Let Down

The Feds have dropped their case against Lance Armstrong and no charges are to be filed. Talk about mixed feelings; should I laugh or cry, feel angry, be happy, or do I really give a shit one way or the other? I just don’t know.

I’m sure I am not the only one feeling this way, because the whole issue is now left unresolved; we will never know for sure one way or the other. The problem is that doping in sport is not really a crime, or it is a crime without a victim. Unless you take into account that it teaches young people that it is okay to cheat.

And should the American government even be wasting the tax-payer’s money pursuing a case that involves a sport in another country?

Professional sport is entertainment, and the greater the athletic feat the greater the entertainment. Whether it is Barry Bonds knocking baseballs over the stands, or Lance Armstrong annihilating the completion and winning the Tour de France 7 times in a row.

It was exciting and it entertained us at the time. Except that now I suspect that LA just had better dope than everyone else, and it leaves the whole thing tainted.

There was a time when I gave LA the benefit of the doubt, and I felt that Floyd Landis was wrong to first deny doping, even made money from a book in which he denied doping, then did a complete 360 degree and said yes he doped, but then so did everyone else on the team including LA.

Now I see where Landis is coming from. He rode for Lance Armstrong, he took dope and he saw LA not only take dope, but getting away with taking dope. Then when LA retires and he wins the TDF by taking dope, he is caught and immediately stripped of the win and banned for two years.

Landis had seen LA deny taking dope and getting away with it, it is only natural that he believed if he denied it long enough he too would, in the end, be believed. When this didn’t happen Floyd Landis decided he had nothing to lose if he came clean and exposed the whole rotten system.

Why do I now believe Landis? Because the system is rotten. I see Alberto Contador testing positive for Clembuterol after his 2010 TDF win, but unlike Landis he was not stripped of the win, and here we are almost two years later and that case has still not been resolved.

I'm preparing for another huge let down if and when the AC case is ever finalized. There is clearly one rule for the rich and famous, and another rule for the rest. (Update on the AC case below.)

Tyler Hamilton too, admitted doping and said he witnessed Armstrong doping. I am inclined to believe him; what motivation would there be for him to lie.

There will be plenty of Lance Armstrong fans who will be happy the Feds have dropped this case; after all Lance fights cancer. But does he? After reading this article just last month, I am not so sure about that either. Very little of the money raised by Livestrong goes to actual cancer research to find a cure.

Instead the money goes to raising cancer awareness, and of course while doing that it raises Lance Armstrong awareness.

I’d be interested to hear how others are feeling about the dropping of this case.

Update Monday 6^th February.

Since writing this over the weekend, a verdict has come down in the Alberto Contador clembuterol case. He has been given a two year ban handed down by the CAS (Court of Arbitration.)

He has been stripped of his 2010 Tour de France win, and his 2011 Giro d’Italia win also. As I understand it the ban is backdated to January of last year and a further 5 months has been taken off that because Contador was already banned for a period of 5 months during the winter of 2010 albeit when he would not have raced anyway. He will be eligible to begin racing again in August of this year.

In my view it would have been far better (And fairer.) had he been stripped of his 2010 TDF win and banned for 2 years at the time, as Floyd Landis was, instead I dragging the case out for this ridiculous length of time.

There are no winners in the case, unless you count the lawyers involved. I appears there has been some measure of justice that will also act as a deterrent to other would be dopers.

Now it would be nice to see a full investigation into Lance Armstrong’s 7 TDF wins, and if it is proved that he did dope, that he at least be stripped of those titles.

Links to stories on the AC verdict.

The Inner Ring

Cycling News

Andy Schleck's reaction

Velo-Nation Eddy Merckx reaction

                        

Sponsors or Groupies?

The Wall Street Journal in an article just published makes a big issue of the fact that wealthy backers who financed Lance Armstrong’s seven Tour de France wins, failed to make money.

Financial backers of any sport are usually nothing more than wealthy groupies of that particular sport; there is nothing wrong with that.

These are usually smart businessmen who did not make their money by acting irrationally or by making stupid decisions.

