back to article Oz library finds Lance Armstrong books a new home: The fiction section

An Australian library has announced it will reclassify books by Lance Armstrong as fiction, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The announcement at Manly Library moving Lance Armstrong books to fiction Book browsers at Manly Library in Sydney wishing to draw inspiration from Lance Armstrong: World's Greatest Champion and other …

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  1. JakeyC

    Manly Library

    Just how manly is this library?

    I mean, does it even have a reference section on naked bear-wrestling techniques?

    1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

      Re: Manly Library

      First, I read "...naked bare-breasted techniques". It still made kind of sense...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Manly

      Manley, just outside of Sydney is a pleasant destination to visit the beach, eat outside at one of the many restaurants or takeaways and drink a beer at the Steyne Hotel.

      The only downside to Manley are the number of uncouth Australians milling around and resident in the area. In fact Australia would be the greatest destination in the world, were it not for the population.

      1. Euripides Pants

        Re: Manly

        But is there a town nearby named Fertile like there is in Iowa so the Aussies can have news headlines like "Manly Man to Wed Fertile Woman" like we have here?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Manly

          I was severely beaten to the punch by the OP; I had planned on suggesting that it figures that it takes Australia to have a Manly Library. It does, however, remind me of my visit to Moody, Alabama, a town which I drove through twice just to read the business names:

          Moody Animal Clinic

          Moody High School

          Moody Dentist

          Moody Dry Cleaners

          As I left town and wiped the last of the tears from my eyes, I started to wonder whether the residents have gotten sick of seeing rental cars cruising down the main drag, occupants cackling immaturely...

      2. Rattus Rattus
        Trollface

        "...greatest destination in the world, were it not for the population."

        That's alright, it will improve immeasurably once the British tourists finally go home.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Manly

        How very droll.

        Hadn't you better get back to digging out your Ford Fiesta from the snow bank?

      4. Gray Ham Bronze badge
        Joke

        Re: Manly

        Q: How can you tell when QF2 arrives at Kingsford Smith airport from London?

        A: When they turn off the engines, the whining continues ....

        Well, you started it ...

    3. Old Handle
      Pint

      Re: Manly Library

      Australian for Library.

      Australian for Beer.

    4. Martin Budden Silver badge

      Re: Manly Library

      There is a simple reason why Manly is called Manly: Captain James Cook thought that the locals there looked particularly manly, so he named the place Manly Cove.

  2. The BigYin

    Can someone please enlighten me

    Lance Armstrong was a drugs cheat. We know this now.

    But wasn't almost every other top-flight racer in his time also a drugs cheat? Wasn't the problem actually systemic rather than just a few rouges?

    Are drugs still rife in cycling? I assume they are, but I genuinely don't know.

    1. Kevin Johnston

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      Seem to recall someone saying that this period will now be the 'lost decade' of cycling as so many of the top riders have been found guilty of drug mis-use that there is no-one left they feel comfortable passing the wins on to.

    2. James Micallef Silver badge

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      "wasn't almost every other top-flight racer in his time also a drugs cheat?"

      Pretty much yes... BUT Armstrong wasn't only competing while drugged to teh eyeballs, he was also (a) making a packet out of inspirational books, talk etc building a whole myth based on his lies. (b) Many competitors were 'encouraged' to do drugs by their teams for teh simple reason that if you didn't take them, you couldn't compete. Armstrong was a mastermind and pioneer of teh drug use. (c) Everyone else was pretty much keeping their head down and staying quiet. Armstrong was using legal threats and bully-boy tactics to silence anyone who even insinuated that he migt not be competing clean.

      Armstrong's interview was a sham, he basically said OK i cheated but it was a long time ago, I'm sorry please forgive me. And then no doubt he'll publish a new book about his drug misdeeds so he can cash in on the way down as well as on the way up.

      1. nsld
        FAIL

        Re: Can someone please enlighten me @james

        Sorry James but you dont have the first clue what you are talking about.

        I suggest you read up on the Festina Drugs scandal from 1998 and the concerted team driven use of drugs like EPO and the riders involved like Richard Veronque or Alex Zuille to get an idea of how drug use has been rife in cycling long before Lance Armstrong and will continue to be a significant problem for many years to come.

        Look at the number of tour winners who have failed tests at some stage in the last twenty years, aside from Hinault, Lemond and Indurain pretty much all of them have.

