OT: Tour de France sportsmanship
First post in a while... feeling a lot of pressure since Magnus's last post.
Read this article earlier today, and it's kind of got me agitated for a while now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/sports/cycling/28cycling.html?_r=1&sc…
Main quote: "My relationship with Lance is zero,” Contador said at a news conference, one day after winning his second Tour. “He is a great rider and has completed a great race, but it is another thing on a personal level, where I have never had great admiration for him and I never will.”
Now, I get there was tension and these are ambitious, competitive, crazed athletes, but show a little class. In the end, it's your team that helps you win in cycling. To say you have no respect for one of the greatest Tour riders in history is just silly. To say you don't admire a cancer survivor who overcomes ridiculous odds to dominate an event and then goes on to use his fame for a great cause is immature and utterly non-admirable.
I know Europeans have always disliked Lance, but this slap in the face just pisses me off.
Well, that's all I've ever had to say about cycling. So there, it's done.
im one of the few real Tour fans and this to me is nothing more than hot air. Lance and Alberto are of the same mold. They are both Champions and as champions they will always be measuring their dicks and demanding attention. Contador is better than Armstrong partly because of age but AC has just given Lance the ammo he needs to propel him to a win in 2010
Why do Europeans dislike Lance so much? Is it purely because he is an American dominating a European event?
http://mgoblog.com/content/ot-lance-armstrong-doping-and-americaneurope…
If you don't want to read the Sports Illustrated article, which I highly recommend, I can give you the main takeaway points as it relates to your question.
1. Europeans think Lance is arrogant because he has never played by the rules of cycling's insiders. It doesn't help matters that Lance, in their mind, is basically a yupppie American, when in Europe cycling is viewed as a poor kid's way out.
2. One of the ways Lance has shown contempt for cycling's establishment is by his almost exclusive focus on the Tour de France. In case you didn't know there are a lot of other important races which Armstrong neglects to focus on the Tour.
3. Europeans don't like the double-talk Armstrong does in regards to doping with the European versus American press. He plays dumb and sometimes whines and unreasonably plays victim in the American press while being far more frank with the Euro press.
Thanks a lot for that summary. I appreciate it and now understand the distaste many Europeans have towards Lance.
Oh something else I forgot to include: according to a cyclist on the other thread another factor is that Lance's style of riding is just really boring.
I am a huge Lance fan, but if you've read anything about the guy, he can be a tremendous prick sometimes. Might be because Armstrong skipped Contador's team victory dinner in retaliation for Conti riding aggressively against his teammates during a couple stages of the Tour. Not to defend Contador, but I'd consider it a pretty big slap in the face, too.
Lance seems like a stuck up douchebag at times...how can you be mad at a guy who constantly defeats the French?
Yeah, damn those French for being America's oldest allies.
You obviously forgot the XYZ affair.
That was an ugly affair, but they did make it up to us by selling a big chunk of real estate for a bargain price a couple of years later.
and the feeling is obviously mutual. Lance had nothing good to say but did manage to bite his tongue a bit. But it was obvious that Lance was not going to do anything to recognize or honor Contador's victory. I think I bigger man would give Contador the credit he deserves for winning the event fair and square and keep his personal thoughts on the guy to himself.
this is most definitely not a one way street here. I would defend Contador for being a little pissed that a teammate didn't show at my victory dinner for sure, who wouldn't be. I think being angry at AC for being honest about an obviously strained relationship with LA (even though he is a "God" to some) is a little unwarranted.
In defense of Lance I turn to the immortal words of Owen Wilson "Lance Armstrong has accopmlished more with one testicle than you or I could ever do with two."....Who could argue with that statement....not me.
It seems that although there is a bit of contempt between the two, there is also mutual respect. It was pretty clear that Lance was working well as a teammate to Contador, and Contador reciprocated in the last few days to help Lance stay on the podium. At least that's how the commentators seemed to see it. They may not like eachother, and it will be great to see them go head to head next year, but when they were on the road, they did a good job of helping eachother.
He shoulda got an Oscar for his role in that movie.
"I'd like to begin by saying, 'fuck Lance Armstrong.' Fuck him and his balls and his bicycles and his steroids and his yellow shirts and the dumb empty expression on his face. I'm tired of that asshole."