Does Lance Armstrong Still Matter?

Watching Lance in this year’s Tour de France (TDF), its evident to me that although he’s probably technically trying his hardest, he lacks the obsessive focus and drive that we’ve seen in him in the past. It seems that the race is almost a cameo appearance by a star that’s there to have fun and if he wins, great; if not, then that’s ok too. I’ve always been a fan of Lance and his story, I watched him come up through the ranks of cycling from a talented young loose-cannon maverick all the way through to 7 time TDF winner and cancer survivor, nay, thriver (made that word up, “one who thrives"). And when he retired I thought it was a great and sentimental ending to an amazing story that won’t likely be repeated in our lifetimes. Now he’s back. And as history shows, comeback stories seldom turn out very well. You don’t have to look very far: Michael Jordan, Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Britney Spears, “Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace”. So I can’t help feeling a tinge of dread, resentment, and annoyance that he’s back this year. He’s obviously in great shape and riding well enough, and pulling the usual Lance magic tricks out of his aerodynamic top hat, but there’s part of me that’s asking, “What’s the point? What’s the purpose?” Here he is, back again three years later with the media mob and the movies stars, and I can’t help feeling some resentment on behalf of the other roughly 170 riders who thought they might finally have a chance to make a name for themselves and their generation. I have to give props to Lance for his immeasurable contribution to bringing the sport into the public eye and especially making it at least occasionally relevant on the newspaper sports page. But at this point what is he really contributing anymore? I just about puked when I saw Ben Stiller actually present a yellow jersey to Fabian Cancellara. Obviously the only reason he was there in the first place was to hang out with his pal Lance and provide the commentators with his deep insight into Armstrong's psyche and share in his cycling expertise. I would have felt so slighted if I had that shaggy haired goofball hand me the prize I’d worked so hard for, for so long. Don’t lynch me for criticizing Stiller, I’m a fan, but God, you’re an actor in your 40's, not some hip, young Mtv reality star, get a haircut dude! If Lance wasn’t doing the race Fabian would have been rightfully presented his jersey by a proper, respectable, hot podium girl; not Gaylord Focker. There’s no justice.
But I digress. My point is, what’s the point? What’s the risk? What’s the reward? If Lance loses, he’ll have plenty of valid excuses for not winning. People will be disappointed, but they can’t be surprised after all. “Win the TDF? At his age? After being retired so long? Who could expect him to win?” “He already won 7 times, what more do you want?” And if he wins, it will be all of “Of course he won! He’s the man! Lance Armstrong! Who else would you expect to win?” Well, so what. Either way, there’s no big surprise, no heart wrenching story, its just all the Lance with 90% less excitement. I can’t imagine myself feeling markedly different about either outcome. Can the public? And if they can’t, does Lance matter anymore as a current rider?
As much hype as there is about Lance Armstrong and his story, how does he ultimately fit into the history books of cycling? Well, he had cancer, but he beat it and then went on to win the TDF 7 times. That’s huge, and nobody can argue with that. But what starts to rub me the wrong way after a while is that when you hear his name, you often hear that he’s the greatest cyclist in the world. Well, he might be the greatest TDF winner cyclist in the world, but I have to take issue with the greatest cyclist, period. Armstrong’s claim to fame can be summed up in one short sentence (See, I just did it in the second sentence of this paragraph). The difference between Armstrong and other cyclists is that he spent his entire career learning how to win the TDF. He won a smaller race here and there, placed highly in a lot of them, but they were all just preparation for what he considered the real thing. To him, cycling is the TDF. But the fact is, the TDF is part of cycling, and there are other races that are lesser known, but just as important to the sport. And the same goes for actual cyclists. Eddy Merckx won the TDF five times. Big deal? Lance won seven and besides, 3 other cyclists have won the TDF five times as well. But Merckx also not only won the TDF five times, he also won the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, being the only cyclist ever to win all three of these races. Among his greater than 485 career race wins, Merckx also won the Giro five times, the Paris-Roubaix three times, and the World Championships four times. And although he only won the TDF a meager five times, he’s also the only rider to win not only the yellow jersey during the race, but also the green (best sprinter), and polka-dot (best climber in the mountains). And because he was 24 years old, he also would have won the white jersey for the best young rider had it existed during his time. On top of all that, Merckx also won 17 races that were 6 days long! Well, that’s all fine and good, but he’s no Lance Armstrong, right? Here’s a question for you. Would Tiger Woods be as famous if all he did was try to win the Masters to the exclusion of every other tournament? If he just moved to Augusta and played the course every day so he could know it better than anyone else and be better prepared than anyone else, just so he could win that single tournament every year? He’d play the others, maybe do ok, but they’d all be essentially just a driving range for him. What if Roger Federer didn’t win the US Open, the French Open, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon, but he did win Wimbledon seven times, but nothing else? Lance is a one trick pony, and he’ll make sure he’s forever associated with the TDF in a big way. Christmas has Santa Claus, Easter has the Easter Bunny, toothless children have the Tooth Fairy, Matt Crow Day (January 26) has me, and the Tour de France has Lance Armstrong. And like the other days, I’m quite thankful that it only comes once a year.