Juliet Macur - Cycle of Lies

This morning, while looking though my news feed from the New York Times, I spent some few minutes on an article by Juliet Macur in which she discussed her new book, "Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong."  I am not a fan of Armstrong.  In fact, to my mind there are very few who epitomize failed American values as much as he.  The excerpts I read were interesting.  They irritated me... actually, they pissed me off.  You see I have often wondered if he ever really was a great cyclist, or just a mediocre one who relied on performance enhancing drugs and procedures to shit on cycling.  I've written before on how I've felt for some time that for Armstrong the sport was always secondary.  Now, thanks to Ms. Macur's book, we may find out it may not even have been that high on his list of priorities.  This is a sad statement because we would like to believe our sports stars give it all for the sport, whether it be Cycling, or Football, or Baseball.  More and more we are being told that if you take away their steroids they are average, that if you cheated the same way they did you'd be just as good: anybody could be a Bobby Bonds or a Lance Armstrong.  Ain't that the shits.  We want our sports stars to be special because they work at it and earn it, not because they cheat.

Being a cynical person, I will admit to have never being what I call a Lancling (someone who deified Lance as a cycling god) because I always felt there was something a little too good to be true about him.  I remember watching him sip champagne from a flute while riding into Paris on his fifth tour win and thinking 'there's something wrong with this guy.'  There was no arrogance or cockiness in his look, something you would expect from a five time tour winner, only smugness.  The only time cheaters actually look astonished or angry is when they lose; they cheat to come in first, not second.  Why did he cheat?  Because he could.  Because there were hundreds of Lanclings who were so entranced they had no problem turning their heads or averting their eyes.  He was good for the sport of Cycling.  A lot of people made money because of Lance.  Hell, he made a lot of money.  Now he is on his way to being a bad footnote.

Will I buy Ms. Macur's book?  I am seriously considering it.  I'm certain there are certain parts which will piss me off.  But then, the only way you learn how to deal with cheats is to learn as much about them as possible.  I'm sure this book will be a major learning experience.

    

NBC Sports disappoints with Tour Down Under coverage

Now, while I have to admit Australia is a long way away, there is no reason why NBC Sports needed to give it such crappy coverage.  Those of us who like cycling got basically a half hour per day for highlights.  That's it.  Those half hours?  They were not even broadcast at a set time, say like 5 PM everyday.  No, one day it was at 1:30 PM, the next day at 3:30PM, talk about stupid programming.
On February 10 they will dedicate one complete hour to the six day race.  Boy, I'll bet that's going to be chock full of sprints and chases!

For those of you who missed it, here are the top three winners.

Now, I'll admit the Tour Down Under does not have the prestige of the Tour De France, but let's give cyclists their due.  Of course, cycling has always gotten short shrift here in the United States.  It's not American, not the way major league baseball is, or football, or hockey... well the NHL did kind of shit in their pants this year, didn't they.  In fact, recently the only cycling news people were even talking about was that American embarrassment, Lance Armstrong.  Of course, why should he really be considered an embarrassment?  It seems as though every news feed I get names players of major league sports who have used performance enhancing drugs.  

The real problem is that we want to dominate.  We need to be number one.  All you need to do is watch the Olympics to understand.  We wouldn't send athletes if we weren't winning a lot of gold medals.  To see how right I am, compare the Olympics with the World Cup.  Our soccer players go out and bust their asses, but when it comes to coverage our Sports Networks only provide a video feed when the Americans are playing.  This is not the case in the other countries of the world where there are actual rivalries; not so with the United States.  I suspect the only reason we send a team at all is because we feel it's necessary.  Sure, we'd like them to win, but very few here really care, after all, it's only the World Cup.  It's the same thing with cycling, a sport that, because we don't dominate, we really don't care to watch.  

Next week, on Thursday, January 17 at around 9 PM in the evening, the world as we know it will come to an end, so saith the Armstrong / Mayan Calendar.  Well, it's not really going to come to an end, at least for most people.  For those Lancelings out there, followers of Armstrong, it may well might.  That is the night Lance is going to sit down for a tete-a-tete with Oprah.  There is a lot of opinion circulating out there about this meeting of the minds.  Supposedly, no question is forbidden.  I think this is horse shit.  I suspect you could bet the bib of your aging US Postal kit that every question and answer has been negotiated and not worry about having to ride bottomless.  This does not mean they're not going to speak about his alleged doping; that's the whole point of the conversation.  Oh, and if doubt he's going to admit to something, you're wrong.  Lance needs to do a public mea culpa and he can't think of a better place to do it.  Oprah, meet Lance.  Lance, meet Oprah.

Bare bones confession at best

Of course you need to keep in mind this is going to be a milquetoast confession at best.  There will be just enough detail for him to feel exonerated but not nearly enough for his accusers to feel vindicated.  He's not going to give them that pleasure.  This is why he chose Oprah.  She will ask something like "did you ever use performance enhancers?" And his response will be something like "sadly, there was a time, when I was youthful and naive and easily persuaded by those whose only motive was greed by those who promised me the world and I foolishly believed them."  Wait, is there a confession in all those words?  Hell no, not really.  You see, the real reason for this interview is not for him to come clean but for him to get over the speed bump that he wasn't expecting.  In response to his Texas Sidestep response, Oprah will undoubtedly say "Oh, Lance."  

Personally, I think if he really wanted to come clean he'd have arranged an interview with Barbra Walters.  Of course, he wouldn't have liked that.  She would have nailed his ass to the wall.  Damn right, she would have grilled him, frying out all of those greasy confessions that have made him so slick for all of these years.  Which is why he chose Oprah, who will slap his hand.  I do believe he does feel this will be enough, he will be over the speed bump and will be able to go about doing what ever he wants.  I don't think he understands the seriousness of his crime, but then he's been lying to himself about it for years.

Armstrong's dirty bed

So, he says he's had enough, he's going to be a martyr, right.  I'll honestly say I've never been an Lance Armstrong fan.  Even when he was attempting to be cordial he always came across as just a bit too aloof for me.  Did he dope to win the Tour de France?  I suspect so.  Sure, a lot of cyclists were caught and penalized, but a lot got away with it.  I first began to believe the charges when Hincapie wasn't picked up by Team Radioshack.   George used to always be watching Armstrong's back and all of sudden he wasn't.  Very, very odd... but maybe not if Lance new George was going to testify against him.  Hhmm.  In fact, I spent some time this afternoon trying to find some sort of support from his other cycling buddies and couldn't find so much as a snippet.  what happened to all of those buddies of his?  Why would they leave him high and dry?  Of course maybe Lance is only the friendliest person around when he wants to be, when there something in it for him.

You made it Lance, you sleep in it

And then there was his retirement.  Superstars do not go quietly into the night, they like to linger and bask in the glory, not Lance.  He retired and began to put as much distance between himself and cycling as he could.  That's odd.  People who are guilty do odd things because they're using some different rational to which you and I have no access.  I do have to laugh at some of the comments people have been making about how he has a family to support.  What bozos.  Do any of these people have an inkling of how much Lance Armstrong is really worth?