Saturday, September 15, 2012

My take on Lance

I was a big supporter of Floyd Landis. I felt he was being railroaded. Then he admits it, bubble burst. Then of course there was Alberto Contador. What is it with the persecution of American winners? Then he was found guilty. But I continued to support Lance Armstrong. I strongly felt that he was being persecuted and that they would not stop until they got him. Call it naivete if you wish, but I really wanted to believe in him. Now that Lance has refused to defend himself any longer, in the face of Tyler Hamilton and Frankie Landreau's testimony against him, I am not so certain. Is Lance also guilty? Is my 7-time Tour de France hero a drug user too? I don't know, but my faith in him as a champion is shaken. My desire to follow cycling has been diminished. In spite of this, I cannot help but continue to be a supporter of Lance Armstrong the man if not the cyclist. It has become apparent that cycling at that level has so many drug cheaters that there is no point in thinking that any of them have not been users at one point in their career or another. I wonder how many other Tour de France champions used performance enhancing drugs or cheated in some way. Lance though has done so much good work through his foundation and continues to be a huge voice in cancer research that I am willing to concentrate on that and forget that he may be a fallen hero in the cycling world.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Still here!

Haven't done anything with this blog for a long time. I thought about abandoning it, but I'm not sure. I haven't even been on my bike for a couple of years and have even thought of selling it. I even took pictures of it in preparation for putting it up on Craigs list. I have been doing a lot of running and have a blog set up for my running as well. I am having second thoughts about giving up cycling now. Part of the reason I haven't gotten back out there is the loss of a local cyclist who was killed during a road race when she ran into the back of a SAG vehicle. I think I got a little scared after that happened and so my bike just sits there. So, a little air in the tires, a little oil on the chain, a battery for the bike computer and I could be back out there. We'll see.