Unsuperhuman Armstrong

Looking at what I wrote yesterday, I realize the real problem is not Lance Armstrong. On the road, he’s better than all the other cyclists in the field, at least in the Tour de France. In ethics, he isn’t. He’s just as human as the rest of the pack; no better, no worse.

I heard an interview on the radio with another former (French) cyclist whose view of the organizers of the Tour was exactly what I was alluding to yesterday. He said more or less openly that drug use is rampant, but that still, no one wants to admit it. Every time someone is caught, he’s portrayed as an isolated case. At no time has the Société du tour de France had the courage to stand up and say, “Drug use is rampant in our sport. This is very bad for the health of the professional cyclists involved, for our image and for the millions of young people who look up to the riders as heroes. We’re going to stamp out the problem.” That would cost too much in lost sponsorship.

By the way, the newspaper L’Equipe is owned by the same company that “owns” the Tour. The cyclist interviewed found it very convenient for everyone that L’Equipe “revealed” this information a month after the Tour ended rather than before or during it. After all, the laboratory began analyzing the samples at the end of last year. This way, L’Equipe gets to “break” the scandal and attract a lot of attention to its brilliant investigative reporting, without compromising the Tour itself.

For that matter, nowhere in the article was there any indication of who the other six EPO-tainted samples belonged to or how widespread the problem might have been in that particular year. For example, it would be interesting to know the percentage of riders in the 1999 Tour de France who were on EPO.

Lance Armstrong

Earlier this summer, friends, both American and French, often asked me what I thought of Lance Armstrong and his performance in the Tour de France. Among American friends and acquaintances there seemed to be an unparalleled awareness of the Tour de France this year.

Today’s headline in French sports daily L’Equipe was “Le Mensonge Armstrong” (Armstrong's lies). The articles inside tell a disappointing story. The French laboratory that analyses the urine and blood samples of professional cyclists saves samples for a considerable period of time. Using technology not available at the time the samples were originally taken and analyzed, they retested 1999 samples for EPO. Lo and behold, six of the 12 samples that tested positive turned out to be Lance Armstrong’s. Lance won his first tour de France in 1999.

I am saddened but why am I not surprised?

As some of my readers know, I used to be an avid cyclist. I have done some short-distance racing and some long-distance endurance riding, along with lots of touring in between. I’ve seen the Tour de France several times, in the mountains and on the Champs Elysées, in regular stages and in time trials. Once the Tour passed directly behind my mother and father-in-law’s house outside Lyon, and we saw them there. But since the doping scandals of 1998 and 1999, which tarnished the image of professional cycling in general and gave rise to doubts about Lance’s power plant in particular but no real action from the company that runs the Tour and its what-me-worry president, Jean-Marie Le Blanc, my interest in the Tour de France has waned. The last time I saw a stage was on July 14, 1999 at the storied mountainside resort of l’Alpe d’Huez, where I saw Lance go by, less than a mile from the finish line, in his usual, unperturbed state. One of the tainted samples was from that stage.

I have a great deal of admiration for Lance Armstrong, what he has accomplished, his determination, his courage and his generosity. But the doubts I have had about him have never gone away, and they have made me a less-than-enthusiastic supporter. It’ll be interesting to see how this new revelation plays out. Lance Armstrong and the sympathy he enjoys in the US are not to be underestimated. L’Equipe shows him today on a ride last Saturday with his friend George W. Bush.

Predictions

Do I still have time for some last minute predictions?

I’ll bet you all know which one is first on my mind. The new president of the Medef, the Mouvement des entreprises de France, of course. This is France’s employer’s federation. Whenever the government wants to change rules or laws affecting companies, particularly regarding employment, the Medef is consulted, as are labor unions. The current president, Baron Ernest-Antoine Seillière de Laborde, who, by his own words has endeavored to make the organization more “democratic”, is stepping down. Three candidates are in the running: Yvon Jacob, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Legris Industries (construction equipment), Hugues-Arnaud Mayer, head of the Abeil group (pillows & comforters) and Laurence Parisot, CEO of IFOP (market surveys). Yvon Jacob has received the blessing of the UIMM, the Union des industries et métiers de la métallurgie (which calls itself the succinct “Union of Metal Manufacturing, Mining, Engineering, Electrical and Metal Equipment and Allied Industries” in English), a large trade federation under the Medef umbrella. In the past, its candidates have often acceded to the top post in the Medef. But that was before the advent of the latest political twist. For those of you unfamiliar with French given names, Laurence Parisot is a woman, and the idea that appointing a woman to the post would be a symbol of the organization’s modernity has been launched and gained momentum. Once a symbol idea has been launched and gained momentum, it’s hard to get it back onto the pad. My vote is with the lady.

On to more important predictions. Where will the 2012 Olympic Games be held? My instinct is that, like Academy Awards, Olympic Games selections are largely political. Wasn’t the choice of Beijing for 2008 just a wee bit political? But first the purely practical. I’m surprised New York still thinks it has even a glimmer of a hope of a prayer of a chance. Not only hasn’t the intended venue for most Olympic events been built or ground even been broken, but there has been more bickering over it than over working hours at a French labor negotiating session. And Mayor Bloomberg has got to feel outgunned. The UK and France have sent their prime minister and president, respectively, to Singapore. I’m going with an outsider on this one: Madrid. The Summer Olympics have never been held there, whereas they’ve been held in all three other cities – Paris (2x), London (2x) and Moscow. Also, Madrid is the latest martyred city, and I’m hoping that’ll work in its favor.

Last but far from least: will Lance Armstrong win a seventh Tour de France? I haven't a clue, and there's more time, so I leave it to you ....