What impact would Lance Armstrong’s guilt have on cycling?
Roar Rookie By Widget, 20 Jun 2012 Widget is a Roar Rookie
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- Cycling, doping in cycling, Lance Armstrong, Tour de France
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As a kid growing up, every July when the Tour de France rolled around, the name you always heard was Lance Armstrong.
Whether it was one of his seven overall Tour victories or one of the countless super human efforts in the alps or the Pyrenees, he dominated cycling like no other man before him.
For the period of time when he strung together seven consecutive Tour wins, he was cycling.
Having such a sporting icon being so successful during my childhood, it is no surprise that not just myself but thousands of others looked up to the great man. A man who constantly achieved on a bike, what no one thought possible, especially after coming back from testicular cancer.
To fight back from cancer to win one of the most gruelling sporting events on the planet seven consecutive times is probably about as ‘good news’ as a good news story can get.
Therefore, it is no surprise that the recent doping claims have caught many off guard.
It is hard to not to think that maybe he did do it. What would that mean to cycling and for all of those children – and adults – who looked up to him? His dominance is such that questions would be asked even if there was no suggestion he had overstepped the mark.
There is no doubt that this is not just another doping scandal for the sport of cycling. It has the potential to impact upon the credibility of the sport of cycling.
The speculation can only hurt the sport. For the sake cycling, it is very important that this issue is resolved urgently.
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The Crowd Says (10) | Page 1 of Comments
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June 20th 2012 @ 5:42pm
Pete said | June 20th 2012 @ 5:42pm | Report comment
We all like to think that Lance won the TDF 7 times clean… but the reality is that he was by far the strongest rider of his time whilst all of his competitors were doped out of their minds…Pretty hard for him to beat everyone else when you’re at that much disadvantage.
June 20th 2012 @ 8:42pm
Sean Lee said | June 20th 2012 @ 8:42pm | Report comment
I agree wholeheartedly with your last comment. Let’s get this over and done with, one way or the other!
June 20th 2012 @ 9:02pm
Maria Szczerba said | June 20th 2012 @ 9:02pm | Report comment
All i wanted to say is if one can’t be true in one’s sport and accept indifferences in people and encourage people a bit more! How do you expect those of us who are already in sport to teach the children anything these days!
I will always enjoy my sport and i will always tell the truth and have done!
June 21st 2012 @ 11:44am
sittingbison said | June 21st 2012 @ 11:44am | Report comment
more drivel from the Armstrong Corporation PR department. Back in your box “Maria”
June 20th 2012 @ 10:24pm
Darren Pollard said | June 20th 2012 @ 10:24pm | Report comment
Firstly, its the Pyrenees not the “Pirinese”.
Secondly, to the untrained eye, a cyclist riding up a mountain, looks well…just like a cyclist riding up a mountain.
To someone that understands cycling, to someone that has ridden professional cycling races, including understanding all the nuances, the tactics – having an acute comprehension on the effort required just to ride a quarter of a mile faster than the group – Armstrong, unfortunately had to be enhanced to put the necessary time into his opponents at those critical stages in each of the TDF’s that he won. it is clear and obvious. It is without a doubt why he won so many times. He was very careful on how he expended his energy, to ensure that he did not draw attention to the learned cycling fan who can tell if someone is “charged up” or not. However, given the sometimes unpredictable nature of professional cycling, he had to use this energy on full display.
Here is an example of this energy on display in the 2000 TDF:
Archive video footage of him riding away from opponents is available throughout the web and on cycling videos that most cycling shops sell. Get one, watch it, and you will see…
Case in point : When Landis rode away from Contador and the bunch in 2006, a race that he won and then stripped of his title because he got caught, it was clear as broad daylight that this day, he was enhanced.
Heres Landis using his enhancement to his benefit in the 2006 Tour:
Armstrong has hid behind his foundation, because of course, he can do no wrong in the eyes of millions of cancer sufferers and survivors. He has suppressed other riders with threats, he has a huge financial warchest to pay off the UCI, and influence the legal system.
This time, however, I think this is the beginning of the end of the Armstrong fairy tale.
The USADA is out to get him and prove him a cheat. And they have witnesses – 10 of them protected from being swayed by Armstrong and his powerful network.
Ultimately, I believe, is that this will be the all defining catalyst that will take professional cycling to its deepest darkest hour, but, will be the all defining catalyst that will clean up the sport for good.
June 20th 2012 @ 10:56pm
Keith said | June 20th 2012 @ 10:56pm | Report comment
No way he could have NOT doped, in my opinion…too many of his competitors have been proven to have done so. At this point, I don’t fault him that transgression. I do, however, hold him accountable for lying outright about it, many times, over many years. That should not be acceptable to even his most dedicated supporters, of which I count myself.
That aside, I still consider Lance a great athlete. His mental toughness and commitment to training can’t be explained away by dope. No agency can take that legacy from him.
I would like for the doping witch hunt to start worrying more about the present and less about the past. It’s time to let dead dogs lie, move forward. The guilt or innocence of Lance and others of his time has no bearing on my faith in the sport of cycling today…as long as I feel confident that doping is a thing of the past.
June 21st 2012 @ 12:22pm
sittingbison said | June 21st 2012 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
Keith, one reason to go after Lance is to get the other five named in the letter, the doctors and Bruyneel the director of Schlecks team Radioshack. Caught in a conspiracy means the statute of limitations is removed.
If Bruyneel and Ferrari and their ilk are still associated with cycling then doping is a thing of the present, not of the past. They must be removed for cycling to move forward.
June 21st 2012 @ 11:51am
liquorbox_ said | June 21st 2012 @ 11:51am | Report comment
Firstly I do think he took drugs, but in the footage of Armstrong there is a fairly valid case to argue that his acceleration and success was from using a different method of climbing to his rivals.
Look closely at his cadence, he has a much higher cadence than his opponants and this seemed to be a big change to the usual high muscle low cadence climb of his opponants.
I think it is a combination of both, if he did not use drugs then his method of climbing might have been the difference
June 21st 2012 @ 12:31pm
sittingbison said | June 21st 2012 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
Did PEDs allow his new technique? As pretty much every single one of his competitors was on PEDs, why were none able to keep up with his high cadence? Basso certainly tries but failed. Ulrich never changed his style, it was infuriating I kept yelling out FFS give something else a go, its not working man!!! Try something different, ANYTHING!!
It is even more obvious now that without PEDs he could never sustain that tapping style, no one has before or since it is not humanly possible. Lances training programmes are well documented and now 13 years old, and still nobody has been able to replicate that level of performance, not even drug cheat Contador at his peak.
June 21st 2012 @ 7:23pm
Darren Pollard said | June 21st 2012 @ 7:23pm | Report comment
Cadence has NOTHING to do with whether or not he can ride harder than his opponents! That’s simply his riding style. Contador is the same – higher revs means less wattage output. Wattage output is what its all about. And wattage output is at the crux of this issue.
Armstrong’s wattage per kilo is completely off the scale when riding up a mountain, when compared to other riders.
I urge you all to read these stories:
http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/riders/2008/interviews/?id=greg_lemond_oct08
http://www.bicycle.net/2008/greg-lemond-says-lance-armstrong-transparency-is-not-enough
Lemond said one of the keys to checking who is cheating is to analyze the power output, in watts, of cyclists on some of the big climbs.