thanks anon...
Greg LeMond is a nut, why does he seem to hate every other American cyclist but himself? He really has some kind of wierd complex. No doubt what Landis' manager did was wrong, but I do not believe his rogue act came at the behest of Landis.
OK, it’s crybaby Lemond again. He cried about Bernard Hinault, his teammate, to win a tour. Bernard Hinault was a much better cyclist.
Lemond complained about Armstrong’s winning the Tour and tried to undermine Armstrong‘s wins. Now he is trying to destroy another American tour winner and a good person. Why was Lemond requested to testify in a case that he has no pertinent information to contribute?
Is this the only way Lemond can get attention. I do not think he well respected in the professional cycling community.
anon,
agree with your assessment to a point, as GL sounds like that crotchity old man who complains because people have forgotten his contributions...you know the "hey, I did that first."
in this case, he would have sounded like that again, except Will ended up destroying his buddy. Now GL sounds like the expert on American cycling, where people might actually start to believe his claims about LA.
it'd be great if he could just let his passion for cycling manifest itself in other ways than knocking down all those Americans that follow him.
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