I read the article too and was truly astounded that any "Sports writer??" could hold such opinions about cycling in general and Lance Armstrong specifically. Unbelievable!! He obviously knows nothing about the sport or life outside of his little US world of team sports.

It seems like every year during the Tour some know-nothing sports guy spouts off about how cyclists are not really athletes. I remember similar comments made during Greg LeMond's Tour wins. I think I even heard that Greg challenged one top sports writer to a bike ride just to show him how tough it really is. I don't believe the guy ever took him up on it.

The most disturbing thing is that the editor at MSNBC allowed it to pass onto the site without any apparent editorial overview. I think these sites are so desparate for material that they will take any kind of crap they can find.

A friend of mine recently told me about an article he'd read that defined a great athlete strictly on upper body strength and never took into account lower torso or aerobic capabilities. He was judging it by what he saw in baseball and football and we all know that a lot of that strength and bulk is suspected to come from some type of chemical enhancement. Why must so many US sports writers judge the world's athletes strictly on their own narrowly focused knowledge?

I can't stand it anymore. MSNBC is at the bottom of the list for me from now on.