[Tour 2005]OLN/Lance Press Conference - 04/18/05

[tour-junkie]

Just in case you are taking a media fast today, this email may contain a
spoiler - but, it'll actually be all over the news tonight, so these facts
will be hard to avoid...

===============




Six time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong announced today that he would
retire from racing at the end of the 2005 Tour de France. He confirmed that
his focus would be on the July event, but he would no longer race as a
professional cyclist after it finishes on the Champs Elysees on July 24th.
Citing a desire both to exit while at the top of the game, as well as a
heartfelt admission that he no longer wished to spend considerable time away
from his children, Armstrong will continue to advise the newly formed
Discovery Cycling Team.  He did not comment in-depth regarding his position
with team, but stated that he will continue to be involved at the highest
level, continuing to confer with team director Johann Bruyneel.



===============

We all knew this day would come, and hard as it is to imagine the Tour
without Lance Armstrong, it is better to watch him in one magnificent try
for the unprecedented-plus-one Tour Number Seven, than to see a slow
decline.

Watching the press conference, I felt both emptied by the news and extremely
lucky that this occurred while I could see it in person (well, relatively
speaking - since my connection has been via live feeds and cable.)  I'll
admit it, tears rolled down my cheeks as thought about what an incredible
period in cycling this has been. From chemotherapy to musettes hooking
handlebars, the images and events of these past years will settle into the
lore of cycling.  You don't even have to begin to inflate the facts.

I've said before that the Tour is opera.  We are lucky to have it played out
before us, as it shows epic triumphs, brutal unluckiness, and the most
familiar human frailties played out on an incomparable stage.  No other
sport comes close.

If Lance Armstrong had done nothing else other than toe the line in that
1999 Tour, it would have been tremendous.  Yet, as he pounded out his new,
high cadence on the day of the prologue six years ago, it was obvious that
something had happened.  As the last few seconds ticked off and he won that
stage, I realized that tears fell freely then as well.  It got worse during
the slow motion replays, as I looked at this man who had fought back from so
much to actually win the Proglogue at the Tour de France.  It would have
been an incredible comeback if it had stopped there.

It didn't of course.  With a so-called "second rate" team protecting him, he
won.  The real gauntlet was thrown down on the climb to Sestriere, when he
left everyone who mattered in the rainy mist, bobbed one way and slipped
through a gap to climb like no one could believe.  The lump returned to my
throat that day as he kept accellerating and all the climbers wobbled and
fell like lumpy sparring partners. "Oh, my god...," thought I (and probably
said it out loud.)  "He's going to win the Tour..."  Which, of course, he
did.

Two years later, after number 3, he was being interviewed by Paul Sherwin,
and when asked where he saw it going, there was a pause before Lance
responded.  In that moment, that silence and sparkle of the eye, the answer
clearly carried through the television, "Six".  He said something else,
maybe something about "one more year" or "focusing one race at a time".
But, it was clear he knew what he wanted.

Way back before cancer, when he was a hot youngster who had won the World's
at 23, he was interviewed by Outside Magazine, I think it was.  In that
interview he made the very brash statement that he didn't want to be the
next Greg Lemond - he wanted to be the first Lance Armstrong.  His comments
and press presence may have become more tempered and honed over the years,
but that driving desire kept coming through each year.

After the cancer, and during the comeback, he rode at times like he was not
of this world - dedicating a mountaintop stage win to former teammate Fabio
Casartelli who had been tragically killed in the Tour comes to mind.  He
also continued to broaden his influence outside of our often too-tribal
sport - forming the Lance Armstrong Foundation and maintaining strong ties
within the cancer community.

Over the past six years, the team coalesced and reached perfection. The
expectations continued to increase and throughout the US, people who weren't
bike-geeks actually began knowing something about international cycling.
We've been blessed to witness much of it - the showdown with Jan, the rise
of the dynasty, the difficult 5th victory, and last year's near-perfect
execution of the untouchable jersey.

And so this will be the last time for Lance and the Tour.  Goodness me, has
this been a great ride...

(And, just because I'm ever-optimistic, I'll point out that his statement
was that the Tour will be his "last race as a professional cyclist."  That
does not necessarily preclude the possibility of him taking the post-Tour
form and cracking the Hour Record.  Hey, a guy's gotta hope...)

Someone may come along and run it eight times. Some may run it seven. But,
it is unlikely that they will have taken a path which brough them so close
to death before reaching that goal.  This has been a stunning achievement of
our time.

Thanks for reading -

-- Jim