Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour De France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti & Vanessa O'Connell

Author:Reed Albergotti & Vanessa O'Connell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781592408481
Publisher: Gotham
Published: 2013-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ADIEU AND FUCK YOU

Armstrong said the 2005 Tour de France would be his last. He would retire from cycling shortly after the race, whether he won or lost, and then embark on the next phase of his life, which would consist of campaigning for cancer awareness—and, of course, enjoying the good life of a retired athlete with a ton of money in the bank.

But there were people in cycling who thought that for Armstrong to attempt a seventh Tour de France win was greedy, that he was disrespecting the sacred race by dominating it for too long. Armstrong had six victories under his belt. It was a record that might stand forever. Why go for seven? Armstrong himself had considered retiring after his sixth. In fact, he and some partners (including his friend John Korioth) had opened a loft-style bar called Six in Austin’s downtown district, which seemed to suggest an ending.

Even Armstrong’s sponsor thought it was time to call it quits. When the US Postal Service bowed out, Tailwind Sports got the Discovery Channel to sign on as the new sponsor. Tailwind also needed to replace a number of riders. Former teammates such as Bobby Julich, Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie, and of course Floyd Landis—all Americans—had all left over the years, having ultimately fallen out with Lance. Tailwind wasn’t able to replace those riders with other Americans. There was simply a shortage of talent in a country whose cycling culture was tiny. By the time Armstrong was planning to go for his seventh Tour win, there was only one other American left on the team’s Tour de France squad: George Hincapie. The other seven riders were mercenaries from Italy, Spain, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. Though the team still called itself American, because it was technically based in the United States, it was American in name only, and largely operated out of Belgium and Spain.

The Discovery Channel attempted to market the other cyclists on the team as up-and-coming superstars looking to fill Armstrong’s shoes when he retired, and to create suspense around the competition. But the marketing effort was a dud. American fans weren’t interested in Armstrong’s replacement if that replacement wasn’t American; they had been passionate about the Postal team because it was an essentially American team, headed up by an American cyclist—so American that it had counted two US presidents, Bill Clinton and now George W. Bush, among its fans. Bush was such a fan that when a knee injury forced him to give up his jogging routine for a while, he had invited Lance to join him for a mountain bike ride on his Texas ranch.

At the Tour de Georgia in April of that year, the team showcased its newest up-and-comer, American Tom Danielson. The twenty-seven-year-old was known for his physiological gifts—a high VO2 max and an ability to climb amazingly fast. He had joined the team that year, and Armstrong was riding in support of Danielson in the race. Discovery’s biggest competitor was Landis.

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