I hope people sue the hell out of @lancearmstrong not for using PEDs but for defaming those who spoke out against him for years.
— DrewM (@DrewMTips) January 15, 2013
Look how he went after Greg LaMond. @lancearmstrong smeared people who were telling the truth about him. He deserves all the scorn.
— DrewM (@DrewMTips) January 15, 2013
I don't care about Lance Armstrong. I really don't care if he gets in front of a camera with The Oprah to try to do damage control for his brand apologize. What I do care about is getting a personal apology from each and every person who smugly paraded around wearing a yellow silicone bracelet as some sort of talisman proving that they were Doing Something and I wasn't. I can buy the excuse that they were naïvely duped into believing, and believing in, Armstrong, so either a written or verbal apology will suffice.
I'm afraid I can't let bike douches off so easily, though. With their wrap-around sunglasses, TMI biking shorts (though there are exceptions on that one), ten thousand dollar carbon and kevlar road bikes, and bully-boy tactics on public bikeways — as though they are Doing Important Work and you're not — they're going to have to do more to make up for a decade of self-importance. A term acting as my personal butler might do.
DrewM is quite right that the doping isn't the issue and so, to a degree, is Lachlan Markay. Anyone who believed Armstrong wasn't doping also believed that Mark McGwire got his freakish Popeye arms from hard work work and clean living. The governing bodies and sponsors have to stop pretending they're oh-so-very-concerned about doping and haven't been making money hand over fist from performance-enhanced cyclists for decades. One place to start would be to admit that vacating Armstrong's Tour de France wins was a parody of a farce of a sham.
Doping is bad and lying is bad and I hope the people who Armstrong visciously defamed find retribution, but worse than any of that was the pernicious narcissism and hubris which Armstrong and his career elicited from so many people. From the wristband sheep and the bike douches to the sponsors, athletes, and sports bureaucrats. Men riding around on Huffys wearing tight shorty-shorts is about as important to the universe as reality television. Get over yourselves.
Mike G. on January 15, 2013 at 8:57 pm said:
Don't you just hate those pretentious bastards? I drive on curvy mtn roads to and from work and having to dodge around these people is a real PITA. They have a bike race at least once a year and going up the mtn dodging around 50 or 60 bicyclists without meeting a gravel truck or another car coming down is a gamble.
Starless on January 16, 2013 at 7:19 am said:
I think it's possible for cars and bikes to coexist peacefully and safely, and annual bike races out in the country can bring in good tourist dollars. We have one such around here which does just that, but all too often they seem to pick the most idiotic courses. Like when they send hoards of cyclists up rural US and state highways. Not only is it stupidly unsafe for cyclists but, as you point out, it creates potential dangers for traffic which normally use them.
I think it's all part and parcel with the attitude that bikes are inherently morally superior to cars and that this moral superiority somehow shields them from the physical consequences of a half ton/ton (or more) of steel automobile meeting a few hundred pounds of the meat, bone, and composite material of a bike and rider.