        Add in the likes of Vinokournof winner of Gold at London but banned in 2007 for blood doping following a positive heamatocrit test at the Tour de France.

        I am not defending what Armstong did, but your daily mailesque pronouncements are laughable.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      There were clean riders, but a lot of those were bullied into doping and others had their careers diminished or ended for not participating in the doping.

      For background, try here

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/jan/19/lance-armstrong-betsy-andreu

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19930514

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/oct/13/christophe-bassons-not-bitter-lance-armstrong

      and here

      http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nicole-cooke-retires-from-cycling#null

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      Drugs in cycling aren't so common now. But you probably have lots of clever people trying to gain advantage. It's all for the sponsors at the end of the day, do well and you get loads of money and your team is rewarded. Do badly and your team folds and you get nothing.

      The same is true in F1 or any other sport where sponsorship is very important.

    5. Tom 260

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      Yep, from 1996 to 2010, all but one le Tour winner either tested positive for drugs or later had the title stripped from them, see the graphic at the bottom of this BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21024288

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Can someone please enlighten me

        They might as well just put down 'EPO hit the scene here' cos thats what they all got done for.

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
          Trollface

          Re: Can someone please enlighten me

          > bully-boy tactics to silence anyone who even insinuated that he migt not be competing clean.

          The Steve Jobs of cycling.

    6. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      Are drugs still rife in cycling? I assume they are, but I genuinely don't know.

      It's hard to judge, but an article at the BBC seems to indicate that performance has dropped as drug use has diminished.

      1. ratfox
        Devil

        All but one tainted by doping…

        Obviously, Miguel Indurain managed to retire just in time after his fifth consecutive victory in the Tour…

    7. Grey Bird
      Joke

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      ...and what exactly does coloured cheek makeup have to do with it? ;->

    8. TeeCee Gold badge
      Headmaster

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      ....rather than just a few rouges?

      You think Lance Armstrong's downfall was the fault of the reds? Damn those pinko commie bastards!

    9. adam payne

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      Drugs were rife back then but the man still cheated.

    10. expat jan

      Re: Can someone please enlighten me

      Maybe not, but hypoxic training is.

      - Wiggins speaks about the time-trial course at Hampton Court

      'It's a reward for the months of training, sleeping in an oxygen tent in the spare room,....

      " For cycling, you won't feel any difference until you climb or push it to a tempo/interval pace. The overall pace for rides will be about the same, because despite less oxygen to use, there's also less wind resistance. Generally, you'll go slower on uphills, but faster on flats and downhills." www.tri-ecoach.com/art26.htm

      Next they'll have to ban breathing, or maybe competitors who were born and bred above 200 metres altitude.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Can someone please enlighten me

        "The same is true in F1 or any other sport where sponsorship is very important."

        True, sponsors are the boss - but try to name me a single F1 champion who used performance enhancing drugs. Or a single F1 driver, period - the hapless Tomas Enge found himself on the wrong end of a pot test after an F3000 season, and then later while in a GT series, not while he was (briefly) in F1.

        According to Wikipedia - which, while surely not comprehensive, is yet useful - various numbers of athletes have been involved in failed drug tests. Let's see:

        Cycling - 128

        Baseball - 56

        Football (Euro) - 71

        NASCAR - 4

        F3000 - 1 (Enge, for pot, which would not be terribly useful to enhance one's racing performance)

        Le Mans - 1 (also for pot)

        FIA GT - 1 (Also Tomas Enge)

        Rally - 0

        ALMS - 0

        MotoGP - 0

        Champ Car - 0

        SCCA - 0

        IMSA - 0

        V8 Supercars - 0

        IRL - 0

        Trans Am - 0, Rolex - 0, Grand Am - 0, BTCC - 0, WTCC - 0

        Formula One - 0

        I could go on.

        Certainly there are some guys who have used drugs; certainly the list of 'convicts' on Wikipedia is incomplete. But there does seem to be a certain trend.

        Motorsport, interestingly, is one of those rare birds where it's quite difficult to get any advantage from doping; the negatives tend to outweigh or equal the benefits. Steroids bulk you up and make you lose your cool - no go. Uppers make you jittery and don't last long enough. Anything that affects your reflexes by even a sliver is useless.

        I suppose it's a bit ironic - a lot of people don't consider motorsport to be 'a real sport', concluding that because it involves the use of a motor vehicle that it requires neither wit nor strength; I suppose if you instead take as a given that doping is endemic in sport, auto racing's absence from the classification is justified.

