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| Armstrong after his first stage win in Tour de France |
It was in 1996 ( I
guess), that I first heard of Lance Armstrong. I had just started
riding cycle myself, and naturally it was a kind of story that
touched me. A young Aspiring Cyclist whose carrer was cut short by
Testicular cancer. I read the whole story in SPORTSTAR (The Hindu's
one), which was Brought home by my uncle. After reading the magazine,
I cut his photo from the Magazine and Pasted in the wall along with
Monica Seles (Oh! Monica Seles.. what a player she was, had she not
been stabbed..). What I read in the Magazine and what my uncle had to
say, Lance Armstrong's Cycling carrer was all but over. I just hoped
one day, he wins his fight for survival, and gets to ride that bike
again.
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| Lance after his first win at Tour de France |
And so he did. First he
was out of contract after the cancer. Then he grabbed one of the most
Lucrative contract in cycling from US Postal office. And then, in
1999 he did something that we never did expect from him. He won the
Tour'de'France on his first year of comeback winning four stages. He
did it again for six more years. No one has won the race more than 5
times, and he won it for 7 times, in a row, before he retired in
2005. It was a fairy tale that no one predicted, and we all had to
love him. More than the wins, its the works with his Livstrong
foundations that win hearts of millons of us, I was no exception. His
story was such an inspiration to me and all indeed.
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| Armstrong after his final tour win |
Cycling is sport which is
always tarnished by the Doping. And no doubt Armstrong's story is too
perfect to be true. But, during his cycling career he never failed a
Drug test, and he defended his claims to be true, that ii believed
him without any doubts. Even after the USDA made public its 1000+
pages long result, of what is called most sophisticated trial the
sport has ever seen, it was absolutely certain that he cheated, I
somehow hoped he would come out clean.
“This story was so perfect for so long. It was a mythic, perfect story and it wasn't true.” He spoke out to oprah.
Now, that he confessed he
Cheated. Not only cheated that he headed a big big circle of dopers,
with power, name and money that has tarnished the Cycling as a sports
forever, I feel looted of all my childhood memories. I had cuttings
of Each of his yellow jersey pasted in the wall and all seven titles,
which he no longer holds. I am sure, I am not the only one who thinks
he/she has been abandoned with their favorite childhood sport
moments. Even his good deeds, with his foundation, is just a small
piece of cloth to cover huge wall of Doping, cheating, and propaganda
surrounding it, which he has done without Guilt (as he spoke out to
Oprah).
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| and this is how he resigned from Livestrong. |
He has four kids. One of
them, 13, was defending him fiercely in some youtube video I saw
sometime last year. What does that kid feels now, know his father
indeed took Drugs to win all those races, name and fame. Now that he
is stripped off all the titles he won, stripped off the Chairman from
Livestrong foundation (which I guess was more painful for him than
losing those seven titles), with all the sponsors to cancel their
deals and several court cases to follow, its all over for him. I have
seen footages of Oprah Interview. The first five questions, and the
tiny little hope I had that he would finish this whole saga, cleanly
and with pride, all went in vain.
He says, he didnt cheat
after 2005. But, that means a little now. Lance Armstrong gave us
hope and now to discover that it all was based on Dope and fraud, we
all feel cheated, robbed with the memories.
The fairy tale has ended,
Greatest Cyclist of the world has fallen to the filth of disgrace.
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