Sunday 20 January 2013

Lancegate.

I have styled this as a cycling orientated blog (when I actually post things...), and I have been trying to collate my thoughts on Lancegate and Doprah for some days now with a view to posting; it is such a complex case I am wary of adding more noise to it all by putting some half baked opinion out there-but will do my best to be cogent.

This is far more than just the 'usual' case of someone breaking the sporting code of ethics, and for that reason will require much more than just the 'usual' crocodile tears apology. It is not just some domestique feeling it was necessary to take drugs to try and secure his future career (think recent case of Steve Hounard, AG2R); nor is it a case of a 'nearly man' being led into temptation by the promise of success and all it's trappings (think Bjarne Riis). No. This transcends all, and as such requires a completely different course of action on the part of Lance if he wishes redemption. What I feel he doesn't realise is that before the USADA report that signalled the beginning of the end, many were already convinced he was not what he claimed. There were enough reputable, informed voices out there and even more reasoned opinion to be found-if you knew where to look; and as such this is hardly the 'Revelation' many are claiming.

If the stories from Tyler Hamilton's book and other accounts are to be believed, this man was a bully; ruthless and narcissistic and driven to do 'whatever it took' to satisfy his 'win at all costs' mentality. This led him to potentially risk his life by taking a cocktail of drugs that could make him go further, faster and stronger-which admittedly is nothing new in sport. We now know many other riders in the late '90s and early '00s were doing just that; however this man had been to the edge with cancer and survived. Who would risk all that again just to 'win at all costs'? I struggle to imagine just how driven you would have to be to take the ultimate risk just to win some bike races (I am of course simplifying this down for effect, but at the end of the day the Tour de France is after all just a bike race).

It wasn't just other sporting careers he probably prevented from flourishing through this false dominance, Lance and his gang demonised, sued and defamed almost anyone who dared raise a question about him. Cases of Betsy Andreu, Greg Lemond, Emma O'Reilly, David Walsh, Paul Kimmage, Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton...the list goes on. The funny thing is though, which camp is now going to be remembered and revered the most? 

I leave you with a clip from an interview with one of the aforementioned who suffered at the hands of this man she once counted as a friend for years just because she refused to stay quiet:

I don't think he's changed. It seems to me we just have the same old Lance. And until he stops dithering around with how sorry he is for cheating (and would you bet against him doing it all over again given the chance?)  and actually starts trying to make amends for hurt he has caused, nothing will have changed.