Behind Lance Armstrong’s smile
Posted: July 18, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Lance Armstrong continues to slide down the 2010 Tour de France general classification – he is now in 26th place overall, 25 minutes and 38 seconds behind Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck who leads the race with the maillot jaune on his back. And yet, Bicycling‘s Bill Strickland observes, “he can been seen riding with a wry smile.”
In his article Really Done, Strickland says he believes that the seven-time TdF champion’s retirement this year is “final and irrevocable.” He explains:
Armstrong found what he was seeking with his comeback. In a searching and surprisingly intimate conversation we had for my book, Tour de Lance, a chronicle of his return to the sport last year, Armstrong told me that he felt he’d lost something important during his retirement.
“I had spent basically three years not exercising much,” he told me. “On a regular basis but very little — I went from five or six hours a day down to 30 minutes a day. And I wasn’t happy with that lifestyle. My personal life was a little rocky. My business dealings became very serious and almost all of them became very successful. With that came the stress and the responsibility of managing a lot more money I had than when I retired and a lot more money than I damn sure ever thought I’d have. And the foundation continued to grow and grow and grow, and I put myself out there more from a cancer advocacy standpoint — not wearing a bike jersey and saying a few words about cancer support, but wearing a suit and a tie and testifying on Capitol Hill.
“My life — keep in mind for 25 years — had been for four, five, six hours I’m riding a bike. Cycling, it’s one of those sports you can do eight hours a day. You’re going to be tired at the end, but if you did an eight-hour run you wouldn’t run again for a week. I think people are better, smarter, more present and more patient when they’ve done some type of exercise — that goes for an eight-year-old and a 68-year-old — and I need more, perhaps more than most people, to get the results I want. Bike racing is the thing that provides me with the most balance.”
Many agree that this year’s Tour marks the end of an era which saw Lance thoroughly dominate the world’s premiere cycling event. For us who have looked up to and idolized Lance all this time, it’s a sad reality. Yet, for Lance – as Strickland says – it may as well be rediscovering what he has lost sight of for a while.
