I'm going to toss out something random and avoid the clinic aspects of it. Back when I was an Armstrong fan, I read some of Carmichael's books. The process of Lance getting down to Tour de France weight really bugged me, as it goes against conventional wisdom and common sense, and it was being set up as a model for other athletes to follow. Of course, I recognize that the whole story could be BS. But I remember it saying that he timed his training, and I believe went something like five hours afterward without eating, etc. Now everybody knows that you start carbs & a bit of protein immediately so your body can rebuild for next time.
Anyway, last year he had the big muscular body, and if he was lean for the Tour Down Under, I imagine he got that way old school, by cannibalizing muscle. Then when he let himself get back up to, or above, the weight from a year ago, way more of it would be body fat like we saw Saturday. It seems especially odd since Allen Lim worked just with him for a few months.
I think the big problem is that for three years of retirement it was like a combination of a victory tour and a life resembling Paris Hilton's. Companies flew him on private jets to five star hotels, gave him a big ego boost, & paid huge money for him to speak and meet & greet. He dated Kate Hudson & the Olsen, with paparazzi everywhere. He hung out with Matt & Jake (I'm not being familiar, I can't spell their last names this early in the morning).
So for three straight years it's the celeb, entitled life, with daily ego boosts, etc. Then he came back, and felt entitled to the same entitled treatment from the pro cycling world. Add in twitter, where he can say anything and have hundreds of people immediately blow smoke at him. He treated Team Astana and the TT wheels like Gollum taking the ring his brother had found - it was his birthday, it should have been his, so he took it and damn the consequences.
I think he finally got a glimpse of reality when he stepped off the course in Ireland with thousands of fans waiting in the rain at the top of the climb. Suddenly people expected him to actually do stuff - to follow through.
As someone stated yesterday - seeing him keep teammates with him as he fell off the back was really annoying, even though they all should have known what they were in for when they moved to Radio Shack. I think it was around mid-February when I first said in a comment at Bicycling that he won't be at the Tour de France. Hopefully he'll wake up and smell the coffee soon so that his team can regroup and add to the level of competition, if they're invited.
Hopefully people will look back now and see that the whole "rivalry" was just him spouting lies and nonsense and people printing it because he's a celebrity.
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