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Sitting on the Fence

Di Joe Hall • 13th June 2012 04:04pm • Postato in Misc

A colleague of mine often refers to opinions as being like sphincters – everyone has one. Get road riding fans on to the subject of Lance Armstrong and the same is true (about the opinions, obviously, not so much the sphincters). It’s a debate that ranges from the most serious accusations of cheating to blind reverence.

Here is a rider who fought cancer and then won not one, two, three or four Tours de France, but seven. Fausto Coppi only managed it twice. Here is a rider who represents the consummate professional. Always meticulously well prepared, a professional who took his work hours very seriously indeed. No mechanicals, no missed feed zones (well, maybe one or two), very aware, riding state-of-the-art frames and knowing more about his rivals than they knew about themselves. The modern, automaton bike racer. But these days no one ever seems to talk about that.

There is a cliché in sport: “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Yet the argument that Lance was bad for the sport is a tenuous one. The ‘Lance effect’ raised the profile of modern cycle racing to an entirely new level, both in terms of global reach and mainstream appeal. If that’s a bad thing, then tell that to the bike industry.

And while we’ve seen a good deal of ‘sportsmanship’ from him concerning peeing into containers and so forth, if you look at many of his successful predecessors – Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault or Indurain – they all display similar characteristics, that obsessive drive to beat the competition, to win at any cost. Indurain, in particular, set the precedent for training for one goal – the Tour – identifying it as the prize that everyone, from the sponsors to your own grandmother, wants you to win.

There are, of course, more appealing characters within road riding’s dramatis personae: the idiosyncratic geniuses, the underdogs and mavericks; think Poulidor, Fuente, LeMond, Chiappucci or Pantani. Yet who's to say that Armstrong isn't a genius either?

As for my own opinion of Mr Armstrong, it’s hard not to sit on the fence. I don’t particularly like him as a bike racer, nor as a politician, but then I don’t particularly dislike him either. I do know that I’d rather watch clips of ‘Elefantino’ climbing, or look at photographs of Jan Ulrich drinking beer, than relive any of Armstrong’s victories. Yet I also know that, like Merckx and Indurain, both of whom turned the races they dominated into boring spectacles (unless you enjoy watching time trials), Lance Armstrong knew how to win.

See the 5 Decades T-Shirt in homage to Lance Armstrong »

Commenti

Mark Oliver

13th June 2012 10:58pm

Interesting timing! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/lancearmstrong/9330698/Lance-Armstrong-hits-out-as-US-Anti-Doping-Agency-brings-charges-against-seven-time-Tour-de-France-winner.html#

Steve Seamark

14th June 2012 09:13am

Strange how these stories always surface just before the Tour, when they have whole rest of the year to release details.

I'm Joe and pretty ambivalent to Lance either way, and you make some valid points Joe.

What does frustrate me is the general cycling media hounding of Mr Armstrong and his 'presumed' guilt, but the complete rose tinted affection for the 'heroes' of the era before him - Hinualt, Merckx and Indurain et al, who just as likely doped with the same disregard for 'honesty' and yet we are supposed to see them in 'glory'.

It's the whole double standard, blind approach that is lame. Let's move on people and enjoy the exciting cycling of today, altogether cleaner and just as exciting.

Charlie Whitfield

14th June 2012 10:22am

Curious to suggest that a man with a pair of Giro/Tour doubles to his name was "in particular" focussed on one goal.

Joe Hall

14th June 2012 10:48am

That's just my opinion, Charlie. I could argue that he used the Giro as a platform for the Tour… When in Rome…

Lynton Head-Wilson

14th June 2012 12:52pm

Lance pretty much got me into cycling. Its now a passion that pretty much borders on obsession. I just hope it ain't true!

Gerald Moser

14th June 2012 01:54pm

Joe, by all account you can't say that Merckx relied on time-trials to win. A rider does not win four times the combativity award in the Tour de France (1969, 1970, 1974, 1975) through time-trial, regardless of how impressive his TT performance was!

But I agree with you, I rather watch pics of Kaiser Jan Ullrich with a beer ;-)

Joe Hall

14th June 2012 03:06pm

Hi Gerald, hope you are going well.

Yes, you are right. But I didn't say he relied only on time trials. Like Anquetil, Hinault, Indurain and Armstrong, he could also keep pace in the mountains… Just like you!

