Lance Armstrong's War

[For those interested in cycling]
[Above: Gilberto Simoni of Lampre (front left) leads the final group in the rain up the finishing climb to San Luca. Notice the faces of the other riders. His Lampre teammate Damiano Cunego can be seen gasping for air towards the back.]

Let's talk bike racing. Which brings us to "Lance Armstrong's War." This is the title of the new book by Daniel Coyle who followed Lance Armstrong for the year before his sixth Tour victory in 2004. It is a fairly interesting look at the often tumultous world he lives in. I don't know Lance, but it seems like a pretty even-handed portrait that really puts into context what he has had to put up with during the latter part of his career in general and last year in particular. He's probably not the easiest person to work for but when you look at the results, who are we to judge whethter the ends justify the means.

What I do know is that the European press are a savage lot. If the American press tend to be a bit fawning, the Euros lead the way digging through the trash for anything to bring a star athlete down, especially a foreign one at that. You can't even begin to believe the crap that you see in the papers here, not only about Lance, pick the subject. People ask me, being a cyclist, if I think that Lance dopes. I reply that I obviously do not know what is in is medicine cabinet. I'm no expert but as a cancer survivor (28 years this month), I do know this: I still think about my experiences almost every day of my life. I mean, I don't dwell on it, but how can I not see the scars in the mirror? I know that everytime I go near a hospital or a needle I start sweating. Litteraly. I'm not afraid of needles per se, they just bring back bad memories. That combined with what I know about the long-term ineffectiveness and possible deliterious side effects of drugs such as EPO, I find it hard to believe that someone that went through what he did would essentially keep undergoing 'chemo-like' treatments for the last seven years. I don't care if there's just water in that IV bag, if I don't absolutely need it, keep it away from me. I still have needle scars on my arm almsot 30 years later and I'm not keen to collect any more. That alone earns him the benefit of the doubt in my book.

Whether Lance chases the dragon, so to speak, or not is really a separate question to most of what swirls around him. What is not in doubt is that he is one of the most incredible endurance athletes of all time. and that they, the Euro press, Dick Pound (WADA doping head), Jean-Marie LeBlanc (Tour director) et al, are out to get him. I live here. Trust me on this. You can't bust someone seven years after the fact and leak the "results" to the organization that runs the Tour and the newspaper L'Equipe (all part of the same company). You can't publish books based only on heresay and inuendo (Ballester, Walsh) that wouldn't hold up on the stand for five minutes in court. I'm sure there are a lot of ex-employees out there who had their toes stepped on, but so what? If you don't like your boss that doesn't give you the right to sue their former employer for large sums, renege on contracts and then say, "Oh, by the way, I'm pretty sure I saw doping parephenalia lying around once."

Questions concerning Lance's alleged vindictiveness, whether or not, for example, he hould've chased down Filippo Simeoni at last year's Tour, I cannot answer. I probably wouldn't have done that but then again I've never had to defend the Yellow Jersey and put up with the shit that comes out of guys like Simeoni's mouth. Most of the guys in the pro peloton are not the sharpest tools in the shed and like many pro athletes live on a very fine razor's edge, as Coyle puts it. They can be a bit paranoid and know that they are one misstep from heading back to the farm or the factory. Many of them have nothing to lose. Guys like Lance are proven-in-the-lab genetic mutants. He has everything to lose and not much to gain.

It is a rolling soap opera, though. Last Sunday, I went to see the finale of the Giro dell'Emilia, a late-season, one-day race that finishes up the punishing 6km climb to the church of San Luca which overlooks Bologna. (You can read about the church in John Grisham's new book, "The Broker."). They do the hill four times with the finish at the top of the last climb. In the final break were Damiano Cunego, last year's revelation and his teammate and apparent rival, Gilberto Simoni (Bettini dropped out at the foot of the second circuit, I believe. I walked right past him standing next to his bike talking to some fans in the rain at the bottom of the hill. I thought I'd missed the race.) On the penultimate trip up the hill, someone next to us yelled, "Vai Cuego!" (Go Cunego!) Simoni looked over at this guy like he wanted to kill him. Sure enough, on the last trip up, Simoni dropped everyone like a bad habit on the 18% section and won easily. Again, Simoni is one of those guys always mouthing to the press. .

Watching them racing in the rain and cold and actually standing on the hill seeing how steep it is you think that these guys are nuts to do this for a living. Only a select few get rich at it. The press and fans swarm, the team directors lay on the horns of their cars, the police rush buy on motorcycles. You wonder how Lance did it all. And why. I went home that night and finished the book just shaking my head. I tried to connect the dots in my mind. I know what I went through (cancer). I know what it feels like to suffer on a bike. Then I try to imagine doing all of that at the highest level with everyone wanting a piece of you and trying to have a personal life. It's crazy. I can't even fathom it.

There are also colorful chapters dealing with all the people in Lance's orbit: coaches, trainers, teammates etc. Personally, I wish there had been more devoted to Greg LeMond's disparaging remarks. Armstrong seems, however, to direct most of his ire towards "trolls" such as Walsh and Ballester (authors of "L.A. Confidentiel"). To me, LeMond now looks like a washed up old athlete living in the past. Another ex-champion sniping from the sidelines with absolutely no evidence to back up what he says. Even if Lance had been caught red handed, who is LeMond to pile on? Unfortunately, my rig still bears LeMond's name. The components are two-year old Dura-Ace but the frame is now 14 years young. Small consolation that I know it is really a hand-made frame from Robert Billato built near here in Padova. I'd still chuck it in a ditch if I could aford, as Lance says, some of The Shit That Would Kill You (i.e. awesomely cool bike stuff). But, I guess I'll have to keep on pressing my nose against the bike shop window drooling over that Colnago. It's been 14 years since I had a new rig so how long could it possibly take to save up the change I find in the couch to buy Some Of The Shit That Would Kill Me? LeMond will have to do for now.

Mostly, I came away from "Lance Armstrong's War" not wondering so much about what makes Lance tick but why I was sitting there reading a book about riding instead of riding. (I've read most of that stuff before. There are some interesting tidbits but nothing earth shattering.) I mean, Lance's will is so strong that you feel lazy even reading a book about him. But then I think that's what he means when he talks about the 'obligation of the cured.' To me it means getting out their and living for those who can't instead of reading a book about whether Lance Armstrong is an asshole or not. Gotta run....'Are you ridin' or hidin'? Comment here or at jsopinski@msn.com.