LegendRider
04-19-2013, 07:26 PM
A friend recently heard a talk that Tygart gave. I asked him if there were any interesting insights and he responded with this note to my team:
Very interesting. [Teammate] was right that he was extremely brave to take on Lance. He received some seriously nasty threats from people including death threats to him and his kids that required security for his entire family. It looks like the guys who made these threats will probably go to jail.
After he spoke I had the chance to talk with him for about 45 minutes over a couple of beers. The interesting things I took away:
- It all got started when Floyd came clean.
- Lance was not the original target so it was never a "witch hunt."
- The primary concern was the upcoming Olympics and our guys winning medals and being caught doping.
- Everyone was invited in to testify and come clean.
- Ultimately all roads lead to Lance and his team of doctors and handlers. Of course he refused to come in and escalated the fight.
- Lance was spending $1 million/month for 18+ months on lawyers and PR firms to fight USADA.
- Only $50K in taxpayer money was spent on this entire deal...USADA is only partially taxpayer funded so not a "taxpayer witch hunt."
- They calculated that Lance has made over $200 million in his career so don't worry, he'll be okay after all the lawsuits settle.
Lance's aggressive defense strategy was interesting (pretty much the same one he used for years). Phrases like "witch hunt" and "funded by taxpayers" were originated by Lance and his team and disseminated through the media. Lance would tweet on Friday nights and include these phrases so it would be picked up in the Saturday news cycle without USADA having a chance to counter. They went exclusively through the Washington Post to tell their story b/c Sally Jenkins (who wrote his bios) worked there and was friendly to their cause. They also attacked Tygart personally to paint him as an egotist who had a vendetta against Lance.
Watch for the next shoe to drop. Sounds like they are going after the guys who funded and supported it all like Tom Weisel, Bart Knaggs and others. Apparently these guys were determined to have an American win the Tour by any means necessary and if hadn't been Lance it would have been someone else.
My overall impression was that Tygart was more saddened by the entire thing but had a strong conviction about doing what was right. I found him to be genuine and a good guy. Unlike Lance...just confirmed he is a huge scumbag.
Very interesting. [Teammate] was right that he was extremely brave to take on Lance. He received some seriously nasty threats from people including death threats to him and his kids that required security for his entire family. It looks like the guys who made these threats will probably go to jail.
After he spoke I had the chance to talk with him for about 45 minutes over a couple of beers. The interesting things I took away:
- It all got started when Floyd came clean.
- Lance was not the original target so it was never a "witch hunt."
- The primary concern was the upcoming Olympics and our guys winning medals and being caught doping.
- Everyone was invited in to testify and come clean.
- Ultimately all roads lead to Lance and his team of doctors and handlers. Of course he refused to come in and escalated the fight.
- Lance was spending $1 million/month for 18+ months on lawyers and PR firms to fight USADA.
- Only $50K in taxpayer money was spent on this entire deal...USADA is only partially taxpayer funded so not a "taxpayer witch hunt."
- They calculated that Lance has made over $200 million in his career so don't worry, he'll be okay after all the lawsuits settle.
Lance's aggressive defense strategy was interesting (pretty much the same one he used for years). Phrases like "witch hunt" and "funded by taxpayers" were originated by Lance and his team and disseminated through the media. Lance would tweet on Friday nights and include these phrases so it would be picked up in the Saturday news cycle without USADA having a chance to counter. They went exclusively through the Washington Post to tell their story b/c Sally Jenkins (who wrote his bios) worked there and was friendly to their cause. They also attacked Tygart personally to paint him as an egotist who had a vendetta against Lance.
Watch for the next shoe to drop. Sounds like they are going after the guys who funded and supported it all like Tom Weisel, Bart Knaggs and others. Apparently these guys were determined to have an American win the Tour by any means necessary and if hadn't been Lance it would have been someone else.
My overall impression was that Tygart was more saddened by the entire thing but had a strong conviction about doing what was right. I found him to be genuine and a good guy. Unlike Lance...just confirmed he is a huge scumbag.