I felt the need to chime in about the Armstrong doping
allegations of sorts, as I’ve been getting a good amount mail from friends
about this topic…
Being a past competitive
cyclist this notion is dear to me on several levels. It truly does pertain to
all of our lives. And as some of you already know my position, I have no
distain or negative judgment towards doping cyclists, Armstrong, et al.
It has come out (and to no surprise to me) that Lance Armstrong took
performance-enhancing drugs according to USADA (a very reliable entity). He maintains his innocence but has confessed to
resolve his situation with USADA. He’ll
be stripped of his Tour De France titles. He’ll be stripped of his reputation
for helping people fight cancer (which I have seen first hand), as well as all
he’s done for cancer research. And of course stripped of all good he’s done for
the sport of cycling, and those around him.
For those of you who don’t
know anything about cycling but the “drugs and cheating” here’s a quick lesson.
A pack of 100+ riders rolls out onto a course of 100 miles or so. To stay in
the pack is the key (the air draft). That means one must ride at the strength
of the pack firstly to have any chance at winning. One must ride at the pace of
the pack to simply have a job. It’s really quite simple. You can’t hang… you’re
out!
The drug culture in cycling
is no different than our everyday cultural morals. A high percentage of rider’s
objective is to just keep their job, stay in the pack, and stay competitive-
stay in a career you’ve been training for since childhood. How different is
this to the thousands of ways we prostitute ourselves in our own careers to
either keep our jobs, or get ahead? From cronyism to deceit for a job position,
to false character- how different are any of us?
It seems the prospective of
human culture is to destroy those who have succeeded by the very means we all have
moralistically created and accepted. We are not going to clean up cycling by witch-hunts.
We are not going to clean up our corrupt ways by isolating a few cheaters as to
think it will put the rest of us in such a fear of our own moral degenerations that
we all will start behaving angelical.
How do I feel about Lance?
You’re as innocent as the rest of us. You were smarter and more cunning than
those who created the culture in cycling before you. You grew up as trailer
trash from a single mother and worked your way into the world’s sporting
collective unconscious. You rode more intelligently than any rider in the past
(yes including Eddie Merckx), and changed the sport’s approach forever. You
fought and beat cancer, giving hopes to millions during this epidemic. You
inspired fitness and wellbeing in so many. Above all you reminded us that
nothing is impossible, and even with your own self inflated ambition you still
provided so much to the rest of the world.
They say that what we dread
in others is truly what we dread in ourselves. I ask myself, where am I
“doping” in my life? We must find the areas where we are morally degenerate. We
are no different than Lance, Clemens, Bonds, or Marion, as we produced them. It
is only till we realize this notion that moral change can really occur in
cycling and beyond.
Truly,
Don Peretz
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