In the opening chapter of his memoir It’s Not About The Bike, Lance Armstrong writes: “I want to tell the truth”. Oh dear.
What do we do with the vast catalogue of literature testifying to the greatness of Armstrong, much of it written by his own hand?
Do we burn it, leave it in a cycling museum as a testament to the sport’s darkest period, or study it in order to understand why an athlete went to such lengths to lie and cheat his way to the top?
Strangely, his statement a paragraph later: “Some of it is not easy to tell or comfortable to hear. I’m asking you now, at the outset, to put aside your ideas about heroes and miracles, because I’m not storybook material”, would be the ideal opening for the true story of his career should he choose to tell it.
How would the people who gave heartfelt tributes to Armstrong in those books be feeling now?
Robin Williams has made two poor decisions in his life. The first was to play Mork. The second was writing the foreword to Lance Armstrong Images of a Champion.
“It’s only chemo, my little snail snackers”, he writes in reply to French claims that his hero is taking performance enhancing drugs.
Well, the ‘little snail snackers’ of L’Équipe were right all along.
In the same book, when Tour legends Miguel Indurain (“Who could have told me that this racer would one day win the Tour de France? Who could have told me that, moreover, he would not just win one Tour, but five?”) and Eddy Merckx (“His talents seemed perfectly tilted to being a great one-day Classics rider, not a Tour contender at all…..And now here he was, ripping apart the opposition to win the Tour de France by a mile!”) expressed amazement at the achievements of Armstrong they were paying tribute, not questioning the validity of his wins.
And I’m sure John Wilcockson, author of Lance Armstrong The Worlds’s Greatest Champion, would like to disappear for a while.
The idea that cancer is a battle and that Armstrong is a hero for surviving it brings the uneasy thought that those people who succumb are losers.
There is courage and dignity too in the decision to go home and die on your own terms.
However despite the lies, the self martyrdom, and the self adulation of the Armstrong literary canon there is also some true inspiration.
It’s Not About the Bike was written in 2000, the year after his first Tour victory. If we had learnt then that he had doped his way to the title we may have forgiven him after what he had been through.
But obviously he didn’t know when to stop. Money certainly wasn’t his main motivation – he already had an architecturally designed mansion on Lake Austin and a Porsche before his cancer diagnosis.
Surviving cancer did make his body more suitable for stage racing, and it may have made him the mentally toughest in the peloton.
There was the great attention to detail and the ability to ensure total team committment to his goals.
Unfortunately the books don’t mention the final ingredient that was obviously necessary for Tour greatness: systematic doping.
Christophe Bassons, the French rider who Armstrong berated in the 1999 Tour for highlighting doping and questioning the American’s performances, has been surprisingly sympathetic: “Refusing to take drugs was easy for me, whereas other people have things missing in their lives. Doping is always a response to a void, a need – whether it’s for money, or success, or love, or something else.”
Until Armstrong writes the real story (and can we ever really know when this bloke is telling the whole truth?) we can only guess why he did what he did.
In the meantime we can only nod our heads when reading: “But the drug tests became my best friend because they proved I was clean”. And when looking at photos of Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel in the US Postal bus, wondering which cupboard contains the vials of EPO.
If Lance Armstrong’s foundation brings about a cure for cancer; if it comes across the secret to this dreadful disease – whose treatment is still largely medicine by poisoning – then I’m sure we’ll forgive him.
Bee Bee
Guest
Heres a revolution for you. Pay sports stars like any other job. If your brilliant at my job you get payed the same as a hack who stinks at it. Your motivation to do well is a sense of personal pride and the desire to keep the organisations reputation in tact.
dasilva
Roar Guru
I'll just add that methamphetamine performance enhancing is that it makes people more alert and feeling of power and invincibility and making them feel less fatigue. However the drug only acts shortly and the benefits are only during the moment the drug is acting. Once it wears away, you get a big come down and you are going to feel more fatigue and tired. Taking it regularly will increase your metabolism (that's why sometimes people take it to lose weight) but for athletes you probably going to break down muscles as well (Rhabdomyolysis is a side effect of amphetamine used which is a severe uncontrolled break down of muscle tissue and you get severe muscle pains and weakness), it's not going to make you stronger. therefore it's only useful during competition. It's basically counterproductive to take it regularly outside competition as you are going to be weaker in the process. If someone takes methamphetamine regularly during training and then stop taking it so there are no methamphetamine in your blood during the actual competitive match to avoid a positive test. Well, I'll be really impress if someone manage to perform well in a professional sport whilst suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
amazonfan
Roar Guru
"Cousins won a flag on freakin ice, your kidding aren't you. Saw a madman on ice take on half a dozen coppers, they get super human strength." I'm not kidding at all. There is no indication Cousins took ice when he won the flag and to suggest that he does puts you on very dangerous ground. "West Coast should be stripped of the flag, don't forget he was captain so how many other clowns in that team were on the pipe" Actually Chris Judd was captain. I don't care how many Eagles took illicit drugs, in no way on earth should WCE have been stripped of the flag. They won it fair and square. There is no indication that any Eagle took performance enhancing drugs, and as such, I couldn't disagree with you more that the flag should be stripped. Especially since I remain horrified at the treatment of Cousins.
