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Lance makes it 5!


EWolfe

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Yeah Lance was pretty good. wink.gif Would have loved to have seen Tyler on the podium too. Poor kid was totally bummin' in the interviews. Maybe he'll realize how BAD ASS he is when he gets away from the frenzy. Or when he sees his hot ass up on the Imax screen whenever that comes out. Next year fer sure.

 

I kinda rolled my eyes at this:

 

Indurain, the only other man to win five straight Tours, said he considers Merckx the greatest rider of all time.

 

"He competed in virtually every cycling competition, whereas Armstrong really only focuses on the Tour," said the Spaniard.

 

Yeah well Eddie didn't have to come back from FAWKING CANCER to kick everyone's FAWKING ASS!!!!!! bigdrink.gif

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It is true though, he does focus only on the Tour. He's skipping the Worlds this year too. Says he needs to take a break and refocus and that he wants to be in the same shape he was for the first four next year. No kidding, Lance rockband.gif, but so does Eddy.

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Please feel free to flame this idiot sports columnist at the Oregonian, who believes that you are only an "athlete" if you play with balls...

 

By: John Canzano: 503-294-5065; JohnCanzano@aol.com

 

HEART, COURAGE DON'T MAKE HIM GREATEST ATHLETE

 

7-25-03

 

Why do we always do this to ourselves?

 

Here he is, cancer survivor, father, good citizen and four-time Tour de France winner, leading this year's event and, still, a voice cries out from my television trying to turn him into something more.

 

"Lance Armstrong, world's greatest athlete, maybe the greatest of all time, still leads the Tour de France," the voice said.

 

Lance Armstrong?

 

The cyclist?

 

World's greatest . . . athlete?

 

Fingernails, meet chalkboard.

 

Now, Armstrong is a wonderful athlete. And he is a spectacular competitor who would pedal a unicycle up the side of a skyscraper if someone told him it couldn't be done.

 

Armstrong is intelligent. He has courage, guts and brains. Armstrong has the X-factor that George Plimpton wrote about. He's an animal. But he's not the world's greatest athlete. He can't be.

 

He rides a bicycle.

 

This requires the use of his legs and lungs. It requires stamina. It uses little hand-eye coordination. There is no jumping or running. So until Armstrong plays point guard for the Blazers or shortstop for the Mariners, the greatest cyclist in the world should never be mistaken for the greatest athlete.

 

Part of me knows the voice on television, coming from a national sports network, was just trying to get my attention. Maybe I'm a sucker for waiting through a commercial, thinking I was about to see Armstrong hop off his bicycle in the French Alps, catch a football in stride, plow over a safety and outrun 10 other athletes 65 yards for a touchdown.

 

So I watched.

 

Armstrong pedaled.

 

Then, Armstrong pedaled faster.

 

That's it.

 

Armstrong didn't have to throw, catch, run, jump, dive, tackle, dribble a ball or hit a 92-mph slider.

 

If Armstrong wins a record-tying fifth consecutive Tour de France, it will be because he fares well in Saturday's final time trial. Since his winning streak began in 1999, Armstrong is undefeated in the final time trial of the event.

 

This means Armstrong is clutch, but it doesn't make him a better athlete than Barry Bonds, Ricky Williams, Michael Vick, Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and many others.

 

And if you want to talk world's greatest all-time athletes, Armstrong isn't close to Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Jim Thorpe, Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.

 

A rmstrong is a world-class cyclist. You can call him a great athlete because he's a champion. But his athleticism competes on a different scale.

 

He rides a bicycle.

 

Trying to compare him to great athletes in major sports isn't fair to anyone.

 

In 1999, ESPN named its 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century. And although three race horses, Secretariat, Man O' War and Citation, made the list, Armstrong, who had one Tour de France victory, did not.

 

Is Armstrong really now a better athlete than Bonds?

 

If the ESPN list came out in 2003 would Armstrong really already have leapfrogged Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Jackie Joyner-Kersee and three horses?

 

Or was the voice trying to make Armstrong into more than he actually is (as if that really needed doing)?

 

We should take caution, even while touting Armstrong and his bicycle, because, well, this is sort of the same hype machine that led us to believe we knew Kobe Bryant when we didn't. It's a small leap from good athlete to great athlete to hero to superhero. And we do it all the time, without a thought.

 

Armstrong's is an inspirational comeback story. Isn't that enough?

 

On a summer day in which a couple of the top sports stories are early reviews of the movie "Seabiscuit" and word from New York that Sean "P. Diddy" Combs wants to buy a stake in the Knicks, calling Armstrong "world's greatest athlete" isn't just a stretch.

 

It has to be one for the ages.

 

 

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you might be surprised how many people would agree with mr. conzasshole... I'm fortunate enough to work with some of them. anyway, I'd love to talk more about this, but I'm going cragging in Renton with this hot chick named Amber...

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I couldn't care less what some sports writer considers an athlete. If he gets out there and does it himself maybe he has the experience to judge, but until then he's nothing but an armchair commentator.

 

But then, I couldn't care less about sports either.

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Gordonb said:

Amusing. I would never consider Baseball players great athletes.

 

I would have to agree for the most part, esp. considering the idiot article writer points to Babe Ruth. Amazing home run hitter before his time? Yes. Athelte? Barely. The guy was an out of shape drunk for the most part who had to get up to the plate and swat at the ball every few innings. To even compare him with Lance is a joke.

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He makes a few good points, but he has skills confused with human performance. Ball players have great skills without a doubt, but their chosen sport has more to do with muscle memory, motor control and technique than with exploiting a given genetic advantage to it's fullest potential. You can train yourself to shoot ten freethrows in a row, but you can also train yourself to shoot 8 under par or bowl 280.

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trustyredalien said:

I agree with him. Riding your bike at 60mph downhill through the Pyrenees, weaving around serpentine corners among 150 other riders requires no skill whatsoever. Standing in left field for 2 hours scratching your balls......that takes years of training. Dum faggot.

 

Don't forget avoiding a crash at 40 mph and having to ride 100 yards through a field on skinny tires.

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Congrats to Lance. Many people were doubting him before the tour and he came through even with the family problems. He is a true champion. Tyler kicks ass, I can't wait for the IMAX movie.

 

I drop coils on Oregon idiot from great heights. I've played competitavely in a lot of different sports. I played at a pretty high level in soccer and I played college football. I'm at the absolute shit bottom level of bike racing right now and I have to say that it is the hardest damned thing I have ever done.

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Bike racing is all about who can suffer the most. The few races (at the lowest levels) I did well in involved moments where I really wanted to quit. But you have to push through that and continue. This is much like climbing when you find yourself sketched out. Control it and keep moving.

 

Eddie B's training book was inspirational for me in this regard.

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