Friday, August 24, 2012

The Lance.....

Lance Armstrong.... many things come to mind when you hear that name. Obviously the Tour de France, fast cyclist, Trek, PED's and many other things. We all loved him in the Tour with his bold attitude showing the world that the USA was a power to be reckoned with..... but looking back is it all worth it? 

Here is my take on Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED's). The UCI (International Cycling Union) test for them, and also do random testing throughout the year. Lance claims to be one of the most tested athletes ever. That may be.... but, I think he used. I think he was able to take the rules of the race... look at them, analyze what his body needed to be better and stay under any measurable levels that would disqualify him. Basically I believe he did absolutely everything medically he could but to the extent he stayed under any limits or detections. Now I also believe that the other top echelon riders did the same - the ones that got caught did not figure it right sometimes and that led to the test failures. Lance was either better or just lucky with the amount of additives he used. Supposedly he has never failed a test (where both the A and B sample were both positive).

With that being said the USADA (US Anti-Doping Agency) has collected testimony from his team mates that was supposedly the evidence that would prove he doped by either first hand experience or knowledge of it happening. That would have been a 3 ring circus. Since Lance has decided not to go to the arbitration we don't get to see that... although Johan Brunyeel is going through the arbitration - so there still could be a circus coming to town. Any of Lance's skeletons in his closet he was trying to keep there by skipping the arbitration could still come out. That is of course unless Johan drops his arbitration and just takes a life long seat on the Livestrong board to match his lifetime ban from cycling.

His legacy is being determined as we speak.  Yeah he won 7 Tour's... even if he loses the official wins, everyone will remember he won 7 and changed the way winners of the Tour approached the race. Now training specifically for the Tour instead of just trying to peak then, make the Tour the main focus of a entire year of racing. His rough attitude was what we liked when he destroyed other riders, but also why we hated him when his attitude was bigger than his bike shorts here in the US with anyone that crossed him or he just didn't get along with. He tried to take some of his power and make Cancer awareness a bigger thing - everyone had a yellow bracelet right? The everyone made bracelets for everything.

Anyways I digress. I will still continue to ride my bike with my Zym spiked water, and Gu Chomps and Powerbars (all I hope to make me a better rider)........

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