So, the cycling world is all a-flutter with the news over the past couple of days that Lance Armstrong, the seemingly-retired seven-time Tour de France winner, is making a return to the professional peloton next year.
My question is, why? Does he really want to promote cancer awareness (as is his claim), or does he need a return to glory? With an ego as big as his home state of Texas, it seems to be the latter. Does he want to win the Tour again or just intimidate and control the riders around him? While many other riders are publicly welcoming the news (even those from Astana, the team he is most likely to join), there has to be a sense of disappointment from those riders who have a legitimate shot at a Tour title, but may be denied it if Lance shows up. Astana itself has the 2007 Tour winner (Alberto Contador), and two other riders who have finished on the podium (Armstrong’s compatriot Levi Leipheimer, and the German ace Andreas Klöden) who will all be relegated to super-domestique status if Armstrong signs up with Johan Bruyneel’s team again. This isn’t to mention the other, young, up-and-coming riders (future superstars such as Andy Schleck come to mind) who may be denied a place on a team and a shot at victory if the Texan swings a leg over a Trek crossbar again. And you can bet it will be more of the same in the Tour – get Armstrong the lead in the first individual time trial or mountain stage, and then control the pace for the rest of the race so no other rider has the chance to make up any time. It worked for seven boring years; there’s no reason to think it won’t work for an eighth. Ho hum.
While he’s never tested positive, rumours of doping continue to swirl about Lance. That’s all they are, of course, because anyone who declares of having proof or further evidence is hit with the threat of a lawsuit before anything else can be brought forward. Both Armstrong and his past and future team manager Bruyneel maintain that neither of them have ever tested positive for a banned substance (Bruyneel used to be a professional cyclist as well), which isn’t the same as saying they did not take anything. We never hear any flat-out denials, which may or may not be indicative of something.
This is bad news for the sport of professional cycling. Lance should stay retired and spend his time running marathons, riding mountain bike races, holding his charity rides for cancer research and looking for a replacement for Sheryl Crow (if there is such a thing). Perhaps the worst thing about this news is that now, after a three-year hiatus, we’ll have to suffer through Al Trautwig and “Bobke” Roll mentioning Lance every other sentence during the annual coverage on Versus, or OLN, or whatever network the Tour shows up on. Jesus wept.
Father
My question is, why? Does he really want to promote cancer awareness (as is his claim), or does he need a return to glory? With an ego as big as his home state of Texas, it seems to be the latter. Does he want to win the Tour again or just intimidate and control the riders around him? While many other riders are publicly welcoming the news (even those from Astana, the team he is most likely to join), there has to be a sense of disappointment from those riders who have a legitimate shot at a Tour title, but may be denied it if Lance shows up. Astana itself has the 2007 Tour winner (Alberto Contador), and two other riders who have finished on the podium (Armstrong’s compatriot Levi Leipheimer, and the German ace Andreas Klöden) who will all be relegated to super-domestique status if Armstrong signs up with Johan Bruyneel’s team again. This isn’t to mention the other, young, up-and-coming riders (future superstars such as Andy Schleck come to mind) who may be denied a place on a team and a shot at victory if the Texan swings a leg over a Trek crossbar again. And you can bet it will be more of the same in the Tour – get Armstrong the lead in the first individual time trial or mountain stage, and then control the pace for the rest of the race so no other rider has the chance to make up any time. It worked for seven boring years; there’s no reason to think it won’t work for an eighth. Ho hum.
While he’s never tested positive, rumours of doping continue to swirl about Lance. That’s all they are, of course, because anyone who declares of having proof or further evidence is hit with the threat of a lawsuit before anything else can be brought forward. Both Armstrong and his past and future team manager Bruyneel maintain that neither of them have ever tested positive for a banned substance (Bruyneel used to be a professional cyclist as well), which isn’t the same as saying they did not take anything. We never hear any flat-out denials, which may or may not be indicative of something.
This is bad news for the sport of professional cycling. Lance should stay retired and spend his time running marathons, riding mountain bike races, holding his charity rides for cancer research and looking for a replacement for Sheryl Crow (if there is such a thing). Perhaps the worst thing about this news is that now, after a three-year hiatus, we’ll have to suffer through Al Trautwig and “Bobke” Roll mentioning Lance every other sentence during the annual coverage on Versus, or OLN, or whatever network the Tour shows up on. Jesus wept.
Father
No comments:
Post a Comment