Go Marty! Some behavior is just unacceptable and a line must be drawn in the sand. It was a bummer that Marty had to loose his temper, but I think Steffen got what he had coming.

http://www.velonews.com/article/82154/old-doping-accusations-lead-to-altercation

I disagree. Prentice should press charges. Some behavior is just unacceptable.

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polskakielbasa.blogspot.com

The silly things you post in the heat of the moment. I think that they both could work on some things. I know Marty a little and Prentice not at all and it was not a fair judgment.

press charges? sheeeeet.

people usually don't get hit while being completely innocent.

it's ok to disagree with bad behavior, bad spelling and suggesting to press charges. 

Andrew 

 

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Andrew Lock

Passing judgment on something (or someone) you know little or nothing about is irresponsible.  What we know from the Walsh books and hearsay is just the tip of the iceberg.  99% of the truth we will never know.  I consider Marty a friend and support him 100%.  Do I think he was doping?  I don't care.  And if he did, I don't blame him. If fact, since he was racing in Europe in the late 90's, I'd expect him to.  For that matter, I don't blame anyone who was doing just what everyone else was doing.  If I had to make a decision between staying clean and losing a job or doping like everyone else and keeping food on the table for my family, I'd say "where's the needle, doc?"  

So please don't make judgments on people or events we have little knowledge of.  I'm sure Marty could take back the punch if he could.  Then again, maybe not, because we have no idea what truly happened between these two guys.  I just wish it didn't happen during the Tour of Utah and Marty used a bit more restraint (or waited for him at the end of the TT.)

 

 

 

 

Marty Jemison managed to succeed in the most difficult races in the world, against the hardest competition in the world on their turf. He did that by packing up and moving to France, living in an abandoned schoolhouse, training on his bicycle tens of thousands of miles, and racing 200 days a year on the most brutal roads and in the worst weather imaginable. There is a picture of Marty in that VeloNews article of him on the cobbles of the Arenberg Forest wearing the US national champion's jersey. Check it out and respect.

thage:

Passing judgment on something (or someone) you know little or nothing about is irresponsible.  What we know from the Walsh books and hearsay is just the tip of the iceberg.  99% of the truth we will never know.  I consider Marty a friend and support him 100%.  Do I think he was doping?  I don't care.  And if he did, I don't blame him. If fact, since he was racing in Europe in the late 90's, I'd expect him to.  For that matter, I don't blame anyone who was doing just what everyone else was doing.  If I had to make a decision between staying clean and losing a job or doping like everyone else and keeping food on the table for my family, I'd say "where's the needle, doc?"  

So please don't make judgments on people or events we have little knowledge of.  I'm sure Marty could take back the punch if he could.  Then again, maybe not, because we have no idea what truly happened between these two guys.  I just wish it didn't happen during the Tour of Utah and Marty used a bit more restraint (or waited for him at the end of the TT.)

 

There was certainly nothing judgmental in my statement. I based it on the article which said that Jemison punched Steffen. His described behavior just made him look like a bully to me. We're a nation of laws. If someone slanders you, you sue them. If someone punches you, you press charges. If they retract or are otherwise sorry, you come to a civil agreement and settle it. I don't know either man personally, but I do know that one of them is a liar, and at least one has a temper that could land him in trouble. Those are facts that I'm aware of.

Since you opened the can of worms, I must further say that I'm disappointed in your apparent justification of doping (in the 90's or otherwise). I don't feel sorry for any cyclist who was under pressure to perform. Most people are under pressure at their place of employment. Cyclists of character didn't bow under that pressure. For that reason I hold those who didn't dope and had to find other jobs to keep food on the table in highest regard. Similarly, cheating on a math test isn't justified just because you're not as smart as the others, and you want to be an astronaut really, really bad, and everybody's doing it anyway, and it just isn't fair, and waaah... At least I hope that's what everybody's teaching their kids. The reality is that for some the dream of winning the Tour is shattered only a few weeks into training, for others it's not until they roll into Paris. Distance from "the dream" notwithstanding, both are equally unjustified in cheating. No argument justifies cheating.

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polskakielbasa.blogspot.com

I think anybody that knows anything about cycling knows that cheating was what you had to do to make it and I probly would have done it too. Lets see take epo and whatever and stay  a professional cyclist or go back to the states and get some crappy job or go back to school and still work your butt of to race at the local level. I think the problem most of us have with it is the way the pros act after they get busted(Tyler,Floyd etc..), deny,blame, make up all kinds of crap or get pissed and hit someone, we're sick of the whiney pros that wont man up after they get busted( of course we all know Lance never cheated he just trained harder).  

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stick em up punk its the fun lovin criminal.