I've seen a lot of people weighing in on Lance Armstrong lately, especially since it was announced he'd be interviewed by Oprah for some reason. Almost all of the feedback has been negative — "he's a bozo," "just go away," "I hate that guy," etc. — and probably for good reason.
He's made a lot of people mad.
But not me. That doesn't mean I'm a defender or a denier or anything. He doped, and for a long time. And while he may have helped damage professional cycling (while actually also helping it grow), it makes no difference to me. And, to be honest, I'm not sure why so many people are so pissed about it. Did he take money from you? A job? Are you mad because he duped so many for so long? Even so, that probably has no impact on you, unless you're super-bummed that you believed to begin with.
Ultimately, he's just a guy who won a lot of professional bike races. And he cheated, yes. But professional sports of the last 20-plus years have been rife with cheaters. As a baseball fan, I learned in 1998 to separate my love of the game from the guys playing it. Professional sports are merely entertainment, and not a part of your identity (unless you're employed in professional sports).
And, actually, Lance and the 2005 Tour de France got me back into bikes. In the early winter of 2005, when I was pretty much at my peak as a runner (I was pretty fast for a guy who didn't run in college), I managed to get plantar faciitis in both feet. After some time off, I tried again to give it a go. No dice.
In the spring, Chris' brother came for a visit and wanted to check out some of the local bike shops. He was going to do RAGBRAI by himself — an 18-year-old kid just out of high school. I hadn't been in a shop in 10 years, probably, so to see the shiny new bits on display was eye-opening. And then I thought, "Well, if I can't run, riding would be pretty cool." Also, the idea of riding across the state seemed appealing, for some reason.
Chris got on board after that and by summer, we each had bikes. As I rode more and more — I worked at night, and thus had all day to ride — I began seeking out more knowledge. And the most publicized bit of cycling at that time was Lance Armstrong's go at his seventh Tour title. I should point out that I didn't want to "be like Lance," and I didn't have any deslusions of grandeur. I was just interested in bikes, and following the available news made me more interested.
We rode RAGBRAI in 2006 — the year Lance first did a few days. We were jammed into the town square in Newton, Iowa, along with 10,000 other people to listen to him speak. It was light on cycling and heavy on cancer advocacy. But it was crazy to be within 50 feet of him. Floyd Landis won the Tour a few days later. (Coincidentally, I ended up talking with Chris Brewer of the Lance Armstrong Foundation a year later in Hampton, Iowa, on the day that Vinokourov was popped for doping in the 2007 Tour.)
As I read more about the other side of cycling in the Landis aftermath, I started putting the pieces together. He was one of a number of former US Postal riders who'd been popped, including Tyler Hamilton and Roberto Heras. Manuel Beltran and Paolo Savoldelli also got bounced at one point, though long after they left USPS.
What if ... what if they'd all been doping all along? But the USPS/Discovery system was so dialed in that there was no way they'd be caught? More money, more resourses, better science? And when those guys left, they didn't have the system in place to keep operating undetected?
I was right, as it turned out — though it took years to confirm that. I read most of the 200-page USADA summary on the Armstrong case when it came out in October. "Wow," I thought. "Serious business." And then I went on with my business. It makes no difference to me. It doesn't affect me at all. It doesn't affect most people at all.
So no, it really doesn't bother me all that much. I'm into cycling more for myself than for watching professionals. Sure, it's fun to see the world's best doing something I can easily relate to, but it's more fun doing it yourself. Go ride your bike. Don't worry about Lance or anybody else. They're just guys on bikes.
6 comments:
Watching the 2002 Paris-Roubaix dvd while riding the trainer in the winter months made me realize how doped people could be. 40k to go and Museeuw rode away from EVERYONE. 40k? Really?
Soon after, Lance and Co. were putting in attack after attack, day after day, on mountain passes.
Impressive and entertaining? Yes. Naturally possible? Not so much. Mix money with sports and you're always going to end up with a mess.
Yep. And the sooner you can connect the dots between it all, the easier it is to enjoy pro sports for what they are - mere entertainment.
That said, should the Cubs ever win the World Series, I'll completely freak out.
I've never really believed Lance was clean. But I always rooted for him. I saw the rest of the guys get popped and my thinking at the time went pretty much like your. I just read Tyler Hamilton's "The Secret Race". To me, it is an excellent illustration of what these guys go through. If I had been in his situation, I would have doped too. It was no big deal. It was just what they did.
But people get too worked up about everything. It's really just for something to bitch about at the bar or wherever.
Bryan,
Thanks for this insightful and encouraging post. You put into words many of my own thoughts that were raw and simmering in the back burners of my mind.
Blessings,
Ok, professional sports is about entertainment, I get that. But is that all it is? Let’s talk about high school, and jr high athletics (over 15 million participants). Is that all about entertainment too? According to the National Federation of State High School Associations(the umbrella organization of all those schools) the chief tenant of our sports is to foster the welfare and character of the athlete above the value of winning at all costs. Most coaches at that level believe and live that. Millions of us athletes who never turned pro, were deeply influenced by our coach’s integrity and message of character through sports, and carried that on in life. Unfortunately we are also influenced by the pro sports we view for entertainment. The messages sent by pro entertainment are many times contradictory. And when those athletes like Lance whose message is clearly, cheat, lie attack, then confess when it that is the lesser of two evils, all in the name of winning, (despite what collateral victories there may be) those messages are affecting the millions of athletes who never entertain you on TV, but who do carry those values over into our society. You say Lance Armstrong never affected me personally, I respectfully disagree. When we gets to the point where we allow sportsmanship, character, honesty, integrity to be replaced by deceit, cheating, lying, win at all costs, all in the name of winning and entertainment, it affects us all.
I think it's pretty clear that if you look at the world's current sentiment toward Lance Armstrong, you'll see that society hasn't placed a lesser emphasis on sportsmanship. If that were the case, everybody would be cool with what he did. Instead, he will forever be an outcast.
Same with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. They are among the best players in baseball history, yet they are currently two of the most reviled players in history — again because of steroids. Society has clearly shown that they're not cool with that.
Professional sports, unless you make your living directly from them, should be all about entertainment. The results of a sporting contest of any type have no bearing whatsoever on your daily life. The actions of a professional athlete have no bearing whatsoever on your daily life. You are not better or worse off because of anything Lance Armstrong did.
The bulk of the public outrage directed toward Lance Armstrong and others in the same situation results in an inability to separate the things people like — cycling, football, whatever — from their identity.
Ride a bike? Great. Do you like the bike less because of all of this? I hope not, because they aren't connected in the least bit.
It's entertainment. And unless you were bullied, scammed or otherwise threatened by Armstrong or his crew, treating any pro athlete with such disdain is a waste of time and energy. It leads nowhere.
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