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-Am I the only one who feels pretty badly about the feel good story of the summer? Lance Armstrong has returned to the Tour de France after taking 3 years off. Prior to that hiatus, Lance had won an amazing 7 straight tours. But somewhere in those three years he went from national hero, to kind of a deusche (at least in my eyes).
-Let me first show the other side of the coin. Lance became a hero because he overcame testicular cancer and was still able to dominate one of the most grueling competitions in the world for nearly a decade. He deserves and justly receives my respect for his ability to do that. His Livestrong campaign has generated a ton of money for his charity, and he made yellow, and bracelets ok things for men to wear; no easy feat. Its the things he has done off the bike that bothers me. There's no single thing that he does wrong, but everything he does just seems to rub a little bit of the luster off the reputation he worked so hard to build.
-First came the doping allegations. Its important to note that he hasn't ever tested positive, but the allegations alone are enough to taint his legacy somewhat (not sure if thats fair, but thats the way it goes). Doping in Cycling is as common as using yeast to bake, but it doesn't make it any worse.
-He goes through women like I go through ice cubes. The ink was still drying on his divorce papers when he started dating Sheryl Crow in 2003. Since then he has dated a handful of celebutants, including Kate Hudson and a rumored Ashley Olsen (I understand Ashley Olsen is hot, but can you really hook up with somebody who you met first as a baby on Full House? Lance: Would you like to go out to dinner? Ashley: You got it Dude)
-He started hanging out shirtless with Mathew Mcconaughey and Jake Gyllenhaal (both hard names to spell mind you); and not just while exercising, the man was topless 75% of the time. Anybody who hangs out topless just for the sake of it isn't a friend of mine.
-This entire comeback just seems a little "I told you so." It seems like he is coming back to show us that he can and not for himself. That kind of chip on your shoulder can be a good source of motivation, but if you've already won 7 tours, there isn't really anything left to prove. We get it Lance, you can ride a bike real fast.
Now I will be happy when Lance wins (and he is probably going to win) because he represents our country, but I won't necessarily be happy that he won.
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Lance will probably finish second to his teammate, Contador. Either way, this proves two things.
ReplyDelete1: We know he clean this year. This will prove that he is not a doper. To do what he has done to date, at the age of 37 and after 4 years off, proves he is not juiced.
2: He is one of the greatest of all time, the analogies that come to mind are Tiger and Roger Federer. But will they be able to win the big ones at the age of 37? Maybe Tiger, because golfers play later into their careers, but absolutely not Roger.
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