Armstrong’s Already a Winner

I don’t care if Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France.

Honest.

I’m happy with what he’s already done and if he falls apart and doesn’t finish, (which won’t happen by the way) I won’t care.

Armstrong’s performance, both on and off the bike in the first third of the tour has be nothing short of amazing. His 10th place finish in the opening individual time trial seemed to be an expected result. Wait a minute! The guy is 38 years old, he’s been off the bike, drinking beer and having fun for more than three years. He decideds to return, sheds about 20 pounds, trains like a maniac and goes back to the highest level of competition and finishes tenth?

Really?

I mean it was possible for him to finish 100th and it still be a great accomplishment. But 10th shows that he’s fully committed and in the right form. He hangs with his team through the first few stages then whips them through the team time trial, crushing everybody else. Remember, this guy is 8, 10 , 12, 15 years older than everybody else out there. Even he admitted that the 7th stage, the first mountain stage into the Pyrenees would be the first “real” stage of Le Tour. And as we’ve come to expect, Lance sat at the front with the leaders, crusing to the top.

It was some effort, but it’s not like he was cross-eyed when he crossed the line. Armstrong says “the team is not going to be the problem” which I interpreted as saying, “I’m going to have to beat one of these guys on my own team if I want to win the Tour.” And it’s possible that Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and Andres Kloden present the biggest hurdle to Lance taking the yellow jersey.

But I’m not sure that’s even what his goal is.

As competitive as he is, if he’s near the lead, he’ll try to win, but I really think he’s about the team and the cause.

Raising awareness for cancer research is what this comeback is all about. “It’s been tougher than I thought,” he said after stage 4, but if anybody can be focused on what needs to be done, Armstrong has shown he’s the guy. His updates on Twitter.com have given us insight regarding the day to day life of a professional cyclist, particulary the most famous one in the world.

“Doping control today,” Lance noted on Friday. “And that’s a good thing,” he added. Armstrong has been dogged by so many accusations of illegal doping throughout his career that submitting to some kind of testing is somewhat liberating for him.

I don’t care if he wins the Tour.
No matter where he finishes.
He’ll be in front.