Lance Armstrong has announced that this year's Tour de France will be his final one. He wants to spend more time with his kids, who are all under the age of five. Kids that have grown up while Lance has been tearing through his opponents for the past six straight tours, straight to the victory podium on the Champs de Elysees. Kids that Lance now wants to see grow up, instead of kids that he's just seen get bigger while he toils a good chunk of the year away riding his bike. The skeptics will say that Lance is getting out before the scandals catch up to him. Before the endless doping allegations become fact instead of fiction. The latest which comes from a former personal assistant who is suing Lance for money that he says is owed to him. Money that Mike Anderson says is owed to him because he had some sort of contract with Lance's personal services company. A verbal contract allegedly recorder for posterity in an email. An email that conveniently has disappeared. As Lance has done against cancer and his lesser opponents, he's fought back against Anderson. He's suing him for $500,000. The same amount that Anderson allegedly tried to get out of Lance as a settlement proposal for being fired according to Anderson's attorney. Flat out extortion according to Lance's people.
And not surprisingly after Lance fired back with the suit, Anderson came out with allegations that he found a banned substance in Armstrong's Spain apartment last year. Something Anderson claims was something labelled as "androstenin" or something like that. Something he says he looked up in the Internet and found listed as a banned substance by the World and U.S. Anti-doping agencies. The drug Anderson is accusing Lance of possessing is one along the lines of what Mark McGwire took as a supplement during his demolishment of Roger Maris' single season home run record. A kind of drug that helps to build muscle mass, not exactly the kind of cocktail that a cheating cyclist would want to take. Their drug of choice is erythropoietin or EPO. It increases the number of red blood cells carrying oxygen. That in turn helps cyclists recover more quickly from a grueling day during a stage race like the Tour de France.
So it appears that someone forget to fill Mr.Anderson in on the proper way to get paid. First, you want to make your drug allegations before you file a lawsuit and secondly, you want to make sure you name a drug that actually exists. It's a little thing we like to call credibility. And so far, everyone and anyone who has ever made a negative allegation against Lance has come up bankrupt in that category. The allegations of doping remain fiction. But many continue to dig deep against Lance, not wanting to believe that a man who was on death's doorstep a few years ago can be the finely tuned athlete that is obliterating the field at the Tour de France each year. And I tend to think that when Lance's run ends this July, that the press and the rest of his detractors will not come to praise Lance, but to bury him. They're not forcing him out of the sport, but they sure would like to spit on him on the way out.
It's hatred and envy that has driven most to try to find fault with the man. Hatred that an American is the top dog in a global sport like cycling. Envy that perhaps hard work, perseverance and freakish genetics are what has left Lance as the the most dominant athlete in any sport today. He's no cheat. He is the most tested athlete in any sport today. He's not Barry Bonds. There should be no uncertainty. Lance can claim his innocence and he has the test results to prove it. His last ride in France should be a time of celebration and jubilation. A party for the man who brought cycling onto the main stage in the U.S. and overseas. Sure, it was big in Europe before Lance Armstrong ever donned the yellow jersey. But it's ten times as big now with an American having won the sport's elite race for the past six years. The Americanization of "their" sport has to be something that's festering inside the body of the supposed cycling purists across the pond. Think about what Lance has done. Think about Tiger Woods winning The Masters for six straight years. Andy Roddick winning Wimbledon for six straight years. Or one of the top racers winning the Indy 500 six straight years. It doesn't happen. There are crashes, injuries and just flat out poor performances. Other competitors who step up. Yet here is Lance, unscathed in his last six summertime romps through France.
A truly remarkable feat. Six straight. The whiners will continue to cry about how Lance only competes in one of Europe's big races. Since when is specializing a penalty? He might be a specialist, but for 21 days each July, there is no denying that he is indeed special. If anything in a sport like cycling, it makes his run all that more amazing. It's the ultimate pass-fail mission and this last time carries the highest risk of them all. Certainly, Lance has nothing left to prove. He's the only man to ever with the Tour de France six straight times. But if he loses in his swan song, there will be those out to taint his legacy. To paint a picture of a fading athlete. One brought down by endless allegations of doping. In the end they would say that the pressure was too much. That the sport has passed him by. That is was a good choice to retire. That if he didn't, he'd simply fade off into oblivion. But he heads into this year's tour knowing there will be no next year. No chance to come back and do better. But if you know Lance, not just the athlete, but the man. You know that this one last time this June and July, he'll his nose to the grindstone, grind the gears on his bike and tell his competitors and his detractors alike for the final time. Catch me if you can. My money is on Lance.
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