I met Levi Leipheimer only once and I almost never write about him. I cover Bay Area sports and Leipheimer is a Santa Rosa athlete and resident. I have admired his accomplishments on a bicycle, but now I don’t admire him at all. I have covered many drug cheats and it turns out, Leipheimer is just another one of them — a phony and a rules breaker.
He is kind of a hero in the 707, I guess, but that does not absolve him. He became famous and rich by cheating. How does that make him any different from Alex Rodriguez or Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire?
I am not always savvy about these things, but he seems to have received a reduced sentence for rolling over on Lance Armstrong. Armstrong didn’t roll over on him. He rolled over on Armstrong for his own self-interest, apparently not because he wanted to do the right thing.
In the article I read in the PD, Leipheimer said he had no choice but to dope. What a disgusting allegation. He had a million choices and he chose to cheat, chose to do it many times. He is trying to weasel out of his moral responsibility. I find that reprehensible.
Kathy
Armstrong admitted that he doped? That would be big news, but I haven’t seen it anywhere. Although I haven’t yet read today’s papers.
The news about Leipheimer admitting doping and testifying against Armstrong came out several months ago, and I thought less of him then as I do now. The entire sport was corrupt, and it makes me sad. But yes, this does put him in the same class as the others you mention. But maybe they get divided into 2 classes–those who have fessed up and perhaps taken punishment and those who continue to deny in the face of overwhelming evidence.
And Lowell, Santa Rosa is part of the Bay Area, so not sure why you’d imply that by covering this you’re stepping outside your beat.
October 11th, 2012 8:31 am
CohnZohn
Kathy, Bob Padecky covers Santa Rosa sports and Sonoma County sports in general.
October 11th, 2012 8:38 am
Bray
Comes as no surprise at all. Armstrong is way too far in a hole to admit anything, he has built walls of lies for years now.
October 11th, 2012 8:53 am
lameduck
All I know is that I’ve given my kids a lot of cough syrup and they’ve never hit one out of the park.
October 11th, 2012 9:13 am
jake
Lowell: your last paragraph contains factual inaccuracies. Armstrong has not admitted to cheating – which is the real cowardice that still exists with a select few of the old-guard doping/cycling.
If Levi and all the others voluntarily became clean in 2006/2007, I’d consider that quite a risk in a sport where clearly the winners will have all been doping.
Talking about it? That’s a different animal. You’re casting aspersions for finally talking about it?
To the best of my recollection, Levi has quite a few big accomplishments since 2006/2007.
October 11th, 2012 9:13 am
D Urrutia
Lowell,
You can’t be serious here. At times, you write with a tone that implies a naive perspective and a childish moral outrage it’s clear you’re too educated to have. Cycling has been dirty for a generation; to pretend that isn’t an established fact is laughable. So if you want to say that the sport is “reprehensible”…fair enough. Except for one fact: you’re paid quite nicely to cover sports. You’re on tv, have a small slice of celebrity in this area, and you obviously like that status very much. So explain to us the moral high ground of covering athletes that are “cheats” in baseball (especially around here), football (maybe 90% of the NFL?), even golf (take a moment to study photos of Tiger between the ages of 19 and 27 or 28)….
Pro sports is a dirty business, emphasis on business, and as long as the money is absurd it will always be a place for “cheats” and people trying to find that extra “edge” to win. Worse, we know that boxing and football, your two favorite sports, cause dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS.
So taking a short hike to high moral ground against people like Levi Leipheimer is probably not your best pose. You’re complicit. We all are when winning is the only thing that matters.
October 11th, 2012 9:34 am
Scott
This story is no surprise to anyone who follows cycling. Leipheimer didn’t say he had no choice to dope, but that the choice he had was either to dope or go home. Racing in Europe is the “major leagues” of cycling, and really the only place for a cyclist to make a career out of it. It’s true that he could have taken the high road and chosen to quit the sport, but I think it’s tough to criticize. What if you were told that you couldn’t be a writer unless you took a certain pill? And you weren’t qualified to do anything else?
Nobody “sold out” Armstrong. He’s been sold out by the truth. He’s done wonderful things for cancer victims, and his success in cycling has drawn people into the sport. But he happens to be a liar and a thug.
October 11th, 2012 10:09 am
CohnZohn
Scott, Why is Leipheimer any better in a moral sense than Armstrong?
October 11th, 2012 10:29 am
KauaiRobert
It’s CYCLING for Heaven sakes!
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WHO CARES???
.
.
.
*ALOHA*
October 11th, 2012 11:58 am
Bray
Exactly Kauai!!! No morality issue with me, it’s just a boring pastime and or exercise. Any one can ride a bike, never understood the appeal.
October 11th, 2012 12:57 pm
Scott
Lowell,
It’s true that Leipheimer and Armstrong both doped. That’s not the issue. With Armstrong, it’s the combination of the continuous lying and the intimidation of those who have come clean. There have been several instances over the years of individual cyclists who have told the truth about doping in the sport, and Armstrong and his crew do what they can to destroy these people (not literally, but careers have been ruined).
This latest episode of so many cyclists confessing is so overwhelming that you’d think Armstrong would finally fess up, but he is still trying to smear those who are simply trying to get the truth revealed.
As an aside, I think it’s important for those who aren’t cycling nuts to understand why doping is so prevalent in the sport. It’s simply because it is so effective. EPO and blood doping make a huge difference. Much more so than steroids do for a baseball player. If there was a drug that raised your batting average 30 pts., I think baseball would have a problem on its hands (more so than it already does).
October 11th, 2012 8:54 pm
jake
Lowell, with all due respect, you’d do very well, I think, to read Levi’s actual words in his affidavit to the USADA.
Here is the link:
http://d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net/Leipheimer%2c+Levi%2c+Affidavit.pdf
from here: http://cyclinginvestigation.usada.org/
There, you’ll learn about the coercion and bullying that Levi experienced from the likes of Lance.
That’s the difference. Lance would regularly try to destroy the careers of riders who wouldn’t vow to Lance’s oath of silence.
Talk in specifics. What would YOU have done differently?
~jake
October 12th, 2012 10:19 am
MJ
Whats their motive? So youre telling me someone who hates me is talking negatively? Shocking.
October 12th, 2012 1:09 pm
Chuckie
Lowell,
Clever article. It certainly put you on the radar of people that might not generally read your material.
And the titile……..fairly decent flame bait as well.
Levi is a classy guy, despite the choice that he made to “load.” Forget the size of the contracts.
If I chose to make a living to ride that hard, that often, at that level……….
I would have done the same.
October 14th, 2012 10:43 am
AngusinCanada
Lowell,
With respect, most of the time I enjoy your commentary, but I was angry after reading your shallow, self-righteous, banal and uninformed commentary on the ongoing Armstrong era doping scandal.
Here’s some links for your enlightenment. Levi did do the right thing, not for himself, but for the sport of cycling, knowing he’d pay a price.
I urge you to read them, or if not, don’t talk about cycling any more, please.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/the-lance-armstrong-fairness-fallacy
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/10/news/omega-pharma-terminates-leipheimers-contract_261636
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/10/news/riding-toward-the-light-is-a-wave-of-confessions-about-to-swamp-pro-ranks_261546
October 16th, 2012 6:07 pm