They have a passion for a sport, be it cycling, sailing, auto racing, whatever. If they put money into their choice of sport, it is by way of a membership to an exclusive club, where they get to rub shoulders with the heroes of that sport.

How can anyone possibly make money from sponsoring a cycling team, unless it is a company producing and selling a product, or a service? The only benefit from sponsorship is the brand recognition that it may bring if your team is successful.

If you have no product or service to sell, it is impossible make money. Initially this group of wealthy backers had no product or service. After the team was established they were able to talk the US Postal Service into coming on board.

I could never understand the logic behind the US Postal Services involvement. Had it been UPS or FedEx I could have seen that, but the Postal Service? Whether Lance Armstrong wins or loses, has no bearing on whether or not, I mail someone a letter. And if I mail a letter, who else will I use but the Postal Service?

Now the fact that the US Postal Service was a sponsor has come back to bite the whole team and everyone involved with it.

Why? Because the US Postal Service is Uncle Sam, and you don’t fuck with Uncle Sam.

Had the sponsors been UPS or FedEx for example, I doubt there would be a Federal Investigation going on right now into allegations of doping. Unlike baseball, these alleged offences took place on foreign soil. Does the US have jurisdiction?

The people who put money into “Tailwind Sports,” the original backer of Lance Armstrong’s team, are probably wishing they were never involved.

They try to distance themselves by saying, “We are also a victim, we lost money too;” when I’m sure they knew going in they could never make a profit. As for the Wall Street Journal they just keep rehashing this old story over and over; it fills space, and sells papers.

I for one will not speculate on the outcome, I will just wait and see. Feel free to weigh in with your take on this whole mess

                          

Is this really Lance Armstrong?

Is this really Lance Armstrong in the above video or an LA look alike? 

At first I said no, it is not the real deal; I couldn't help but notice Lance's name spelled wrong on the YouTube page.

Then there is a shot at the end that shows what appears to be the inside of Armstrong's home with all his TDF yellow jerseys on display. Of course this could be a bit of cleaver editing.

If this is Lance Armstrong, it begs the question why? Why would a person of LA's standing associate himself with a group of people who in my view represent in this video the worst possible kind of cycling behavior?

The clip shows a total disregard for safety and the rules of the road, and no consideration what-so-ever for other road users.

What do you think?

                         

The private self and the public image

Recently Lance Armstrong was featured on the cover of the July issue of “Outside” Magazine.

Apparently when Lance posed for the picture he was wearing a plain tee-shirt; as you can see in the picture above, a message has been photoshopped onto the image referring to LA’s age of 38 years.

Lance was a little ticked and shot the following comment off on Twitter:

“Nice photoshop on a plain t-shirt guys. That's some lame bullsh--.”

This is the kind of casual comment any person would make to anyone who happened to be in the room at the time. In my opinion “Lame Bullshit” is a fair assessment of what happened here.

The big difference, casual comments to those around us mostly go in one ear and out the other. They are not made as serious comment, and usually accepted as such by colleagues, friends and acquaintances. They are forgotten as quickly as they are uttered.

Make that same trivial, spur of the moment comment on a social media site like Twitter, and it is now permanent; to be re-quoted, analyzed and discussed by everyone, and his brother.  

This morning I read an article titled, “Top 10 Twitter meltdowns, tirades and tantrums.” In my book calling something “Lame Bullshit” hardly ranks as a meltdown, tirade, or a tantrum.

Yet Lance Armstrong’s comment was lumped together with nine other various celebrities who had made other “Indiscrete” Twitter comments.

It made me realize that the Internet, along with the various social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, are a boon to celebrities as a means to build, and stay in touch with a fan base.

However, it is a double edged sword in that a person is judged, not by who he truly is, but by the public image he portrays on the Internet. Say the wrong thing and you can alienate a lot of people very quickly.

Lance Armstrong can only be truly known by those close to him; his immediate family and friends, and the people he works with. Outside of that there are millions who don’t know him at all, but think they do based on what they see and read in the media.

To a far lesser extent I am in this same position with this blog. I am sure the people who read this have a totally different image of who I am as opposed to my much smaller circle of family and close friends.