        1. nsld

          Re: Can someone please enlighten me

          Working purely from memory but I dont think Formula 1 does any form of drug testing.

          I think it varies from motorsport to motorsport with some doing testing and others not.

  3. James Micallef Silver badge
    WTF?

    WTF??

    "The reclassification of Armstrong was a matter for Libraries Australia, Ford added"

    What, libraries in Australia do not have the authority to classify their own books themselves? What kind of f**kwittery is that??

    1. Grikath
      Facepalm

      Re: WTF??

      Ooook! Eeee-ek!!

      1. frank ly

        Re: WTF??

        In some libraries, the books classify themselves; and you'd better not disagree with them.

        1. Simon Buttress

          Re: WTF??

          In Soviet Russia, books classify you..

      2. Andraž 'ruskie' Levstik

        Re: WTF??

        You sir win many Internets

    2. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: WTF??

      > What kind of f**kwittery is that??

      Dewey Decimal, I presume.

    3. david 12 Silver badge

      Re: WTF??

      See also "This person just works a few hours on the weekend and he didn't have any authority to make a statement on behalf of the library."

      Another classic bit of library management. These are the people who invented the word de-aquisition to describe book-burning.

      Perhaps they start out as book lovers, but they wind up very much like bitter self-indulgent child-hating primary-school teachers.

      And if they could just get rid of the books, and the clients, they could get rid of all the other staff as well

  4. James Micallef Silver badge
    Joke

    That Lance Armstrong is an exceptional athlete... when I was up to my eyeballs in drugs I couldn't even FIND my bicycle :)

    1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

      James, you lucky bastard! My bike turned evil and chased me all over the place (not going into the details of what grew out of it and what it tried to do to me - shudder...).

  5. Andrew Moore
    Trollface

    Anyone for one of those yellow rubber bracelets?

    I'm thinking of creating a range of LiveWrong bracelets with the caption "Don't compete; Cheat."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anyone for one of those yellow rubber bracelets?

      http://store.theonion.com/p-5045-cheat-to-win-bracelet.aspx

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anyone for one of those yellow rubber bracelets?

      DrugStrong.

  6. NomNomNom

    I just hope some of the victims get compensation and wonder how the BBC could ever allow Armstrong near children in the first place

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      and as for NASA letting him anywhere near the moon, well, what can I say.

      1. Richard 26

        "and as for NASA letting him anywhere near the moon, well, what can I say."

        It's a wonderful world?

      2. Horridbloke
        Alien

        @AC

        How DID they squeeze a giraffe into an Apollo craft?

        1. ratfox
          Coat

          Re: @AC

          I don't care if he cheated… He's still the best trumpet player I've ever heard!

  7. EddieD

    He was honest once

    One of his books was entitled "It's not about the bike", which was a fair assessment of his cycling.

    1. MrT

      And fighting cancer...

      ... is no joke. I read that book and thought it very inspiring. His later ones less so.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: And fighting cancer...

        "some argue that it was Armstrong's doping that caused his infamous battle with testicular cancer. Medical evidence suggests that steroids such as testosterone and EPO may cause significant damage to the body, including an increased risk of cancer, particularly of the testicles. Witnesses have come forth with information that Armstrong admitted doping to his doctors and was aware that he may have contributed to his illness."

        http://www.examiner.com/article/us-anti-doping-agency-cracks-down-lance-armstrong-stripped-of-titles

  8. Thomas 4

    This isn't funny

    Classing these books as fiction is disgraceful - they should be moved to the biochemistry section.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Lance Armstrong can now go join a self help group.....

    Arseholes Anonymous.

    FAIL - for contempt.

  10. ukgnome
    Joke

    "Sadly, the whole thing turned out to be "a bit of a joke" by a university student whole"

    Should that read .......by a university student a hole

  11. Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face

    Reminds me of a craze that went around where people were picking up Tony Blair's autobiography and moving it to the "Dark Fiction" section of the bookshop.

  12. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
    IT Angle

    Lets all...

    ... join Lance in an exciting new racing game called Follow the Dealer.

    P.S. What's the IT angle?

    - Race conditions

    - "Paged" memory (books once had pages. Books live in the library)

    - man(1) ley library (1 == "User" Commands)

    "Take us to your dealer".

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No show without Punch

    But how did they (all) get away with it for so long?

    - Bad testing?

    - Corrupt testing?

    - Bribery?

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