Lance Armstrong’s 2001 Tour de France Yellow Jersey
One of Lance Armstrong’s 2001 Tour de France Yellow Jerseys
Here’s an interesting piece of memorabilia from the Tour de France.
One of Lance’s yellow jerseys, signed by the man himself.
We know a lot of you feel betrayed by Lance and don’t even like to hear his name mentioned anymore. We understand your viewpoint. We just don’t share it.
Like it or not, Lance Armstrong is a big part of cycling history.
He was one of the most successful racers to have ever pedaled a bike. He finished first (we’re going to refrain from using the word “won”) in seven Tours de France including dozens of stage victories, he was World Champion, won a handful of semi-classics and a dozen smaller stage races.
Lance was an inspiration to millions following his comeback from cancer.
He dated rock stars and partied with celebrities.
There are some of you out there who practically worshipped the man (admit it, you did). We all wore the yellow wristbands and asked ourselves “What Would Lance Do?”.
In the end, he fell from grace. Cheating in sports! Performance-enhancing drugs! Lying to Oprah! The shame!
In the end, we found out that Lance was a bully and a jerk.
Lance’s sporting career is history now. We’re not, however, going to erase that history here at Classic Cycle. No destroying old statues or looting museums just because they offend our sensibilities.
We here at Classic Cycle want to see clean sports. We do. But like every other human endeavor involving money or pride, we’re aware that there is cheating going on. Bike racing, like football and baseball, and boxing, and soccer, and hockey, and running, and horse racing, and table tennis, has performance-enhancing drugs.
But to us, history is important. Sports as entertainment is important.
Don’t feel bad if you want to watch old Tour de France videos. The Lance years (like the Indurain years, Riis’ win, Landis’ win and Contador’s “Tainted beef” win) had some great action. Enjoy the racing for what it was.
Just remember, as sports fans we need to be careful who we deify.