Lance, Triathlons, and WTC: Discuss!
Well, after years and years and years of "what if" discussions in triathlon forums and training rides, Lance finally did a triathlon this past weekend, placing 2nd OA, as a pro, in Panama.
Patrick has written a blog post here.
I have my own thoughts and am very curious to here what the EN community thinks about this!
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Comments
• His performance at Panama should confirm what everyone ought to already know: he is off-the-chart in all athletic attributes: natural talent, desire to train, competitive focus, and ability to perform/race within his capabilities. To finish second by less than 45 seconds in his first ever HIM @ age 40 to a 2x Olympic medalist who's never lost at the 70.3 distance - jaw dropping.
• However, it's important to keep in mind that his #1 goal, as it was in 2010, is to raise money, awareness, and political power for his Livestrong cancer foundation - that is his life mission now. It's not about what he can do for triathlon, but what WTC can do for his foundation. He will qualify for Kona (notice how he's only doing hot/humid 70.3s?); how he'll do there remains to be seen - check back on June 24th on that topic.
• If this is just a one year venture, then I don't think it will have much impact on our sport long term. If he somehow connects Livestrong support into Ironman events on an ongoing basis, that of course will just turbo charge our already too-rapid growth.
• Finally, I hope I get to ride my bike by him when he's finishing up his run, on the Queen K this fall. Even cooler would be to have him pass me on Huakini in his last mile while I'm doing my first on the run.
Great Athlete ... sure!... Great Sportsman .... i have my own perspective.
Nevertheless I hope it is only a one year thing.
Maybe I am a bit naive, but I liked the down-to-earth, laid back touch of the ironman circus and of current pro's like Greg, Andreas, Chrissie, Mecca etc.
Chances are that if this the "Lancestrong" thing stays longer and it will "bulldozer" this nice atmosphere down.
If you like to see sharks it is cool, if you like watching clown fishes and their friends not so cool, chance are the shark bring more sharks into the bay ...
I love it. I would like nothing more than to see Lance stick it to a bunch of pro triathletes. I don't mean that in a mean spirited way but it just shakes up the natural balance and I'm all for it. There were several pros that opened up their yaps last week and looked pretty stupid after the race. Add Rasmus Henning's dumbass remarks after the race as well. People like Wellington, Lieto and Crowie tweeted nice things before and after. Perhaps being PC about it but they know hitching on to the Lance Wagon is probably the smart move.
With the exception of Docherty... Lance was in everyone's head on Sunday and I think he executed a very smart and conservative race. Galindez and Lieto killed themselves on the bike to finish ahead of Lance. I'm with Patrick in that I believe Lance rode enough to stay with the "bike leaders" and conserved energy in the process. He knew at any point he could smoke them but he also knew those guys riding ahead of him were probably cooking themselves. Their 85% is probably like his 80%. Many of the other guys in the packs behind also rode way out of their comfort zone as evidenced by some less than stellar runs. I think Lance simply toyed with everyone on the bike. He just doesn't have supernatural run ability and it took a two time Olympic medalist with an amazing run to hunt him down.
His sitting back approach to the bike won't work again. The pros are savvy to that move now. That means Lance is going to have to be more aggressive at Galveston. How will his run look after a more aggressive bike? We shall see. If Lieto cooked himself riding with conservative Lance, what's it going to look like if Lance takes off like a rocket. Lieto is now in a weird predicament in which he can't put minutes on everyone during the bike ride because he knows Lance can both outbike and outrun him and is better at Lieto's game than Lieto. What does that mean to the rest of the pros. Lieto has proven at Galveston that a big bike can win (2011) or darn near win (2010) the race if you can pad your lead out of T2.
I think Lance wins Galveston and probably Florida (which usually has a relatively weak pro field).
If it brings more dough and attention to his good causes, that's nice too.
If you're a pro or elite, it's a huge motivator.
If you're an AGer it can be kind of fun until you can't get in a race or find a parking space. This ramps that up significantly if he's racing. Tri, especially long tri for most is a very personal trial and not really enhanced by all of the hubbub.
If you're an LA lover, then it's fun to watch.
He's a tremendous athlete, clean or doped. (Yes, he doped, right along with most of the others of the era and the guys who wanted to ride pro CLEAN mostly got hosed as a result.) I loved how he competed and how he rode and I don't judge him or Hincapie or Hamilton or Landis or many others for doing what it apparently took to be a top pro at the time, despite amazing physical gifts. But I do not respect his actions since or the statements he's made in the press regarding Landis in particular. He could have come clean and been a real hero to many and really furthered the discussion about pro sports and doping instead of hiding behind the rationalizations of too big to fail pragmatism. So now that the investigation has been scrapped, he can go back to being the American icon, and $$ machine and I guess there's much to be said for that too.
Unless,of course WADA presses the issue.........
