CEBU – Officially, the reason for Lance’s comeback is to help his foundation, Global Cancer Initiative, to prove that he was and still is riding dope free and to “try” to win the Tour de France for the 8th time. His detractors, however, are saying that his return is all about ego, his desire to be “the man” again, to make money, to promote his bike shop, etc.
There are also those cycling purists who said that coming back and performing poorly would just taint his legacy, that he has been out of the saddle for so long and that he’s too old to race competitively.
The group with a lot to gain in Lance’s return includes the cancer community, cycling fans (don’t know the percentage, though), the bicycling industry (TREK, GIRO, OAKLEY, SRAM, etc) and team ASTANA.
The group that are not exactly happy at Lance’s return are rival cyclists and teams and the anti-doping crusaders, whom I consider the noisiest of this whole bunch. BTW, you can include SHIMANO in this group, as Lance ditched them in lieu of SRAM of which he is reported to have invested millions.
Lance’s coming back could be another financial windfall for cycling. We all know that spectator and sponsor attendance went down after 2005. The TdF, who has been at odds with Lance (for ethical reasons) since he retired and who has barred the team that Lance will be riding for next year, has acknowledged the rock star status of the Texan, by inviting his team in next years’ TdF, albeit conditionally.
Some people are saying that Lance is just using cancer for financial reasons but if he is doing that, I don’t have a problem because it’s a win-win situation.
It would also be normal for rival riders and teams to be unhappy with Lance coming back. Karl Malone wasn’t happy when Magic returned and I bet that Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton wouldn’t be thrilled if Michael Schumacher signs on for the scuderia.
But what I don’t understand is the noise made by these anti-doping crusaders. Paul Kimmage, an ex-pro and now a columnist for the English Times said that Lance, a cancer survivor, is a “cancer to the sport!” I think that Paul and his kind should be happy with Lance coming back because this would give them the chance to nail Lance once and for all for doping! Lance’s staying retired couldn’t be tested but now he’s fair game. Or are they afraid that they still won’t be able to prove anything?
Cycling is still not clean and may not be 100% clean even in the future. Last July’s scandals in the TdF proved that but cycling didn’t die as it was exaggerated a million times. Let WADA, the UCI, ASO, the French Cycling Federation and whoever alphabet organization out there to do its work. If it finds Lance positive, then let’s damn him! But if not, let’s stop all this nonsense.
If Lance turns out to be a flop this July, he’ll only have himself to blame. It’s not our legacy that will be tainted but his. But then again, was the legacy of Jordan, Magic, George Foreman or Muhammad Ali tainted when they unretired?
I think that the more intriguing story is how Lance would fit with his new team, ASTANA. ASTANA is loaded with talent and they have won 3 of the last 4 Grand Tours with Alberto Contador. Then there are Levi Leipheimmer and Andreas Kloden, who both have stood in the podium in the TdF before. How the team director, Johan Bruyneel, can massage these massive egos has his job cut out for him.
FINAL RESULTS CRIT RIDER OF THE MONTH (SEPTEMBER) 1. JON SIMBAJON, 86PTS 2. CELING VILLAROSA, 77 3. NONOY ABASOLA, 61
4. LOLOY BERDUN, 60 5. JAN ERMITANIO, 51. - THE FREEMAN