Seems like the world of cycling is now riding on bad publicity because of steroids. Lance Armstrong and Greg LeMond, two Tour de France winners many times over, are bickering. Lemond has been very vocal about his opinions of Armstrong, accusing the Tour’s seven-time winner of blood doping and steroids use. Apparently, Armstrong was not overjoyed by Lemond’s attitude and pronouncements, and decided to put a break on Lemond’s runaway mouth. Now, the row has gone beyond personal level. Reportedly, Armstrong retaliated by convincing Lemond’s business associate, Trek Bicycle Corporation, to drop Lemond’s high-end bicycle products. That would’ve hurt Lemond’s pockets more than his feelings. You’re not hearing the end of this, no doubt about it.

Second interesting and juicy item is Tammy Thomas’ recent guilty verdict on three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. Thomas was just one of the famous athletes implicated in the infamous BALCO affair. The 12-man jury convicted Thomas for lying before the grand jury back in 2003 when she denied that she had used steroids during her sprint cycling career. She also testified to the same jury that she had not received any performance-enhancing drugs from Patrick Arnold, BALCO’s in-house chemist.

Arnold, a one-time amateur bodybuilder, has pleaded guilty back in 2006 for supplying Thomas as well as some other professional athletes of the drugs norbolethone and tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), the latter more commonly known as The Clear. Arnold has already served his three-month sentence. Other elite athletes who were accused of taking the same steroids are slugger Barry Bonds and track queen Marion Jones.

Thomas’s sentencing is scheduled this July 18, and she may face a prison sentence of six months to several years, according to legal experts. Visibly upset by the verdict, Thomas shouted “I already had one career taken away from me,” she shouted, apparently referring to her lifetime ban from cycling. “Look me in the eye. You can’t do it,” she heatedly continued.

Bet you, few (if any at all) would attribute her aggression to steroids this time around.

Tags: anabolic steroid, anabolic steroids, Barry Bonds, Greg LeMond, Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, norbolethone, steroid, steroids, Tetrahydrogestrinone, THG

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Sports