I do not know if Lance Armstrong doped or not. Present evidence overwhelmingly points to the fact that he doped to get an unfair advantage over his competitors. I do not support cheating and I agree that cheaters in any sport should not be allowed to compete.
As I had mentioned in my previous blog posts, Lance Armstrong is the reason I started following cycling as a sport. Over the past 3 years I found it to be a really interesting team sport. Here is my two bit take on Armstrong and his career.
The first reason I admire him is because he is a cancer survivor who overcame the disease and went on to compete at the highest level in one of the toughest endurance sports in the world. That itself is quite an achievement. He started a foundation which spread cancer awareness and gave hope to millions of patients across the world. All this was obviously funded by his sponsors but his influence and charisma furthered the cause and gave it much more publicity.
He was the face of cycling in the first half of the last decade. He was one of the inspirations for a generation of young riders to enter the sport. He might have been a dominating and bullying teammate but he always delivered the goods when it mattered the most in July every year.
Now coming to his Tour de France titles. The Tour de France is arguably the toughest cycling races in the world and is the most popular of the Grand Tours in cycling. It consists of 21 stages with at least one third of them consisting of mountainous routes through the Alps or the Pyrenees. It is obvious that the race is won or lost in these mountains and the Time Trials. No individual can singlehandedly conquer these peaks. A team effort is needed to ensure that the team leader (Armstrong in this case) conserves his energy, stays at the front of the peleton and is a part of all the decisive breaks in the final kilometers of the every stage.
So to win the Tour de France a rider needs to do the following things and have the following attributes:
- Exceptional bike handling skills (to avoid crashes, handle the technical TT course, descend without crashing)
- Peak at the right time (follow the right training and racing regime to ensure that the body is in peak physical condition in July)
- Avoid Injuries (healing from a fracture or a cracked bone may take months and even after healing riding competitively may be difficult)
- Stay away from crashes (one bad crash and the race is over)
- Have the right amount of power to excel in Time Trials
- Have the right weight and power to conquer the summits
- Stay at the front of the peleton at most times (to ensure that you make all the decisive breaks or be in the front if the wind splits the peleton)
- Have a strong bunch of domestiques (who can bring in the attackers, shield the leader from the winds and deliver him safely to the base of the major climbs)
Doping can help you only in a couple of areas above by giving you the right amount of power and stamina to conquer climbs and Time Trials. Now getting all the above things right in one season itself is a tall order. A lot of things need to fall in place both for the leader and his teammates. The course also needs to suit the strengths of the rider, his teammates also need to be in good physical condition, he should be in good health etc. That is the reason why most major teams design their entire program towards conquering this race and ensure that their leader is on the podium. Just take a moment to consider the sheer magnitude of Lance Armstrong's achievement, for 7 consecutive years he got all the above factors right and won the race.
Doping might have helped him in some climbs, but was it luck which kept him in peak condition or ensured that he avoided all crashes for 7 consecutive years? Doping is of no use if your body and mind is not in the right condition for the race. Doping cant help you plan the strategy for race nor can it tell you when to attack or sit back. Recent reports indicate that most riders were doping at that time and it was a dark period for the sport, so by that yardstick he doped and raced with a bunch of similarly equipped riders and beat them for 7 consecutive years!!
On paper he has not had a single positive test in his career though there are many reports of hushed up positive tests and rescheduled tests to help him escape. The larger problem here is not him but the system (read UCI which governs cycling internationally), if UCI indeed knowingly covered up his positive tests then it has done the greatest damage to the sport. For a few extra million dollars in sponsorship money they have demoralized an entire generation of young riders who want to race and win cleanly.
What is astonishing is the single mindedness with which USADA pursued this case and painted the picture of a well organized cheating machine. Although I have not read the report and evidence submitted to UCI, I find it very tough to believe that almost everybody: coaches, fellow riders, team officials, doctors, administrators and lawmakers willingly helped one man cheat repeatedly to achieve glory. Everything worked with clock-like precision to enable Mr Armstrong get his much needed drugs right when he needed them and then hide / destroy the evidence right when it needed to be and all this went on for almost a decade!!
We all love heroes because they inspire us, we also like the examples of fallen heroes because they tell us what not to do. It is easy to call him a fallen hero and discard all his memories in this case but you cannot deny the popularity he brought to the sport. You cannot deny his social work or his spirit of survival. Most importantly you cannot deny the single minded pursuit and conquest which combined all elements of strategy, power, planning and teamwork and delivered 7 consecutive Tour de France titles. In my book Lance Armstrong will always remain a cancer survivor, inspirational figure, a world class athlete and 7 time Tour de France champion.
