I love to bike and secretly wish I could quit my desk job and just tool around town all day exploring different paths and trails. I’ve always enjoyed cycling as a hobby, but over the last few years I’ve really turned to it as a place of enjoyment, stress relief and health benefits.
Adorable bike crossing sign at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
The more I get into it, the more I really want to get into it. I’ve even taking to reading a lot more about bicycle history, bike maintenance and cycling as a sport. This naturally led me to the countless books about Lance Armstrong and the Tour De France.
I’m not gonna lie. I’ve watched bits and pieces of the Tour in the past and really didn’t understand it. I was confused by the “team” aspect and really didn’t care at all to find out more. During the 2012 Tour, my spin class followed the tour in our class and actually rode some of the terrain, as best as you could on a spin bike. It really got me interested in the event and I watched it and started reading more…and the more I learned, the more rage filled I became.
You see, before I started reading I really thought Lance Armstrong was an amazing athlete. You look at this man who BEAT CANCER and think, well, he’s just proof to show that you can overcome anything if you really try. I wanted to believe that the allegations against him were just from people who were jealous of his success. I was hoping he was the hero that he made himself out to be. Boy, was I wrong.
Now, I have read about 7 books on the Tour, all involving Lance. I think the best book on the subject, and possible the best book I’ve read is, “The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France” by Tyler Hamilton. This book literally made me throw out everything I thought I knew and really gave me an understanding into the why. Why would someone, anyone, cheat to win? Well, I get it. Hell, if that were me, I’d do it. (Except for the part where you are messing with blood transfusions, because that would make me simply pass out.)
The book was not trashing Lance or anyone in particular. It gives the reader an in-depth understanding of the pressures of the race, the competition on the international scale and the amazing pressure of the race and team sponsors. These athletes are at the top of their game. They are not cheating because it’s easier. They are cheating because they are at the TOP of their game, and are losing to other athletes who are not only just at the top of their game, but who are cheating. And it doesn’t matter how hard you train, doesn’t matter what you eat. None of that matters if you don’t play the game. And the game of the Tour was to cheat however possible. I GET IT.
My problem is with Lance. It’s amazing to read the accounts, accusations and testimony involving him in the past. I truly thing in Lance’s head, he wasn’t cheating or doping. In his head, he was doing what he had to do to win…he had to do what he had to do to keep his sponsors happy. Again, I get that. But as the dominoes fell, as people starting speaking out about the truth, he made it his point to ruin their lives. That evidence is frankly, indisputable. He has ruined countless lives with his lies. Because of him, people lost jobs, marriages broke up and worse.
Now, the former seven-time Tour de France winner will apparently be giving Oprah his first “no-holds-barred’ interview since the news broke. I will be watching. I can’t imagine he can say anything that is going to make all of his wrongs right. I feel like he’s physically and mentally unable to truly speak from a place of truth because his perspective is so warped. He has surrounded himself with people always telling him that he is right and protecting his image. Will he really be truthful? Or will he just be spouting his talking points.
In the meantime, I’m waiting for the Lance Armstrong Tour de France spin bikes to me marked down like 80% so I can buy one. I have no shame using that in my home.
So what do you think? Are you on Team Lance? Am I crazy in my assessment of him?
Great post. Pretty much sums up how I feel about Lance right now. For any sport there are the published rules of the sport and then there are the grey areas. I think Lance and other riders were convinced they were operating in a grey area and not cheating. This might have been because everyone was perceived to be doing it.
You see this all the time in NASCAR. Jimmie Johnson’s team has been cited for violating the rules (which they considered grey areas) so many times its crazy. And yet, no one is claiming his titles should be stripped.
I never was ‘Team Lance’ but I don’t blame him for wanting to perform at the top level of his sport. That’s part of the sport. What I am upset about is the disillusionment his fall from grace might cause among young athletes or cancer survivors. But I don’t lay that entirely at Lance’s feet either.
Really great post. I like you, used to be a Lance fan and saw all the detractors as a bunch of whiny second place finishers. Now, it seems pretty clear that Lance was a cheat. I get it, you have to do certain things to get to the top (I like to think I never would, but, well….). What sets Lance apart, as you correctly state, is that he was also a world class jack, um, rabbit. Had it not been for the way that he treated Landis, I wonder if this all would have come out this way.
After reading about his Oprah interview, I’m just so disgusted by Lance. The fact that he bullied others is what did it for me.