As referenced in the 2012 V-Moment of the year article and ensuing discussion, it was a most Vawesome year for cycling. It’s been hypothesized here and on cycling sites with more integrity that the fantastic racing of 2012 may be, at least in part, attributed to a cleaner peloton. Unless you watched the Tour de France you’d think the days of foregone conclusions and three week coronations are quickly becoming a thing of the past. It is in this vein we bring to you the Anti-V Moment of 2012: Lance Armstrong’s ceasing to fight the charges against him.
Now usually, we try our best not to delve into the seedy side of cycling. There is just way too much cool about our sport to focus our collective energy and attention on asshats. Besides, we’ve got bikes to ride. But the COTHO’s public announcement that he would no longer fight, er, defend himself against allegations of systematic doping, money laundering, blackmail, intimidation, and international douchebaggery has to be the biggest Anti-V moment of the year, if not in the history of pro cycling.
The COTHO could have feasibly taken one of three tacks as the winds of pressure, evidence, and public opinion continued to blow against his house of cards. Tack one would have been to continue lying, bribing, and digging an ever deepening hole as he steadfastly proclaimed his innocence. This obviously hadn’t been working for the past 10-odd years but at least it allowed him to maintain his base of supporters. Even as it became more difficult for him to maintain the façade he still had a sizable group of survivors, apologists, journalists, and mis-guided cycling fans who believed.
Tack two would have been to come clean (pardon the pun) and admit to the whole sordid mess he created but he didn’t have the ball to do this either. Who knows what his reasons are for not being honest? Best guesses are he’s rationalizing a set of excuses ranging from mitigating his financial liability, evading criminal implications, and blaming the corruptness of the sport. Maybe he’s trying to save face in some twisted way. But for as cliché as Tyler Hamilton even admitted in his tell-all; the truth will set you free. The COTHO could have stood in front of those microphones and cameras and said “Hey, you know what, I doped. I made some poor choices and lied to everybody and for that I’m deeply sorry.” Had he done so his detractors would probably still be his detractors and he would have given his supporters a legitimate reason to continue supporting him but at least everybody could say he fessed up and there is some integrity in doing that.
Alas, he took the Anti-V tack. He stopped defending himself, er, lying without admitting to anything and seems to be hoping to just fade into the background. In essence, he’s taking his toys and going home. What’s striking about this is that it is contrary to what we’ve come to understand about the guy. If anything, we’ve come to know him as a fighter, both in life and on the road. But this latest, and hopefully last maneuver was just plain weak. (Notice I’ve added the categories of “Evanescent Riders” and “In Memoriam” to this article in addition to “Awards”. The first two are much more fitting.)
Perhaps it belies the true nature of the man. A nature that involves intimidation, serial emotional and physical aggression and even violence. A nature that includes socially isolating his victims, arguing them into submission, and propagating rumors, gossip, and lies about them to sway public opinion in his favor. A nature that involves amplifying the mistakes of others in order to strengthen his own self-image. A nature whereby there are many innocent bystanders who are too fearful of repercussions to come forward themselves. The nature of a man who may be trying to compensate for his own insecurities and feed his own narcissism and megalomania. The nature of a simple bully who ultimately shows himself to be a big pussy.
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No-one should ever hero worship anyone. By all means be inspired by someones actions in life but ultimately, as they say,
Everyones Shit Stinks
I can't belive there are people swallowing his bullshit that he rode clean for retirement shack. I guy who doped his whole life comes back to the sport after years off,much older, and then still manages to go toe to toe with contador for the bulk of three weeks? My ass. Such obvious pandering to WADA and UCI - trying to make good with them by talking up the biological passport as though it does anything. What a puke.
What even Tomekes? Say it aint so!
@frank
There are differences though. Wiggins has always been a world-class class cyclist, he has a fairly natural progression IMO, compared to some tri-tard from Texas who comes back from a debilitating disease to make a processional of the biggest sporting event for seven consecutive years. Wiggins has also given some good interviews and written articles about his anti-doping stance, instead of ruining anyone who steps against the doping culture. He isn't reveling in the fame like COTHO, he just won a bike race. Froome's rise is probably more suspicious IMO, but he is young and maybe it can be put down to finding a good team to support him. I still like Sky, but who knows.
Of course, the year I'm looking to get into racing, and all this shit happens.
@Deakus
+1
@DerHoggz
I would be very surprised if Wiggins was doping. I know there are similarities in the team that you can draw conclusions from but bearing in mind all the Sky stuff, their stance Brailsford et al.....really? I think those who are suspicious are possibly looking for skeletons....if you look hard enough you may well find them.
Having said all that there are some writers who have a very good track record....Walsh etc...who are drawing links here...possible they are riding off their new found status having been proved right once they will get a lot more air time but all in all I just cannot believe a single sponsor team of this budget would even entertain the reputational risk....after all they were given 3 years to win the tour, they did not need to do it this year.
I also think Wiggins actually had a pretty straightforward run at it. He had a strong team, several significant challengers were not present (Schlecks and Bertie) and others crashed out early Ryder....really the key challenger was Cadelephant and his team really did not perform for him in the Tour this year, he was pretty much having to do it on his own. I think that explains a lot of the dominance.....
@Calmante
FFS! Is there nothing or no-one that can convince the pathologically cynical that the sport does, can and will clean itself up? Just get out and ride and stop thinking about all this doping bullshit.
@JohnB
A-Merck to that!
Did the second part of the interview happen/air yet? I'm confused with all this equivocation on everything.
Yup, the only good thing is that everyone seems to finally agree he's the COTHO. My brother, who only rides a bike to get his surfboard to the ocean, said to me this week, before the interview, "What a fucking asshole that guy is. He's been lying to everyone for years!"
@DerHoggz what u are arguing is unprovable - but in saying that, yes, Wiggins is the next in that long line of pursuiters turned dominant GC rider. And Armstrong did win a Workd Championship at about 22 or 23 (albeit not on a GC riders parcours). So as stupid Phil would say, he wasn't a donkey.
But it is all speculation so we are all better off enjoying the racing and hoping they are clean - but we can't believe...