First of all, I haven't posted in a while and that is a regret. Truth be told, I haven't been on the bike a whole lot lately, and that is a much bigger regret. I've been a bit busy the last month with getting married (oh yea, I got married), the honeymoon, and all of that stuff. But now I'm back and looking forward to getting back on the bike.
In the meantime, Lance Armstrong quit fighting USADA, and was stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles. I've thought a bit about this and I'm still not sure how I feel about it all. Cheating is cheating, and always deplorable. But to be honest, I just don't care too much about him finally being "caught." I've always thought Armstrong kind of seemed like a dick. That being said, he is possibly the greatest tour rider of all time. He cheated in a sport that is basically defined by cheating, which in some ways, to me, makes it not cheating at all. I love the people going nuts about this on ESPN and elsewhere, and then immediately turn their attention to football. You want to talk about cheating...you think 6'5", 265 pound guys are supposed to run 4.5 40's? Or baseball, where Roger Clements is back on the mound for no apparent reason other than trying to extend his Hall of Fame eligibility? See, cycling and USADA appear to have done something that the major sports in the U.S. don't want to do: actually catch people. The major sports want to act like they want to catch people, to publicly state that they are trying to catch people, and to occasionally catch people that they don't care too much about. But they don't want to lose their stars, and they don't want the game to become slower or less powerful. Similarly, the player's unions don't want real testing or strict testing, because they know what people are doing. Cycling and some of the world's anti-doping agencies seems to actually want to catch people, and guess what....they do. Basically everyone. And eventually Wiggins will probably become the next target, right after you try to convince me that Frank was doping without his brother Andy. So what does Lance being caught mean? Really nothing. If no one else on the podium can claim yellow, because they've been caught at some point, then I just don't see how you can go down the line. Lance seems like a dick, and is probably a dick. He seems like a cheater, and is probably a cheater. He seems like the greatest tour rider ever, and is still certainly in the argument. It's not really right or wrong, it's just the sport, and most sports at that.
I think what I take away from it is simply not to glorify sport too much. It is fun and entertaining, it's competitive, but that's about it. Right and wrong, good and bad, that's just too heavy for sports. Just enjoy the race for what it is, and know that the outcome will "officially" change in a few years.
Keep riding.
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