19 January 2013, 05:01 PM IST
Most mornings these days, I see them steadily pushing against the cold and fighting the last remnants of sleep, slowly pedalling their way under the leafy canopies of Bangalore's streets. They are the latest road warriors on their swish cycles, getting fit the green way. It's nice to see their strapped-on helmets which, hopefully, will provide some protection, if required, against the early morning cabbies speeding through waves of sleep.
And then, inevitably, I'm reminded of Lance Armstrong.
I'm not into cycling the way an increasing number of Bangaloreans are. I'm not a huge fan of Lance Armstrong the way millions of people around the world are. My only connect with him are his two books --'It's Not About the Bike' and 'Every Second Counts'. I read them some years ago with increasing amazement and admiration for a man who beat cancer and returned to the road and staved off the challenge of the marauding pack to win the Tour de France, yet again. Such was my admiration that I think I even wrote to Sally Jenkins, the journalist who co-authored these books. Or maybe I wanted to, but didn't. It's been a long time.
Of course, I heard the whispers on the websites and among sports journalists who firmly believe that the doping rot in sports is so deep-rooted it's virtually a default setting. And only the foolish get caught.
After Lance Armstrong's interview to Oprah Winfrey, the whispers have become a roar. The more you read about him, the more layers you peel away from a very complex man whose desire to win over-rode everything else.
So, here are excerpts from a couple of articles which gave me some idea of the man and what drove him to do what he did. Maybe you'll get more than I did.
The first is by Emile Hirsch in The Huffington Post:
I asked my friend what he thought about the whole Armstrong scandal when it was blowing up again. It's not that it didn't faze him; it's just the way in which Armstrong had helped him was something that went deeper than sports.
"That guy's Superman," he said.
The second one is by Sally Jenkins:
I've searched high and low for my anger at Lance, and I can't find it. It's just not there. I checked - looked in every corner, and I'm empty of it. I've tried for weeks now to summon the moral certitude and outrage that others seem to demand, and I don't have it, maybe because he's my friend and co-author of "It's Not About the Bike," but also because my opinion of him was never based on what he did in a bike race in France 10 years ago."
And the third is from ABC News:
Shock and disenchantment were among the reactions from people most familiar with the famed cyclist's history after his on-air confession Thursday night.
"I could not believe that Lance apologized," Betsy Andreu, the wife of Armstrong's former teammate and close friend Frankie Andreu, said today on ABC's "Good Morning America".
"Lance doesn't say, 'I'm sorry.' Lance isn't used to telling the truth and so I think in the days to come, in the months to come, I'm hoping that we'll see the contrition. Actions speak louder than words so if the words aren't empty ...," Andreu said."
It wasn't about the dope, after all. It was never about it. It was about trust. That he can never win back.
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