Lance Armstrong refuses to die

Jul

24

Lance Armstrong refuses to die

Kill them Lance!

This was shouted by an American supporter, right before Lance Armstrong started the last time trial of his career. Lance did exactly that and got his first victory in his last tour. The rest of the tour he didn’t feel the need to win. He just made sure that he kept his main competitors in sight. Only the very best get away with that.

I wish Armstrong did another tour. Two or three even. He owes it to the sport of cycling to do one tour too many. Anquetil did it. Merckx did it. Hinault did it. Who does think Armstrong he is, that he won’t have to accept defeat in the end? This is cycling! In this sport there should be no room for happy endings. It is why cycling has been muse for beautiful prose and poetry. There are no happy endings in literature.

Please die for us Lance. Do one more Tour and meet “the man with the hammer” somewhere in the Alps. Sweating and grimassing you try to climb Alpe d’Huez one more time until your body can’t go on anymore and you come to a dead stop. Then you can get off your bike for the very last time.

Lance Armstrong will be the first one in the history of cycling who ended his career victorious. He debunked the myth of suffering that this sport is associated with. Armstrong knows what real suffering is. To him, climbing three mountains in one day is just hard work.

Lance refuses to lose. He defeated cancer and he left cycling before it could defeat him. And if that turns one of my favourite sports from literature into Hollywood melodrama, than that is my problem.