dasilva
Roar Guru
To be honest I wasn't really trying to defend armstrong but rather just correct the mistake from the author that his organisation is going to find a cure for cancer which isn't going to happen because that is not a goal. However the question of whether the ends justify the means. Probably a moral question that I don't think will ever get resolve I like to think it doesn't on most issues but I can't say the same for all the time with no exception. In this case, yeah the ends doesn't justify the mean but I still think that if you talk to the cancer suffers who benefited from his organisation and ask them whether armstrong drug cheat tarnish the support they receive. I am not too sure they would agree with that. I try to separate the two things. Armstrong help cancer sufferers which was a good thing and I do think he was sincere in helping them but he also was a drug cheat. So it's the case that he was just one of many flawed human being who did some good things and some bad things in life.
dasilva
Roar Guru
methamphetamine is a prohibited substance in the WADA code and it is performance enhancing However it is only prohibited when it is found during competition. There's no real benefit in taking it during training. there is evidence that ben cousin took ice in his private time but there is no evidence that he was taking it during a competitive football match (unless you know something I don't know)
HardcorePrawn
Guest
You really shouldn't, trust us on that one!
MattRusty
Roar Pro
Well said
MattRusty
Roar Pro
tommy I cannot understand why you would waste time looking for clues. Perhaps you are still in denial. Not taking the piss either. Maybe u need someone to give u a nudge to say "Let it go".
Paula Ward
Guest
'Lance Armstrong writes: “I want to tell the truth”'.... he may well want to but he chose not to.
Goanna
Guest
Cousins won a flag on freakin ice, your kidding aren't you. Saw a madman on ice take on half a dozen coppers one at a Linkin Park concert, they get super human strength on that stuff. It is frightening. West Coast should be stripped of the flag, don't forget he was captain so how many other clowns in that team were on the pipe?
Daniel
Guest
All sportsmen/ women have to be selfish to succeed - that is they put their goal before all else. Family, friends and in Lance Armstrong's case, ethics. With this in mind do you think he started his cancer charity as a ruse to throw people off his deceitful ways? Was it a purely selfish act so that he could claim the high ground and be the Mr. nice guy?
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Thanks tommy. Enjoy the read.
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Hardcore and amazonfan, Must seek out this film!
Arthur Fonzarelli
Guest
Shazbot
amazonfan
Roar Guru
Cousins and Carey took performance enhancing drugs. In no way can you compare them to Armstrong.
MattyP
Guest
Anyone read "Positively Innocent" by Floyd Landis? After I read that, and then he 'fessed up, I just knew that Lance was the same, but moreover. The old "Doth protest too much, methinks" line from Hamlet has always struck me whenever these guys talk drugs.
sheek
Roar Guru
Dasilva, This is where it gets murky. Armstrong is on a crusade & therefore & believes the means justifies the end. Which, in the end, it doesn't. Or shouldn't.
Goanna
Guest
It goes on and has gone on in AFL also. Do we get retractions from the journalists in those sports, like with Wayne Carey, Ben Cousins etc?
Kasey
Guest
The LAF is not dedicated to finding a cure for cancer. Livestrong is mostly an awareness campaign designed to remove the stigma from those like me with cancer and perhaps inspire some hope to keep fighting on until a cure is found, whilst simultaneously lobbying different government organisations around the world to use their funds to find a cure. He has been very successful in removing the stigma and of getting the knowledge that 28 million people a day are diagnosed with some form of cancer around the globe. As for a cure, I remain hopeful, but if and when it comes it will be from an egghead funded by one of our fine Australian University laboratories or an institute like the SA Health and Medical Research Institute(SAHMRI).
amazonfan
Roar Guru
Horrible, horrible film. Who would have thought the director also made 'The Godfather', 'The Godfather Part II', 'The Conversation' & 'Apocalypse Now'?!