Tyler Hamilton’s win in La Doyenne in 2003 was one of the highlights in what was generally a fantastic season. A great Spring campaign, a great Giro, a great Tour, a great Fall; unpredictable races, and closely-fought battles littered the events. But, with the luxury of 20-20 hindsight and a quick cross-reference of results listings to doping scandals, it’s safe to assume that season landed smack in the middle of an era of jet-fueled racing that rivals the 1990’s in their indulgence.
It’s a tough time to be a cyclist. Death, doping scandals, corruption in the organizing bodies of the sport. We test our athletes more than any other sport, but the tests are flawed and incomplete, and rumors persist that teams and riders pay off not just the labs to surpress positive tests, but also the UCI. Hamilton’s confession on 60 Minutes this week is the latest in an unsettling chain of events that keep peeling back more layers of the onion. I was a big fan of Tyler’s and part of me even believed in his innocence. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy – much too nice a guy to get involved in cheating. But there he was on television, talking openly about the magnitude of drugs-taking within the USPS team.
On the other hand, I’ve never been a fan of Armstrong’s. I find him to be arrogent, controlling, manipulative. His Tour wins were too formulaic; in sharp contrast to his fight with cancer, his racing showed no element of humanism. I have taken it for granted that his wins came with considerable assistance from a carefully planned and executed doping regimen. But these beliefs were woven together by a thread of doubt, and the possibility always existed that his were clean wins.
Hearing Hamilton talk of the seemingly nonchalant attitude towards doping at USPS and, in particular, by Armstrong, is surprising not in the content of the message, but in how hard the message hit. I expected the words. I had read them. I have even written many of them myself. But there was always a tangible element of speculation about them. For me, that element is now gone, and it feels strange to say the least.
Even as someone who generally accepts that doping is commonplace in the peloton, it hurts me every time another allegation of doping comes out. It takes me days to recover from it. But even if the worst happens, if Professional Cycling as we know it today falls apart, cycling will continue. Because cycling is more than watching others race bikes. It’s about racing or riding the bike yourself. It’s about overcoming your own limitations. It’s about the rider and the machine working together. It’s about cleaning, caring for, thinking about your bike. It’s about taking photos of it so you can look at it when you’re away.
Cycling rides through a storm today, but we will always have the bike. We will always have la Vie Velominatus.
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@minion @Marcus
Chaps, we need to call a truce about now, before our American cousins start to think that maybe Livestrong.com ain't so weird and repulsive, relatively speaking, as they'd thought.
Oi, soz mates!! Look what I did 'ere! Didn't mean to derail the thread! Or did I?
Us Americans, always mucking with everything. God this thread reminds me why I love this site so... serious introspection combined with funny funny shit.
@mcsqueak
I hope, Mate, you are not accusing any Antipodeans of "serious introspection". We would take very strong exception - umbrage, even - were you to do so. You might find pages on Livestrong devoted to "serious introspection", but you won't find any of us down here participating in that sort of carry on.
@G'phant
True. We feel the insults more keenly because of how similar Kuwis and Aussies are. FWIW my SWMBO is Australian, so there may be, just a tiny bit, of, ell, venting going on here on my part, with all the Australian cricket, Aussie rules and Australian beer (Cascade) I end up taking part in. All is meant in jest, though I do take nearly any opportunity I get to get a shot in.
@G'phant
Ah no worries, I would never accuse y'all of that. I was more thinking of the Americans around here - always providing insights at 110% to make up for everyone else.
@minion
Cascade? You mean you married a Tasmanian?!?
@G'phant
As for the term Antipodeans, it really shits me. Every point on earth has a fucking antipodeal point - on the exact opposite point of the globe. So one country cannot be the Antipodes to both Americans and British. The blanket application of this term to Australians and New Zealanders pisses me off.
@Marcus
Are you OK, Mate? You're pretty fired up today. Do you need a hug? Or some serious introspection? Or a Cascade?
@Frank
Your quote: "What I feel awful about - AWFUL - is people struggling with cancer who hold his story as a beacon of hope. And the fact of the matter is, he did fucking survive cancer. It was in his brain. And he beat it. That's the amazing story and his riding didn't have anything to do with it. But the patients won't see it that way and that breaks my heart."
Well written, but ironic that serious drugs beat Lance's cancer. And serious drugs may have assisted with his many wins.
@Marcus
Heck there's nowhere to hide around here is there. I like cascade because it's tasty not VB the stout's ok my girlfriend's from hobart and I die a little every time I drink one.
Actually, if you read his book you will see that it was the bike that kept him going, kept his focus, kept his joy for life.
Saying the bike had nothing to do with his recovery is like saying that a support network is not an important part of post treatment recovery. Drugs alone do not cure, they are a part of the whole package.
We as Velominati should understand this more than any others. Like him or hate him (i'm on the fence atm with this), the bike DID help in his recovery from cancer, as it helps us every day to tear off the cloak of cubicalness on our daily rides, to rid us of the humdrum that is work, that interrupts the period between rides.