Armstrong's Epics

On Sunday, when the Tour de France ends in Paris, we will see the end of Lance Armstrong's cycling career. Since his first Tour win in 1999, Armstrong has dominated the event, the most difficult athletic endeavor in the world and the biggest live sporting event in the world (much bigger even than the soccer World Cup).

It's not too much to say, in fact, that by setting a record for overall Tour wins (and by doing it with what is likely to be seven consecutive wins), Armstrong stands as the greatest American athlete to ever compete on a true world stage like the Olympics. ("World" Series? Please.) His accomplishment is even more amazing when considered either retrospectively, in that Armstrong's winning streak came after nearly dying from cancer, and prospectively, in that Armstrong seems to have opened a golden era of American cycling: there are three Americans among the race's top 10 and 5 in the top 20 - more than any other nation (even France!). This bodes very well for the first post-Tex tour in 2006.

More than that, though, Armstrong's accomplishment comes when and where America's standing has never been lower. The love-hate (or admire-drug test) relationship between the French and Armstrong has apparently mellowed now into mutual admiration: the French for the American's indefatigability, the American for the French sense of sporting tradition. In his respect for how the Tour should be raced and how its champion should act, Armstrong exemplifies America's best at a time when we are too often showing ourselves at our ugliest and most repellent. Le roi est mort; vive le roi!

Note: You can read much, much more Tour coverage at Velonews website and in the Times. Some high points:
- the technology of bike racing
- Armstrong's greatest moments (though they missed my favorite: his off-roading in Stage 9 of the 2003 Tour)
- Armstrong's fabled tactics on L'Alpe d'Huez in 2001: "The Bluff" and "The Look." (Armstrong's delivering the latter in the picture above.)