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news
Geoff Thomas (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research)"No regrets" says Geoff Thomas over Lance Armstrong charity ride invitation
Retired footballer Geoff Thomas has explained why he invited disgraced ex pro bike racer Lance Armstrong to ride part of the Tour de France route for charity.
The former England midfielder, who hopes to raise £1 million for Cure Leukaemia told BBC sports editor Dan Roan he has "no regrets" about inviting Armstrong to take part in the find-raising event that involves riding the route of the Tour the day before the race itself.
Thomas sees Armstrong's involvement as a step in his rehabilitation as a cancer fundraiser.
He said: "I feel he's got a place, in the future - some people might feel it's not now - but I feel it's about time I gave him a lift back into helping people in the cancer community."
Thomas doesn't feel Armstrong's presence is disrespectful of the Tour, an accusation levelled by UCI boss Brian Cookson.
Thomas said: "This is a charity bike ride. The Tour turns up on the day, but the day before or the day after it's just a highway, everything's gone. And that's what the Tour is about."
"I'm celebrating ten years since I did the Tour [route] in 2005. I thought that was pretty special and I want to allow people to join in raising the target of a million pounds to join in and experience what I went through.
"With lance it was always going to be controversial, I knew that. But I feel it's time to allow him to carry on with his life.
"He's paid for his past and he's going to pay more. It's for the governing bodies to sort that out. I just want to give him the opportunity of helping others.
"If his two days of involvement help get more revenue in for a good cause then that's great.
Thomas says it's time to stop dwelling on Armstrong's past.
He said: "Look to the future. I want the future to be better for people in the cancer community."
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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49 comments
LOL. Seriously. LOL. They had a public spat and Lance was exposed as a lying cnut. How is Lemond's life ruined exactly? I'd love to see you tell him that to his face - i know for a fact he has a different opinion to his life than you do.
Didnt Armstrong go out his way to try and ruin LeMonds burgeoning bike business (and succeeded) and spread lies about him that meant Lemond was ostracised from the cycling community?
Paul Kimmage. He's out of a job now!
Jan Ullrich
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/tour-de-france/1013...
I wonder how all the other participants feel about him joining them in what is a tough and incredible way to raise money for charity.
It might be worth somebody doing some journo type thing and garnering the info and putting a piece up on it.
Cynical attempt by Thomas to gather publicity. Unfortunately it has worked.
The invitation by Thomas is for exactly the same reason as Armstrong's acceptance to ride - create publicity.
Do we know whether Cure Leukaemia is happy to be funded no matter what the circumstances; end justifies the means?
The way people go on it's as though it's a life or death thing he did, it's just bike riding, it's not really that important.
Didn't Mr. Armstrong actively try to ruin the lives and/or livelihoods of anyone who crossed him/stood in his way? For those folks, his fall from grace shouldn't be brushed under the carpet.
Let's imagine that someone dragged *your* family's name through the mud, or caused you to lose your job/career/business. Would you still think it wasn't important?
Do you personally know these people, I doubt it. Do you really care about these people, I doubt it. So no, it's not important to 99.99999% of people.
I don't personally know of them. But I don't need to know them personally to know that having their lives ruined is wrong. That's not about personal knowledge, it's about being a decent human being.
I suspect you plucked your figure of 99.99999% from out of your arse. Either that, or you are seriously deluded about the rest of the people in the world. They're not all complete cunts, you know.
Go ahead and answer the question, though. If it was *your* family, would it matter?
I agree with the sentiment. I just think my definition of 'ruined' is different to yours. Yeah, he was a complete and utter wanker. Nobody's life is ruined though. No matter how much people desire to find a devil to hate, Lance ain't it.
Do you personally know these people, I doubt it. Do you really care about these people, I doubt it. So no, it's not important to 99.99999% of people.
"It's time to allow him to carry on with his life"
Sure - when he does the same for others who have recently been subject to fresh litigation by Armstrong's lawyers.
"it's time to stop dwelling on Armstrong's past"
Would be easier to do when we feel that Armstrong has genuinely learnt from his past mistakes. So far that hasn't happened.
Yup. Pretty much agree. Armstrong never failed to put the boot in on others, never failed to exploit a situation when one came along and one suspects that he wants us to a) forgive him, and b) exploit the situation for his own ends. I don't think he should be given that chance.
This is the man that called the UCI to dob Tyler Hamilton in for doping after Hamilton beat him on Ventoux. This guy doesn't fight fair and doesn't respect the rules. Never forget that.
He still disputes doping in 2009 & 2010. He seems to have known all about bad blood bags of his rivals - who wouldn't put it passed him for tampering - I know that sounds extreme, but this is the man who likely bugged USADA/FBI witnesses so who can put this beyond him. I see very little that he wouldn't do or say he's such a pathological liar.
Not sure who is more paranoid here, him or you!
I agree...it's only a charity event. I commend his choice to be "other centered" rather than "self centered". Everyone makes mistakes. Let's give him a chance to make his amends.
Good for him. It's all getting a bit silly now.
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