Now, Lance is makin’ some sense
Carrying a world cancer awareness campaign on his back, without guaranteeing or promising or even seriously discussing an eighth victory in the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong came off Wednesday as a humanitarian on a quest to do good (cure cancer) as opposed to an angry man on a mission to prove himself all over again by winning Tour title No. 8 while documenting he rides clean. (me-me-me).
Even the Associated Press, which went strong with the clean No. 8 angle in its lede, sort of got the message with this sentence sixth graphs into its story: “As he described his 2009 Tour plans, the 37-year-old Armstrong sometimes made it sound as though this was more a publicity move to raise awareness about the fight against cancer than a legitimate shot at winning an eighth title.”
Well, duh. Dude did that with purpose.
This is how Armstrong should have comported himself in the first place, in the Vanity Fair article a few weeks back.
Armstrong is a savvy media/marketing guy, and he’s a voracious reader, and he may have realized the outcry against his comeback in some quarters detracked from his cancer-fighting message. Or not.
In the V.F. article, his motivation for coming back seemed to be deeper than taking LIVESTRONG international. It seemed like he just really wanted to prove his doubters wrong by winning No. 8 while being subject to anti-doping tests available for all to see online. Or more harshly, stick it to the critics.
Of course, all winning No. 8 in such a fashion would prove is that No. 8 was clean, nothing at all about Nos. 1 through 7. From some of the comments attributed to Armstrong from Wednesday, he seems to get that.
(One weird thing, tho: Why did Armstrong pick Don Catlin — the former head of the UCLA anti-doping lab — and not go with the Team Astana anti-doping program of Danish anti-doping expert Rasmus Damsgaard? Just curious, that’s all. Not insinuating or implying anything.)
Also, Armstrong seemed to have his head on straight about actually contending for an eighth TdF title in these quotes from Velonews.com
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve been off the bike three years. I’ll be nearly 38 years old. … So I honestly don’t know. I will try to be as prepared as possible. I don’t know that that equals victory. … I have a fair bit of confidence, but I don’t have that kind of confidence, yet.”
He also paid tribute to Astana’s Alberto Contador, who just won the Vuelta a Espana for his third grand tour title in his past three grand tours, and at age 25, looks to be able to exceed Armstrong’s accomplishments.
An interview in Spain the other day seemed to indicate Contador was miffed about Armstrong coming back with Astana, where the architect of Armstrong’s and Contador’s grand tour wins — Johan Bruyneel — is the general manager. Contador is signed with Astana through 2010.
“Alberto is the best rider on the planet right now,” Velonews.com quoted Armstrong as saying. “We have to understand that, we have to respect that. I’m not sure I can ride that fast anymore. I certainly hope it works out. … If he has other offers and he wants to go somewhere else or go to a Spanish team, perhaps, that’s his decision, but I would encourage him to give this situation an opportunity and I would look forward to racing with him.”
The only thing better on Wednesday would have been if Armstrong had said something along the lines of … ”I had so much help winning seven Tour de France titles, that I want to come back and ride in support of Alberto and Levi (Leipheimer). We’ll spread the message of fighting cancer and have some fun, too, traveling around the world and riding in support of their goals, like Big George and Chechu and Popo and Kevin Livingston did for me.”
But considering where the message begin, Armstrong’s message seemed more palatable and realistic on Wednesday. It’s not about the bike. It’s not about him. It’s about fighting cancer.
Now, it’s onto Las Vegas and InterBike. I wonder what more or different he will say there.
–30–
According to a story at cyclingnews, Philippe Maertens of Astana says that the team will continue to use Rasmus Damsgaard as before, and Don Catlin will do additional testing just for Lance. So if you’re scoring at home, Lance is part of the biological passport system and must be available for all the normal testing required for a pro tour rider. Plus all of the normal Astana in-house testing by Damsgaard. Plus additional testing by Catlin at any time and in any form, with those results to be posted on the Internet for everyone to see.
I think the change in tone had to do with a couple of things. At some point, Lance was enjoying Leadville training and started thinking about training for the Tour again. He probably figured he’d get the old gang together and duplicate what had worked in the past. But as more research was done about where and when he could race most effectively to promote the global cancer initiative, he came up with things like the Tour Down Under. I think in a normal January he would have had team camp in the mountains of Solvang, California. There’s a big difference between that and spending twenty days in Australia. I just think that he’s willing to sacrifice some of his proven preparation for the tour in order to do more good for the world. Also, I’ve lost some respect for Contador in the past week, but I think he’s right about having earned is position on the team. It wouldn’t be right for Lance to come in and ask him to step aside for a year. But I do think that Lance will work unbelievably hard and smart to earn that top spot along the way rather than have it awarded to him. Cheers.