Goodbye Lance

January 25^th 2009. That’s when this photo was taken. Almost four years ago to the day. It was a photo taken by an avid cycling fan. A fan that had just stood right next to the greatest athlete the world had ever seen. To this fan, it was the greatest sporting moment of his life. He was within touching distance. So close that he was the recipient of Lance’s own livestrong yellow wristband.

Two weeks I threw out that livestrong band. Just like that it was gone. Just like his 7 tour titles, the wrist band was gone. The reason I threw it out was not the message that livestrong stood for; that I support and always will. The reason I threw it out was because it stood for the greatest lie betrayal cheat deception that has ever existed in sports. Not only that but it meant that those 7 years of watching the greatest yearly sports event meant nothing any more. It meant that the whole reason for my trip to see my sporting idol was built on lies and deceit. It meant that this photo will no longer be something for me to proudly show off. Now it’s just a reminder of every emotion that we have all had since he first rode down the Champs Élyseé wearing the Maillot Jaune in 1999.

A lot has been written in the weeks since that interview. Most of it concerns how cycling as a whole will cope and move forward, or what legal proceedings will be in store for him. Some even discuss whether he will be allowed to compete professionally in the future. But for your average Sunday rider, your cycling mug that only watches The Tour each July, or a Phil Liggett of this world, it means something closer to home, something a lot more personal.

My love affair with the tour started in the early 90’s with Big Mig. I don’t remember much about those tours. It was before the days of Mike Tomalaris, before the world class coverage that SBS now provides, before the cyclists even knew what EPO was. Indurain along with Uzbekistan’s finest Djamolidine Abdoujaparov started something that has led to July being the month of little sleep. Even through the Festina saga of 1999, my enthusiasm and love for the race continued to grow.

1999 marked a turning point. Cycling was about to go mainstream thanks to one man from Texas. In ‘99 gone were the cheats, this was the ‘Tour of Renewal’. It was the tour when an Australian first won on the Champs Élyseé. More than anything, it was the tour of Lance. He dominated from start to finish winning four stages along the way.

The next year he won again and we saw performances like this:

Imagine watching that live!!! The previous two winners going head to head on one of the most famous stages in cycling and Armstrong simply jumping across the gap. Fast forward 12 years from that and one is dead and the other one probably wishes he was sometimes.

5 more tours followed. Every year I would get my official race magazine weeks ahead and look forward to analysing his opponents and seeing if he could be beaten. I thought how lucky I was to be watching all of this, to be witness.

After 7 Tour victories he retired as arguably the greatest athlete the world had seen. Even without the survival, even without the foundation, no one is meant to win seven Tour de France’s, let alone in a row!! How lucky were we all?

Then the cracks started appearing. First Floyd Landis spoke out. But who was going to believe a proven cheat. Then journalists, masseuses and other disgraced cyclists. Our argument to all those cynics: he has never failed a drug test. Then it was time for the comeback and what better place to start than beautiful Adelaide. My Dad and I drove around the South Australian country side for a week catching a glimpse of them before speeding off to another random point to watch them go past again. Robbie McEwen, George Hincapie, Oscar Perreiro and more were there, but that didn’t matter to most people (or the South Australian government), they just wanted Lance.

That was the crest. It never got better from there. He rode in the tour again coming 3^rd and 22^nd. The very next year Tyler Hamilton came out with his initial claims which I dismissed along with many others. Again, how do you believe a proven cheat?

My moment of realisation came at a strange time, though not an uncommon one for me, on the way to golf. In fact I was to be the best man that day, for my own best man, when a call came through from a friend who you will hear plenty about, Smithy. He asked what I thought about the whole situation. This was weeks after Hamilton’s 60 minutes appearance and book, and a few days after the USADA had handed down their ‘reasoned decision’. My answer was pretty plain and simple: he’s guilty. At that moment, the same moment that sports fans around the world would have, I realised that I no longer cared about Lance Armstrong. It’s not so easy just to forget about it. I still own the books, I still have the DVD’s and the official Tour guides but feelings for Lance Armstrong have now gone. Just like my care factor for him, just like the livestrong band.

In the end though, come this July, 198 cyclists will continue a tradition that not even a fraud from Texas can ruin and they will do so as clean as ever, or at least that’s what we have to believe.