peloton said:
Quote:Originally Posted by phillop:
good point, i still expected him to be able to take a couple of his domestiques where ever he ended up though.
He did, he has his most loyal guys Noval, Navarro and Hernandez with him...
Off course. We know that, Lance knows that. Lance also figured out before the interview, that if he wants to create a story out of thin air, and picks his words carefully, and limits it to "the tour team", he doesn't lie
per se, and might well get away with it. At least get away with it amongst the crowd he is doing it for. Most people will hear only the sound bite that Lance wants to put out there, and swallow it hook line and sinker. The rest? I don't think he cares. Probably enjoys it even.
But you need to think that sort of "lie" through in advance, and pick your words carefully. he's good at it, been showing that for years. And so Lance gets exactly what he sets out to do, create a story that he knows doesn't hold water, but makes him look good and casts doubt on the sort of guy Contador really is, for the right crowd.
It's pathetic. Desperate. And makes juicy copy for reporters.
It worked in the past, because the people he targeted couldn't trump Lance on the road, so they had to swallow it, or engage in a media tit-for-tat. Making them look like sore losers at best, and elevating Lance greatness even higher. Lose-lose.
Contador is different. On a normal day, he will better out-of-retirement Lance with ease every day of the year. He doesn't need to respond, and since it seems to be against his nature anyway, he hardly does. So Lance is getting frustrated his usual approach (hating his rival) and mind games to intimidate and irritate his opponent, aren't having the effect he got so used to, when he was reigning supreme. The tried and tested script isn't working.
If anything, instead of getting under Contador's skin, he's now getting under his own skin. Overdoes it. And Twitter, etc, guarantees we all know it comes directly from him, we get a first hand glimpse into his treatment of others. And it's not a pretty picture.
So now it is becoming increasingly clear to many that the man we are dealing with has got a dislikeable side to him. One that was always there off course. And one that sits ill at ease with the carefully crafted heroic Lance image that many had swallowed.
There are aspects of Lance 09 that don't rhyme with the all-positive image of Lance the Champ that many people wanted to believe. I think that is why these spats get so much airtime. Those that felt that it was false to start with, and have plenty of other Lance frustrations bottled up, are handed ammo with each tweet and fart that comes from Lance head quarters.
And are now,
finally, finding a general audience that like their (US) heroes to be great and graceful, suddenly soul searching after being confronted with a dissonance in the image that they had build around Lance.
One they probably did not expect. One that might still fit "great athlete", but doesn't sit comfortably with a "great person". And that last one was exactly why Lance was special and outstanding, to many. Or so they believed.
All adds up to media catnip.
There is a lot I dislike about Armstrong, but as an athlete I do think he is impressive, and still has a lot going for him. Even if he was doping but never caught, then he was still beating the best of the other dopers hands down. That I hated how potential competitors ended up riding for him is neither here nor there. I suspect that he was a great rider with scary abilities to self-motivate. A talented rider who dominated the most successful doper amongst dopers for a generation, so probably a genuine winner of sorts, and hardly the odd one out in a long line-up of cycling heroes that those who dislike Lance, readily accept as truly great.
But I'm loving every minute of this self-inflicted dismantling of the Armstrong Legend. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
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