Oh Lance...

Joy here...In one of my recent posts, I mentioned Lance Armstrong's fall from grace; he's gone from "hero to zero" in a shockingly short period of time, while all those who have benefitted from his cycling career (from his sponsors like Nike and Trek, to the organizers of the Tour de France, to the UCI, to bike shops and cycle touring companies etc. etc.) sit back and shake their heads with righteous indignation, scapegoating one individual for his role in what sounds like a profoundly dysfunctional professional context.

Oh Lance...

Tonnes of people have been weighing in online with their thoughts on Lance, everything from the "we knew you were a nasty cheater from the beginning," to "oh, Lance, you've broken my heart," to "but you've still done such good for the cancer community," to "we don't want our kids to learn about sport from someone like you"...etc.  I refuse to really get in the mix, except to say that the furor surrounding his fall from grace is more telling about the society in which we live--and its desire to build up heroes and place them on pedestals, and then to pull them down and dance around their broken remains--than it does about him, cycling, or doping.

That said, when I'm working out in my basement, I still watch old Tour de France DVDs and convince myself that I'm riding up the Tourmalet or Mont Ventoux with the best of them...even if they were doped to the eyeballs in order to do that.  So on Saturday, I joined my hopped up cycling favourites and settled in for a ride on the trainer with the 2000 Tour de France.

And whether it was thanks to Lance's face on my screen ahead of me, or just my own inner dope, I knocked off another workout as planned, even with my game thrown off ever-so-slightly by the trip earlier in the week to Winnipeg.  So I think I'll just continue with my high of working out consistently as my own personal boost rather than a shocking cocktail of EPO and who knows what else!

Over and out,
Joy