Le Tour v. Armstrong

I usually take the Tour de France’s side in things when it comes to Le Tour v. Armstrong.  Today, I am siding with Mr. Lance for the first time in a while.  Here is the situation:  Tour de France officials are petitioning the UCI to sanction Team Astana because they repeatedly show up less than 20 minutes before the start of each stage.  By repeatedly, Tour officials mean that it has happened twice now.  The rules do state that teams must sign in at least 20 minutes before a stage or else be fined the equivalent of $90.

Sure, I think it would be nice for Lance to come out for autograph signings and interviews an hour before the race, but he is contending arguably the toughest event in the world (both physically and mentally).  Give the guy and his team a break.  The other teams don’t have the same circus-like atmosphere waiting for them outside of their team bus. 

It seems that the organization that didn’t want to let Lance come back and race at all, now wants to capitalize on him being there.  Someone in the Tour’s office outside of Paris needs to make up their mind what they want to do with Lance and then follow through with it.  If you want him to race, then you accept his stubborn, anti-social behavior.  If you don’t want him to race, don’t invite his team.  Slapping fines and asking inept ruling bodies to slap sanctions on the team is a crappy way to deal with things.

6 July 2009 | 2009 Tour de France | Comments