Lance Pissed at Evans???

taras0000

Yes, Merckx and Hinault were assholes as well at times, but you don't need to be an asshole to win. Don't confuse having a killer instinct with being an ass. You can be meticulous in your preparations and be the best rider and have that agressive nature that you need to win. You can still go in for the kill, but what's the point when it doesn't matter. Lance and Basso may have been competing for the yellow jersey, but Lance was already ahead, and how many seconds did he gain by attacking? Did it make a difference in the overall? I don't think so. The way I see his behaviour at times, it's not gentlemanly, but more so that of a child prince. He chooses if and when he's going to be nice and does what he pleases when he wants to. I'm not saying he's an asshole at heart, but at times he's guilty of being disrespectful as well.

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Taras

wolfix

I will agree with you that it is not necessery to be an asshole to win..... However , I believe the characteristic flaw that makes an individual an ass is sometimes the same thing as what makes him win. I believe most dominating winners simply cannot turn that part of their personality off as easily as the fans want to think. We want our sportsmen to dominate their rivals , then we want them to kiss the babies during the parade.
We loved it when Godzilla came from the sea and destroyed the city. But we would have been angered if he would have stepped on a nursery. "Oh he's such a bad lizard that Godzilla fellow."
Lance Armstrong is sometimes very blunt and not very tactical in the way he expresses himself at times. But in fairness, doesn't it get old when the mainstream sports guys all have canned speeches and say the same thing when interviewed????
Most cyclists come from lower income backgrounds. I may be wrong about this so someone from Europe can set me straight if I am. They have fought their way into cycle racing. To win the TDF you must be a fighter. Eddy Merckx has acknowledged that LA has taken more then his fair amount of shit from the cycling racing industry. And LA is not going to let anyone do that to him.

meehs

Armstrong's behavior as "Peloton Patron" is no different than that of Hinault and (to a lesser extent) Merckx. The "double-standard" that I see is that the anti-Armstrong faction takes every little action that LA makes and turns it into him being a bully and a scoundrel. What LA has done when he "flexes his Malliot Juane muscle" is no different than what past leaders have done. Hinault was notorious for it! Armstrong asking Evans "what was that for?" would've amounted to nothing had it been Hinault. Nothing! The difference is that when LA does it the "nay-sayers" come out of the woodwork and "question his audacity". The double-standard is blatantly obvious and ridiculuous! The difference is that Hinault and Merckx didn't have huge "anti-fan clubs" out there dining on sour grapes, ready to bash every little thing they said or did. Lucky for them!

Dead Star

ok, i'll be honest here. Armstrong is American, and therefore I don't like him.

there, i've said it *awaits lynching*.

meehs

Actually Dead Star, I'm not going to lynch you. Not at all! I very much appreciate your honesty. Thank you! I can actually understand how people from outside of the USA might hate Armstrong for being American (and Americans in general for that matter). I think the same is true for a lot of the other LA bashers here and they're just either afraid or unwilling to adimit it. I tip my hat (erm.. helmet?) to you.

Dead Star

heh thanks. it's not a general hatred or dislike of americans at all. I guess i've just listened far too much to those europeans who are unhappy with how a non-european has come along and dominated their big event.

sorry, people are opinionated and stuff, but at least i'm able to recognise the views i have heh

rejobako

I don't see the wisdom in judging an individual based on nationality, but you're just a miserable Welshman who doesn't know any better, so you're excused.

Michaelz

From what I can gather (and of course these things are usually not written down), being the patron means you can change the rules and traditions. There used to be a long tradition of multi-stage races for example, yet Hinault led a strike to change that.

I'm surprised no one has brought up the day when Lance chased down Simeoni in stage 18 of 2004 and "made" him leave the breakaway and return to the peleton. There was implicit acceptance of this by the rest of the peleton given that they let him bridge the gap to the breakaway without chasing. But that's part of what a patron does.

Michael

musette

There was a bit (not necessarily whole-heartedly) of chasing by T-Mobile. That's why at least one of the riders complained about it, including Guerini, to Simeoni and got sanctioned by some of their national governing bodies for causing Simeoni to feel bad. There was just a delayed peloton reaction, and, after LA got to the breakaway, he immediately began working.

Dimos

8 pages about what? About 11th place on a stage finish? Ok! Whatever...