Armstrong Rumors Arise, Again

I hate to complain for the second straight post, but do the French have nothing else to do? It's seems the Tour de France folks still have their collective shorts in a knot about Lance Armstrong's reign as king of their event. Today, the director of Le Tour is claiming that a urine sample from six years ago proves conclusively that Armstrong used performance enhancing substances. Yeah, and my daddy is bigger than your daddy, pal.

Let's get some things cleared up first. The French hate Armstrong. Not because he won all the dang time. No, because he was an American that won all the dang time. Don't cloud the issue. They hate Armstrong because he's an American. Period. If this were some guy from Amsterdam, Munich or Paris, this issue would be brushed aside.

The French have been on a witch hunt to nail Armstrong since 1999. They have failed miserably. (Insert stereotypical anti-French joke here.) Even with Armstrong now into retirement, they push on. The media, and you think ours is bad, continues to dig for every piece of evidence that Lance did something, anything remotely illegal to gain his success. An American just couldn't win their event cleanly. Obviously, ignoring Greg LeMond's efforts.

Here's the problem I have with the entire matter. Let's assume, for the sake of French sports fans everywhere, that Armstrong is on every illegal substance known to mankind. He cheated his way to the top. You know what? Who cares? Not because I think the Tour isn't great, because I enjoy it. We shouldn't care because I challenge anyone else facing what Armstrong has to duplicate what he has accomplished.

Armstrong had one foot in the grave. His body was filled with cancer. If he took a whole bunch of banned substances to stay alive, who could blame him? Who would even suspect that they would not only help him fight off the cancer, but return to a regular life? Become the greatest cyclist in Tour history? Preposterous.

Does Armstrong's death defying return make him above the rules? No, but they never really caught him breaking the rules, did they? And even if they did, how many athletes faced with death would be able to take steroids, growth hormone or whatever else and not just win, but dominate the field of competition? How many healthy riders get bounced from the Tour for taking performance enhancing drugs and never get remotely close to a yellow jersey?

I'll admit there is plenty of smoke around Armstrong. His success is so amazing, his return to cycling so mind-boggling that you do have to wonder how it happened. Perhaps, Armstrong is just a phenomenon, chemically aided or not. Even his greatest skeptics would have to concede that Armstrong's return, however fueled, is miraculous. Unfortunately, that sentiment will never ease the French.