Originally Posted by
ngateguy
All you are is justifying illegal and unethical behaviour because everyone else was doing it. It ys true that it is the "norm" but that is all the more you should be up in arms that this investigation is not running deeper and involving the whole sport. That still does not let Lance off the hook for how he has betrayed the sport, fans and even our country.
I don't care what goes on Versus the only time I have it on is during the races and I have the volume off. TV sportscasters are the worst source of information you can find.
usually, I'm very overboard on the histrionics of flogging the Pro road cycling scene. BUT, really to single out one rider, no matter how prominant for the obvious faults of an entire Pro level of a sport (road) simply shows some earlier fairy tale vision of that pro sport. Lance won 7 tours a few other -pre-tour races, but there have been many other prominent riders who have similarly Dis'd the sport, their fans and their nations. Pinning the reputation of a nation on any single act, person, activity is belittling and dangerous.
lance does not ( and much of current pro peloton) represent me, either as a sports example or cyclist. Hence I don;t feel betrayed.
His victories - he rode his ass off to get those titles, he prepared with a vision no one else could match. As far as I'm concerned, the vast majority of riders were dopers. I actually didn;t watch pro road racing from '99 to 04 - I was disenfranchised by the OBVIOUS doping. Then I came back to the one day classics, those I luv for their fierce intensity. I started watching the stage races again from '06 on, in spite of the continued doping.
I Don;t condone or justify the rampant doping, but until the sport is cleaned from the very basis - the UCI, the teams owners and directors - I won;t completely blame the riders. Riders are human, with the flaws. AS I said before, if they GROK what they did was wrong and they adjust and act appropriately in the future, then I can support them. If they persist, they're in the ****can. Lance has found he's not above the rest - so now he has decisions to make.
I love road racing - because of that, and because I believe the commitments to being a racer, require a considerable strength. I believe even riders as far gone as Lance, can find the way back - because cycling, the act, the essential test of self, the real high, is so strong it can pull the worst of us back.
There's nothing so bad in organized cycling that could make me truly bitter about it.
Cycling has strong Mojo, I believe in it.