Yesterday, after the Tour of California Time Trial was finished, I left the TV on. And soon found myself watching Lance Armstrong power up L’alpe d’Huez in 2001, giving Jan Ulrich the look back. And then another stage from 2002. And Versus may have aired more past stages late into the night, though I finally switched the channel.
It’s as though Versus was trying to prove the point I made in my SI.com column last week: that without Lance there would be no Versus (which was OLN back when Armstrong was giving Jan the look). When in doubt trot out the Tour de France reruns. I can’t say that I mind – those of us who are huge TdF fans never get tired of watching (awesome French countryside, cool competition, what’s not to like?).
But it also seemed that Versus was choosing its programming based on the context of the last week: Hey, Floyd Landis said he and Lance were transfusion buddies back in the early 2000s. So let’s take a look at Armstrong then.
From that perspective, the reruns were even more interesting.
As Lance was powering up various French moutainsides, he was passing cyclist after cyclist who has since been implicated in a drug scandal or tested dirty. Consistently blowing past guys who were doping.
I’ve asked Armstrong about that in the past – about the fact that virtually every cyclist that he shared a podium with during his years of domination tested dirty. His answer is that obviously the system was working. And he never failed a drug test. And (unlike in sports like baseball) he was being tested constantly.
Draw your own conclusion. It’s all about logical conclusions and circumstantial evidence. But whatever Armstrong was doing, he was doing it better than anybody else in his sport. It is a little like watching Barry Bonds during the same period of time.
Even in a tainted pool, the talent still always rises to the top.
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