The last few weeks have seen the cycling world “reeling” or “turned on it’s head” by the whole USADA Armstrong three-ring circus. People are proclaiming that everything has changed, they are either shocked or justified in their previous convictions that he doped. In some cased they still believe in Lance and now saw USADA is out of line. Passions have flared and the debate has raged online, on rides and over beers. It seems that many cycling fans have been left stumbling around as if they had just stumbled through the looking glass.
Personally, I think nothing has changed.
Let me outline some of the points of my argument:
1) Did you really think he was a nice guy beforehand?
Other than that little detail of being a Champion to Millions in the Fight against Cancer, what has he done that made you think he was a nice guy? He sued a team sponsor when he won his first tour after they ran an add congratulating him (apparently they had the rights to sponsor the team, not use Lance’s image) and he has systematically destroyed the careers of people that stood against him (I give you Simeoni). The guy has pretty much had to be the alpha in every situation at all costs- and its clearly cost him friends and relationships over the years. And you get the impression he probably doesn’t care.
Dude is kinda a dick.
Dude is kinda a dick.
2) Did you honestly think he was clean?
In bike racing, where there is smoke there is all too often fire. Several of his lieutenants went on to test positive after leaving Postal, and more to the point he was part of a generation, that in the clarity of hindsight, appears to have been doped to the gills.
3) He’s still the best rider of his generation.
I don’t want to be labelled an Armstrong apologist but drugs can’t make a racehorse out of a donkey. Everything about Mr. Armstrong’s long and illustrious career (and his stint in triathlon prior to that) suggests that he was genetically one in a million. He won the pro world title at an age when he was still a U23 and had a fairly successful time as a classics rider (he won Fleche Wallone if anyone remembers) all BEFORE becoming the Tour de France obsessed winning machine. And he did it against a generation of pros that were at least as dirty as he allegedly was.
Move over if you look at this seven tour wins he also had luck on his side- you can’t dope your way to seven tours without crashing out, flatting at the wrong moment, or having a mishap in the first week. That he did it seven years in a row is astounding.
4) He still helped the sport explode onto the mainstream.
Lance was in Dodgeball. Nobody is going to put Cadel Evans in a Ben Stiller flick anytime soon. Hell he couldn’t even make an episode of Two and a Half Men if he was the half man.
For a time there, if you raced bikes at least the general public would ask you “Like Lance?” rather than “would you ever try and do an Ironman? That sport is really tough!”
5) The sport is still cleaner than it was before.
I’m not actually sure I can prove this. But I, and others, believe it- and maybe that on its own is a good start. Teams like Garmin and Sky have based their business models on being clean teams- and that for sure is a step in the right direction. If the cycling world decides earnestly to clean itself up at a high level them maybe it can be done- otherwise there will always be more young guns looking to be pros, sadly they are a replacible commodity. Title sponsors on the other hand are harder to find- when the teams themselves say enough is enough then maybe things are finally changing.