As I had mentioned in my previous blog posts, Lance Armstrong is the reason I started following cycling as a sport. Over the past 3 years I found it to be a really interesting team sport. Here is my two bit take on Armstrong and his career.
The first reason I admire him is because he is a cancer survivor who overcame the disease and went on to compete at the highest level in one of the toughest endurance sports in the world. That itself is quite an achievement. He started a foundation which spread cancer awareness and gave hope to millions of patients across the world. All this was obviously funded by his sponsors but his influence and charisma furthered the cause and gave it much more publicity.
He was the face of cycling in the first half of the last decade. He was one of the inspirations for a generation of young riders to enter the sport. He might have been a dominating and bullying teammate but he always delivered the goods when it mattered the most in July every year.
Now coming to his Tour de France titles. The Tour de France is arguably the toughest cycling races in the world and is the most popular of the Grand Tours in cycling. It consists of 21 stages with at least one third of them consisting of mountainous routes through the Alps or the Pyrenees. It is obvious that the race is won or lost in these mountains and the Time Trials. No individual can singlehandedly conquer these peaks. A team effort is needed to ensure that the team leader (Armstrong in this case) conserves his energy, stays at the front of the peleton and is a part of all the decisive breaks in the final kilometers of the every stage.
So to win the Tour de France a rider needs to do the following things and have the following attributes:
- Exceptional bike handling skills (to avoid crashes, handle the technical TT course, descend without crashing)
- Peak at the right time (follow the right training and racing regime to ensure that the body is in peak physical condition in July)
- Avoid Injuries (healing from a fracture or a cracked bone may take months and even after healing riding competitively may be difficult)
- Stay away from crashes (one bad crash and the race is over)
- Have the right amount of power to excel in Time Trials
- Have the right weight and power to conquer the summits
- Stay at the front of the peleton at most times (to ensure that you make all the decisive breaks or be in the front if the wind splits the peleton)
- Have a strong bunch of domestiques (who can bring in the attackers, shield the leader from the winds and deliver him safely to the base of the major climbs)
Doping can help you only in a couple of areas above by giving you the right amount of power and stamina to conquer climbs and Time Trials. Now getting all the above things right in one season itself is a tall order. A lot of things need to fall in place both for the leader and his teammates. The course also needs to suit the strengths of the rider, his teammates also need to be in good physical condition, he should be in good health etc. That is the reason why most major teams design their entire program towards conquering this race and ensure that their leader is on the podium. Just take a moment to consider the sheer magnitude of Lance Armstrong's achievement, for 7 consecutive years he got all the above factors right and won the race.
Doping might have helped him in some climbs, but was it luck which kept him in peak condition or ensured that he avoided all crashes for 7 consecutive years? Doping is of no use if your body and mind is not in the right condition for the race. Doping cant help you plan the strategy for race nor can it tell you when to attack or sit back. Recent reports indicate that most riders were doping at that time and it was a dark period for the sport, so by that yardstick he doped and raced with a bunch of similarly equipped riders and beat them for 7 consecutive years!!
On paper he has not had a single positive test in his career though there are many reports of hushed up positive tests and rescheduled tests to help him escape. The larger problem here is not him but the system (read UCI which governs cycling internationally), if UCI indeed knowingly covered up his positive tests then it has done the greatest damage to the sport. For a few extra million dollars in sponsorship money they have demoralized an entire generation of young riders who want to race and win cleanly.
What is astonishing is the single mindedness with which USADA pursued this case and painted the picture of a well organized cheating machine. Although I have not read the report and evidence submitted to UCI, I find it very tough to believe that almost everybody: coaches, fellow riders, team officials, doctors, administrators and lawmakers willingly helped one man cheat repeatedly to achieve glory. Everything worked with clock-like precision to enable Mr Armstrong get his much needed drugs right when he needed them and then hide / destroy the evidence right when it needed to be and all this went on for almost a decade!!
We all love heroes because they inspire us, we also like the examples of fallen heroes because they tell us what not to do. It is easy to call him a fallen hero and discard all his memories in this case but you cannot deny the popularity he brought to the sport. You cannot deny his social work or his spirit of survival. Most importantly you cannot deny the single minded pursuit and conquest which combined all elements of strategy, power, planning and teamwork and delivered 7 consecutive Tour de France titles. In my book Lance Armstrong will always remain a cancer survivor, inspirational figure, a world class athlete and 7 time Tour de France champion.
