Go Lance Go

Nike has pulled their See Lance Ride commercial from the web, which is deeply disappointing. It was a beautiful piece of work as marketing, and a beautiful message from Lance.

So Lance has won his 7th Tour de France by playing a defensive game. Sure he won the prologue and yesterday’s time trial, but for the rest of the race he sort of just held in place.

Lance is an amazing guy, and much of what he’s done would have seemed unbelievable until he did it. He deserves a lot of praise for this.

He is not, however, going to be remembered in cycling circles as the greatest cyclist in history, although I’ve no doubt that the United States will hold onto this image.

Eddy Mercx was races through his entire career, and throughout the entire season. That he won the Tour at all is amazing, given the effort he exerted throughout the season.

Lance’s approach was surgical - he focused on one race a year, partly because it was the only race that really mattered to his American sponsors, partly becuase athletic training has arrived at a point where only a specialist can win an event with the intensity and duration of Le Tour.

A couple of years ago Outisde Magazine published an article about Lance that painted a great picture of the man - a man who was an outstanding athlete, despite long odds, and in the face of the failure of his marriage (something no one enjoys) and questions about his personal, not professional future. I wish I could find it - that’s the Lance I respect.

Posted by skooter at 10:09 AM This entry is filed under Entertainment.