Professional Cycling For the Fans - Why Lance Armstrong is choosing NOT to win this year's Tour de France

Article titled "Why Lance Armstrong is choosing NOT to win this year's Tour de France" in yesterday's New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2009/07/21/2009-07-21_lance.html

Nothing interesting in the article, I just thought the title was hilarious.

Par for the U.S. sporting media course.

Yeah . . I'm American and the general media doesn't really have a clue about Cycling. Most fat arsed American sports fans think riding a bike is for children and anyone could do it, that there is no skill involved compared to the football and baseball gods they follow with dogmatic enthusiasm.

I don't watch a TV much anymore, except during the Tour. Time stands still for ESPN. SOS . . . Same Old Shi!, just another day.

So, the NY Daily News has to explain why the great champion is standing down from going for victory. :rolleyes:
The truth is painful in America. . . so delusions rule the day.

people with a zero cycling IQ should not be allowed to write about it... b/c sadly there are many lemmings out there who will believe this garbage.

my favorite part is the reader commentary below the article. Some people have no clue what cycling is....

You ride for the strongest rider on your team. What part of that is zero cycling IQ?

my favorite part is the reader commentary below the article. Some people have no clue what cycling is....

Yeah . . . the guy who says he hopes the Yankees win. :rolleyes: It's all that matters to them.:rolleyes:

That one reason why I don't watch TV and general sports anymore . . The Yankees . . the Red Sux . . Cowpies . . . it's enough to make one hurl your cookies

my favorite is the one that said that riding with honor "taints the sport" by letting your team member win instead of you. classy folks

I'll give credit where credit is due: That article is a very good attempt to explain to American fans who understand nothing about cycling, except Armstrong's seven wins, how cycling works. Just the same, attempting to preach to a readership who's intelligence is best described by "go Yanks" is going to be a real uphill battle.

The title is awful, otherwise the article is fine -- just explaining to non-cyclists why the Yank who's won 7 times, and is to the outsider barely behind, isn't going to try and win.

Of course, the article was also written on Tuesday, before Armstrong lost several minutes and a few places in the GC....

Well let's face it, Lance could of went after AC's group and not lose much time, but dialed it down a notch so he can keep Wiggins at bay. So Lance in a way is letting AC have the title this year. I doubt they will be on the same team next year, so next year Lance will probably school AC.

complete s**t lance is letting ac win cos he cant keep up with the schlecks and AC on the mountains simple as (whatever his brain says and i'm sure he's telling himself he's letting AC win )

the fact is Lance can still drop most of the best climbers in the world be he hasnt got it over a 15 to 20km climb yesterday he went away from wiggins in 2km very cool ride much smarter riding than doing what kloden (had) to do and blowing completely.

regardless of what you think about the man and his cycling legacy, armstrong has
ridden surprisingly well in both the giro and now in the tour. don't think he ever
possessed the explosiveness that contador does (although he had his moments) but
armstrong has/does have better descending/tactical acumen and could/can go equal
to if not better than contador at a consistently fast tempo for a longer time. contador's
biggest weakness is paradoxically his strength-relying on that explosiveness. he'll have
to pick up the tactical/descending nuances as he goes because he may not have that kick
his whole career. to his credit, he has improved markedly in the tt discipline which has
definitely helped to minimize what few deficiencies he has. seems like armstrong has
proven to most that he can still bring it on a mountain stage. interested to see how
much the efforts in the alps will take out of his tt today. back during the streak, this
would have been an automatic stage victory and 30 seconds+ setback for his gc rivals.

Armstrong, barring unforeseen circumstances, says he will follow in the grand, albeit odd traditions of the Tour de France and yield to the current owner of the yellow jersey, his Astana teammate, Alberto Contador.
Translation: Lance is still the best. But Europe is a strange place. People have odd ideas about cheese and personal hygiene.
He's being diplomatic.
Try not to hate him for this.
America still wins.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk308/civil_truth/kraft_american_cheese.jpg

Well let's face it, Lance could of went after AC's group and not lose much time, but dialed it down a notch so he can keep Wiggins at bay. So Lance in a way is letting AC have the title this year. I doubt they will be on the same team next year, so next year Lance will probably school AC.

:lol:

Bill Strickland might be interested in knowing that this code did not go back to the first race. In fact, in early bike racing there were no teams (it was all individuals racing against each other), and that evolved to national teams, which evolved into trade teams.

The article was a nice attempt in explaining how bike teams function.

And here I thought the article was from the N.Y. POST and that it would prove once
and for all that Lance was "The King's" (Elvis) secret love child, and he made a pact
with the aliens and bat boy to not win 8 tours.

good article, bad title.

I thought the article had its roots in a good idea, but was a horrible exectution.

Does a baseball player swing for the fenses with one on and behind by 3 in the 9th? Or does he stand in and daw a walk! Does every Hockey or Basketball player want to to take the shot every time? Even when another player on the team is in a better situation to make the shot?

The idea that teams are teams is not foreign to the U.S. way of thinking. But according to the article one sure thinks that is the case.

And of course there is the annoying undercurrent that Lance is still the best. Time for some folks to realize he is not.

Well let's face it, Lance could of went after AC's group and not lose much time, but dialed it down a notch so he can keep Wiggins at bay. So Lance in a way is letting AC have the title this year. I doubt they will be on the same team next year, so next year Lance will probably school AC.

After AC's performance in the ITT today, I don't think so. I thought LA was going to put time in on him.

After AC's performance in the ITT today, I don't think so. I thought LA was going to put time in on him.

Well I'm talking next year. Lance can use this tour to work out some of the bugs. But next year, he will even be more ready.

Well I'm talking next year. Lance can use this tour to work out some of the bugs. But next year, he will even be more ready.

Dennis, let me tell you about optimism and pessimism. The optimist is usually disappointed, whereas if things work out for the pessimist, he is pleasantly surprised!

After AC's performance in the ITT today, I don't think so. I thought LA was going to put time in on him.

I've been thinking Lance was about to pop for a couple of days now. I was almost thinking he had escaped as of the end of stage 17. A bit surprised it happened as much as it did on the TT. I was beginning to think that for Lance a lot would depend on Fridays stage. I do not mean any time changes, but just how hard a day it turns out to be. But he popped today.

That he did lose time in the TT shows just how close to the edge he has been in managing his output. A masterful job.

After AC's performance in the ITT today, I don't think so. I thought LA was going to put time in on him.

That's my first thought too. He went out through the first part like the old days, then was all knees and elbows looking like he was going to die by the end, for 12th. That didn't stop the commentators from going on about what an amazing historic fantastic performance it was.

good article, bad title.

That's one thing that really pisses me off about modern "journalism". The writer writes the article, but some Editor with a title and an agenda writes the headline. Too many times I read an article that completely contradicts the headline with the actual facts, while 80+% of the readers read the headline but none of the article (and then tell their friends that "I read it in the paper"). As a result I haven't subscribed to a city newspaper for 15+ years.

Fortunately The Wall Street Journal has yet to implement the practice, but I do catch it creeping into the NY Times. And the LA Times may be completely lost by now...
:notamused:

That he did lose time in the TT shows just how close to the edge he has been in managing his output. A masterful job.

+10 Well said.