python said:
all you had to say was that vino is not a narcissistic dijk from tejas. other than that, you're on the money.
I don't think people have to be nice people to be great cyclists, and Armstrong does what Armstrong had to do to win those 7 Tours (and not much more than that). To be frank, if someone needs to be an ar
se to have a shot at their goal, and they do it champion-style, and the team and organisers swallow it whole, and they succeed with it... more power to him.
It is only when people fall for the personality myth around it, that something starts to grind with me.
I get why some people like Lance the winner. And for those that think winning trumps all (encountered more in the US than in Europe, but not exclusively so), fair enough.
But, like you I expect, before I really warm to a cyclist, they need to bring something more to the table than on the bike success, and right now Contador is like a breath of fresh air with his attitude to the whole sport, on and off the bike. He's not alone, but as a winner who is en course for a spot amongst the legends of old, he stands out.
As long as people's idolizing matches up vaguely with reality, I'm quite tolerant. Cadel fans I can handle with ease. Rabo fans get a free pass as they all know they are backing a slightly better version of the Zimbabwean bob-sleigh team to start with. But with Lance the public perception is warp years removed from the guy I judge him to be.
So, in a way, I am delighted that Armstrong decided to come back when all he could do was make a lot of money (which leaves me stone cold) and lose the polish on a carefully crafted image (which delights me no end). And boy are the wheels coming of the wagon.
And it is my luck that Contador, right now, actually behaves like Lance always proclaimed he did - a regular guy who rides it for the sake of cycling, is gracious, good-natured and giving. And who would rather be out of the global spotlight off the bike and hang out with his own instead. Highlighting the falseness of the Lance myth, and the actual effort that goes into the management of the fabrication. And thanks to Lance not knowing when to shut up: skewering it.
I bet PR team Lance would have loved to come up with the road trip to the race video. That would have been spun into a whole chapter in the next book, and be made available as a ready-to-broadcast feature for news outlets world-wide, a feature film if Hollywood was paying attention, especially if Team Lance came out trumps in the races at the end of it. Instead we get one that is so natural that no-one has even thought to put subtitles for it. Chances are it will only ever be seen by those that roam these type of fora.
I'm starting to see 2010 as a new beginning on a whole series of levels. And I am liking what I am seeing. The end of the circus and the return of cycling for cycling sake, and riding for riding sake. The stories don't need to be fabricated. Cycling left alone is the best of stories that don't need any spinning, that's why
we are all into it.
But I have no beef with Lance as a git, as a rider, narcissistic or not. Part of his story I also admire. If he needs to create these epic hate and grudge battles to engage, go for it.
It is the people that can't see it for what it is, and can't see the man behind the mask, turning him into the Mother Theresa of cycling... well, then my glands start to play up. Against a certain type of "fans". Not the rider.
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