Monday, July 24, 2006

Thoughts of the "first" American Winner


I saw the "FEARLESS" episode about Greg LeMond on OLN (soon to change it's name to "VERSUS") last night. He was an amazing cyclist but I came away with a few thoughts. He states that in 1991 he was the strongest he's EVER been going to the tour but the Peloton was "different" as the speeds were amazing and that he blames doping for his losing.

1. He says "training is training and they weren't doing anything different than I had all my life."
- except Greg, maybe they weren't eating Ice cream all winter and came into the season fit...unlike your typical yearly routine.

2. He also says his Mitochondria-whatever disease wouldn't have allowed him to win anyway - Then why blame the doping?

3. Greg says the outrageous speed was the result of doping and therefore by default (since he didn't dope) he was bound to lose
- But the problem with that is that until Dave Z last year, Greg had the FASTEST ever TT average speed in the Tour History. I mean, that was in 1989 and lasted until 2005. That's 16 yrs and shouldn't we be saying that he was doped for posting that speed?

The whole thing just ended with a bad taste in my mouth as Greg leaves with the comments "I could have dominated cycling - But I wasn't given the opportunity". How sad as I think he DID dominate and he made the most of the opportunities he was given.

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