Yesterday, Alberto Contador took the lead in the Tour de France. His teammate 7-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, moved up from 4th place to 2nd, but is over 1 minute out of first place. Today Lance all but conceded the the race and pledged his support for Contador.
I was really rooting for Lance to win it all. After winning a record 7 Tours--all of them in a row--he took 3 years off, but made a comeback this year at age 37.
Not bad for a guy who, about 15 years ago, nearly died from testicular cancer, but recovered to become the greatest bicycle racer in history!
Not that you would know it if you read the European press. They--especially the French media--are obsessed with proving that Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs during his championship reign. Actually, they don't even pretend to try to prove it--they talk about it as if its established fact. In reality, Armstrong has probably been the most tested athlete in the entire world the past 10 years--he's been tested 37 times this year alone! In fact, the head of the French doping agency even said publicly he would focus especially on Armstrong.
For those reasons, I was really hoping Armstrong would pull one more Tour victory just to shut up his critics! But, at age 37 and 3 years of retirement, it's probably too much to hope for a victory this year. Even a top 10 finish would be an accomplishment. Armstrong is being very gracious in conceding a supporting role; I just wish Contador was equally as gracious. As it is, he's practically bragging about Armstrong being his "domestique", or support rider. As competitive as Armstrong is, I hope he uses this as motivation to keep training and maybe shock the world in next years Tour!
Interesting. I disagree on some points... I am glad to see Armstrong being gracious enough to support his teammate for the win. He's had his titles, he's tasted the victory multiple times, and the bottom line is he really doesn't need to prove himself to the world anymore. They can test away, they probably won't find anything. All he needs to know is that he could have won yet again, but he is giving his teammate a chance to revel in a 1st place title. I think that says way more about his nature as a competitor than if he were to take it away himself.
Madelyn's right that it shows class for Lance to help his teammate win. Being a competitive American (and Texan), though, I'd like to see Lance win, if for nothing else, to shut up the French. But it wouldn't shut them up, anyway. They have their minds made up.