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cycling/wada-wants-armstrong-evidence-handed-over-20120208-1r9ku.html
Lance is an athlete but more importantly he is a very big brand, with more than a few other very big brands very closely associated with him -- LiveStrong, Nike, Trek, and who knows what else. I could see WTC + LA sitting around a table for a very long time discussing things like:
Increased interest:
I've seen directly the difference between the non-Lance ToC's and the Lance ToC's. Crowds at the finishes and on the course were probably twice as big. Triathlons will be no different. This will bring a LOT of interest to the sport and with it a LOT of people interested in doing triathlons, particularly if Lance and WTC create a bit of Pro + AG'er synergy (my TNT/LiveStrong thing above) that's much easier to do in the tri vs cycling world.
In my experience, where you fall on the question of if ^this^ is good or bad is usually a function of where you are in your triathlon lifecycle, how free-market you feel about race fees, stuff like that. On an aside, I hope you folks dig your red and white EN singlets cuz next year EN will be black and yellow, baby!!
(that was a joke!)
That said, Lance's problems are now very much triathlons problems. These are the very quick steps in the conversation now:
I'm just saying that all of the Lance drug baggage is now squarely in our house and it's a very different house: pro triathletes racing side by side with AG'ers + the percheived triathlon demographic = a range of directions that conversations like this can take.
In short, Lance racing WTC races is BIG, BIG, BIG stuff, game changing for the sport with many potential scenarios.
Would winning Kona make him go down as the greatest endurance athlete of all-time? Dunno. But given his stated mission to raise $$$ and awareness for cancer, he'd have to have rocks in his head to dope now.
If I were Messink or whoever is in charge of all of this, I would have inserted revocability language based on drug testing, and his handlers would know that drug testing would not be any different for him than for other pros.
Now, that being said, the pro drug testing in Tri is a joke, so he may still be able to get away with it, but I don't see it making a lot of sense to do it.
I'm not saying he would or would not dope. Just that the conversation of doping in triathlon will now be much louder, simply by this now new association with Lance's past and everything that comes with it. A natural line in that conversation will be the very uniquem, tabloid, ESPN-esque, never-ending-ST-thread situation of a pro triathlete with Lance's history deep deep deep in the pockets of the very company who is testing him.
1) I think Lance paid off WTC to force Chrissie into early retirement because he was terrified of her blowing by him like a freight train at mile 20 of the run in Kona.
My mom and sister who have attended 1 IM last summer are "excited" that Lance is racing IMs now. They both commented on how cool it would be to see him at an event. "Do you think he'll be at IMFL?" That's my next IM...Just a snapshot of non triathlon fans being interested in what Lance might be doing.
Imagine the crowds on the Lake Placid Bike course if Lance Was racing. You think finding housing at LP is hard now.
There were no triathletes in Dodgeball...... 'nuff said.
A quick write-up of Lance and tri, in forbes...
www.forbes.com/sites/freddreier/201...triathlon/
Saw this today... Talk about a big bike week!!!
velonews.competitor.com/2012/04/new...man_211554
I think I remember articles way back about uber-biker Chris Lieto training/racing with Team Garmin, then doing transition/brick running after the stages.
See the published date and author
Not only are you guys gullible, you're a month late! Happy May Fools' Day
Besides, on Sep 7/8, Lance is going to be doing the Ragnar Relay on CO with me, and then we'll go on home for our BTW to sharpen up for Hawaii on Independence Pass.
Lance's Kona bid in jeopardy!!!
www.cyclingnews.com/news/armstrong-...g-by-usada
Regardless of who did what and how, it is time to leave him alone !
Sorry, but this really 'chaps my a$$':
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The seven-time Tour de France winner has been banned from competition effective immediately, including triathlons which he has been racing since he retired from pro road cycling in 2011.
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Since when does an allegation equal conviction????? Especially since, according to the article: "USADA has the authority to suspend dopers from competition in Olympic sports and it can take back awards, but it cannot press criminal charges."
I didn't realize WTC events were the Olympics.
UFB.
[RANT OFF]
The lack of due process is bullshit. I'm a FBI Agent and a firm believer in due process... even when I know the people in my investigations are guilty as sin. Let them plea or let them go to trial but it's all part of due process.
I starting to think the Roswell aliens might be a touch more plausible than him not failing any one of the 500+ blood/urine tests that have been administered.
This is a total crime and waste of time.
This saddens me.
Not for its implications for Lance. He's a big boy, and has demonstrated he can take care of himself.
But for the potential impact on the Livestrong Foundation, and all the people who have been and may be helped by them.
For the doubt continued to be placed on awesome performances such as Peter Sagan and Bradley Wiggins in one week stage races this year, and even over something like Crowie's record @ Kona. I'm not accusing any of them, just noting that until cycling can show it's cleaner than Scott Alexander's scalp, everyone will be under suspicion. And that includes us AGers. After all, amateurs will always model themselves after the pros in any sport.