I see comments like “Curmudgeon” and “Grumpy old man.” I doubt my friends see me this way; otherwise I would probably have few friends.

I get angry at times about various circumstances and situations, who doesn’t? My anger is rarely directed at individuals, and it is always short lived. In real life if I sound off about something, people around me think it is funny. Comedians like Lewis Black make a career out of it.

My goal is usually to make people think about a situation, and discuss it. I don’t expect everyone to agree with my POV. I have learned one thing here in almost five years of doing this; I can’t please everyone. If I were to try I would probably please no one; least of all myself.

In the mean time my readership keeps on growing, and as long as it does I will keep on writing. It tells me I must be doing something right.

My posts cannot all be literary gems, and some days I just don’t have anything to say. Actually people who know me in real life find I am a man of few words.

That is something you would never have got from reading my comments here

                        

Lance Armstrong jumps in after Kornheiser’s anti-cyclist rant

Sports broadcaster Tony Kornheiser, (Left.) went off on the following anti-cyclist rant on his ESPN radio show while discussing a proposal to add new bike lanes in Washington, DC.

....."I don't take my car and ride on the sidewalk because I understand that's not for my car.

Why do these people think that these roads were built for bicycles?

They don't share the road. They dominate the road.

They dare you to run them down....And then when you do, they get angry. What is that about?....And so you tap them. I'm not saying you kill them. I'm saying you tap them.

Tap them once....If you're not rubbing, you're not racing right? So you pop them a little bit and see what happens."

Later Lance Armstrong who has close to 2 ½ million followers on Twitter weighed in with the following comments:

Tony Kornheiser on cyclists on the road, "run 'em down". Really? Big mistake, Tony.

Listening to Tony Kornheiser's comments/rant on ESPN radio re: cyclists. Disgusting, ignorant, foolish. What a complete f-ing idiot.

As a result ESPN took down Kornheiser's broadcast with the cyclist comments from its website, and Lance Armstrong,  will appear on Kornheiser's radio show March 19 to discuss the issue.

Further messages from Lance on Twitter said:

...just off the phone with Tony Kornheiser who's very sorry for his comments re: cyclists. Going on the show tomorrow to discuss this.

To me this is all about a relationship. It's bikes and cars. Both will be here forever. Awareness needs to exist as well as mutual respect.

When will these broadcasters and print journalists realize that it is not alright to go off on these anti-cyclist, hate tirades, then claim that it was just in fun, not serious.

Dan Steinberg in his Washington Post DC Sports Blog defends Kornheiser saying:

He's been saying things like this for years and years, way before bloggers decided that radio transcription was an acceptable pastime.

If you listen, you also realize that he's playing the character of a crotchety old man who doesn't like John Feinstein (whom he actually likes), doesn't like Mike Wise, doesn't like soccer, doesn't like soccer parents, doesn't like cross-country skiers, doesn't like women's basketball players, doesn't like Jim Rome, doesn't like David Falk, doesn't like Fran Drescher, doesn't like interviewing athletes, doesn't like sales weasels, doesn't like bloggers, doesn't like computers, doesn't like e-mail, and basically doesn't like life.

If the interest groups for everything that Kornheiser had ever insulted on his radio show were to start online campaigns against his radio station, well, that would make for a fairly humorless world. I mean, it's shtick, people. Chill out.

No,no,no… it is not okay because there are enough road rage crazies out there who will attempt to act out Kornheiser’s fantasy. You can’t just “Tap” a cyclist with a five ton vehicle without serious consequences.

There was a certain Doctor in Los Angeles who thought he could “Teach Cyclists a Lesson” by slamming on his brakes in front of two bike riders. I’m sure the Doc thought the two would simply bounce off the back of his car and come away just a little scared, but otherwise uninjured.

The actual result was one cyclist with his nose almost severed from his face, the other with a dislocated shoulder, and the Doctor went to prison for five years.

I hope Lance Armstrong will touch on that when he talks with Kornheiser today.

Footnote: Listen to Lance on the Tony Kornheiser broadcast