Tom Jennings

14th June 2012 03:11pm

No smoke without fire, as usual. Testimony from a range of former team-mates (not all of them with a Landis-style axe to grind) appears to pretty much confirm there was bad stuff going on in the Motorola days. Part of me wishes Lance would just come out with it, admit he was naive and dabbled early in his career, draw a line under it. Doesn't explain the fact he never failed a dope test, but then the bad guys in cycling always did have cleverer doctors than the good guys.

Either way, I was no fan of Armstrong's ugly level of competitiveness and lack of class on the bike. Nor can I consider someone who actively avoided the one-day classics to be amongst the greatest riders of all time.

Chris Carpenter

14th June 2012 03:17pm

Lance was racing against pros at the age of 15 in triathlon. He won the WC at 22(?). He's been tested 500 odd times and never tested positive. Contador who was also tested on a regular basis was 'caught' pretty much immediately. Anybody who has cheated in the sport in recent times has always been caught.

There are always those who don't like success and will do anything to deride that success. I believe that Lance is an honest, extremly dedicated athlete who also is a 'freak of nature' - he just has the capacity to do what he did. Plus he was motivated, winning was everything and all that mattered. There are those who want to get away with less and don't like it when Lance did so well.

It must be very disappointing for him now that he can't race in IM, something he did before well and now even better.

Mark Oliver

14th June 2012 03:49pm

Chris - I don't think you can say that Contador was caught "immediately". We have no idea about his doping history. And he was only caught when he was no longer under Bruyneel's control.
I'm doing plenty of sitting on the fence here too - doping has played a big role in cycling historically, I hope that it is no longer (or less and less) the case.

Julian Allen

14th June 2012 04:34pm

Never tested positive? Has Wikipedia struck the Tour of Suisse ('09?) from the history books?
Spot on, Tom Jennings.

Matt Cartwright

14th June 2012 05:02pm

Regardless of guilt, his t-shirt has sold out!

Kieran Riley

14th June 2012 05:18pm

Love the guy. Did he dope or didn't he? I honestly couldn't care less. The man was and is a force of nature. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, any potential USADA verdict won't change your opinion about him anyway.

Matthew Meskill

14th June 2012 05:33pm

Suppose he was doping. According to David Millar just about every one else was too. All things being equal, Lance would seem to be pretty good. I'm no huge Lance fan but I think most were doping, including some of the old guys like Merckx etc.

Andrie Grimaud

14th June 2012 07:58pm

Doping or no doping, now that the stink is on, how much money does he want to waste to try to forever wash it off? I'm sitting on the fence not caring, yet leaning towards his side on this. I'd thank him for being such a force in the sport and not fighting it, saving us tax payers millions in legal fees for a witch hunt. I think that they would learn from the Bonds, Clemens and BALCO cases that if they do ever win its pretty a hallow victory of sorts.

Ben Brown

14th June 2012 10:50pm

A good game is to try and work out seven 'clean' winners of those TdFs if the victories are rescinded. Simeoni might have won a Tour at some point.

Mark Oliver

15th June 2012 01:49am

Ben - this may help a little: http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/armstrong1150px.jpg

John Davis

16th June 2012 03:43am

He was a phenomenal "Tour" rider period. Not necessarily a great rider and I completely agree that any rider that shuns the classics can not be viewed as a legend - he was a legend only on the Tour and beating cancer: both phenomenal feats. I agree with many of the posts on this blog and agree where there is smoke there is likely fire, but nothing has come up with as many tests as he has had. I just question why a quasi US Gov't Agency is pursuing this when the US Gov't does not have a budget, and has been running at a deficit for as long as we have that they would waste any energy or funds on this matter. Let sleeping dogs lie, there are so many other things both good and bad (other that Lance) for all of us to focus on in life and in cycling.

Peace.

Alexander Kenney

18th June 2012 08:42am

The last 5-6 years has seen a 5-10% drop in mountain ascent times, even though the equipment and training has improved. They all doped, its just Lance can't admit it. Half his team have admitted to doping.

He was beating guys that have almost all admitted to doping. So therefore he was 5% better than guys that were going 5-10% faster than they should have been. Come on. Its beyond obvious. In fact in my mind its a non-issue now.

For me it is nothing to do with doping. Doping (in one form or another) has been a part of cycling since the Tour was first created. What is more important is that a champion behaves as a champion. When Lance hounded Simeoni by deliberately stopping his breakaway away in a Tour stage, he lost all rider respectability. The guy has zero class, which is why he will always be remembered with mixed emotions.

In the words of The Keepers Of The Cog, he is simply a twatwaffle. Plus he wore really long black socks man!

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