- Dec 13, 2012
- 1,859
- 0
- 0
Wallace and Gromit said:It would be difficult to be growing from a kid to an adult in the 1990s, as Wiggo did, and have an idol/hero from cycling that wasn't an EPO abuser.
Pantani was great, even if he was a doper. He dished it out to Ullrich in 1998 on the Galibier / Les Deuz Alpes, and for the excitement of that single stage, I will be forever grateful to the PED-abusing, class-A drug using cheat.
One of my footballing heroes is Paul Gascoigne. Doesn't mean I'm an alcoholic, kebab abusing wife-beater. Another is Diego Maradonna. Doesn't mean I want Argentina to have sovereignty over Las Malvinas.
I don't think there's a particularly strong "cause/effect" relationship between having a flawed hero and replicating the flaws of said hero, but who knows?
Just because you idolised someone as a kid doesn't mean that they are still going to be a hero to you once you grow up and have more knowledge/understanding. I thought Armstrong as a 13 year old reading his first book.
