Sunday was a good day. First I suffered in the 100 mile race. Then I return home to watch others suffering on a much larger scale. It wasn’t just the usual suspects suffering on the mountain passes (the sprinters like Cavendish) but no less than the global phenomena of Lance Armstrong. Even the greatest champions have their time, the day when they lose that aura of invincibility. I have to say I enjoyed it greatly seeing Armstrong suffer. It’s not a very noble sentiment, but after suffering myself I didn’t feel too guilty.
I watched pretty much all of Armstrong’s seven consecutive Tour de France victories. I could never root for the American, I was always supporting any rival – from the overweight Ullrich to the diminutive Pantani. Fortunately or unfortunately Ive always judged cyclists on their attitude to doping – I’d rather cheer for an eighty year old amateur plodding around a club 10 mile TT than the most successful cheat. To the ITV commentators, slavish in their praise, Armstrong was the greatest of all champions. They can only see the greatest ever cyclist who won seven titles at the world’s most challenging cycle race. But to me, Armstrong will always be the guy who chased down Fillipo Simeoni for turning ‘tailcoat’, the cyclist who celebrated his Tour win with controversial doctor Michael Ferrari e.t.c.
Maybe I’m being unfair, maybe he was just unfortunate to be born in the EPO generation; a time when the number of clean cyclists could be counted on the fingers of one hand. If you look at his main competitors and team mates of those early 2000s, – Ulrich, Basso, Vinokourov, Landis, Tyler Hamilton (and many more) they have all been implicated in doping practises. Armstrong comes out relatively well, (if we ignore testimonies from former team mates and outdated EPO tests from 2001). However, for me what sticks in the mind, is not so much doping, but, to actively persue those who spoke against doping – Christophe Basson, Fililpo Simeoni. That is the really bad thing. It’s one thing to dope, it’s another to try and force out those trying to change the sport. For me the great heroes of cycling are those like Paul Kimmage who are willing to give up everything by ‘spitting in the soup’. They have more courage than those who only think of sweeping problems under the carpet and maintain an illusion that everything is fine.
I’m sure Armstrong has many good qualities, and if I wasn’t a cyclist I’d probably find it much easier to appreciate them. But, I am a cyclist and I really hate the practise of doping which has so blighted the sport, and the lives of those involved. A real champion could have used his position to move the sport in the right direction, not hang around with doctors whose main reputation was for being an expert in EPO.
But, when all is said and done, you do have to have spare at least some admiration for anyone who come back to ride and suffer in the Tour at the age of 39. Now, he’s been beaten he will at least probably become more popular, at least in Britain and France where we never really warm to someone until they display frailty and the ability to be a good loser.
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