Who's the Boss?

Well, it's Lance, of course. A pleasure to watch, he is. Really.

A little controversy slipped into today's TdF coverage. This article condemns Armstrong for today's stage, accusing him of 'playing king' and being an 'avid cannibal' because he broke ranks with the peloton to have a chat with a certain Simeoni. While Sports.fr found this appalling - even refusing to show Armstrong's face in their article about his win today, choosing a picture of the BACK of Armstrong's head instead - it doesn't seem to have fazed the other riders all that much.

Simeoni and Armstrong caught the breakaway and relegated the peloton, or main pack, to more than two minutes behind. With the race leader among them, the break group knew the peloton wouldn't allow them to stay away.

''We asked Simeoni to drop back because if he stayed with us we were toast,'' Sebastien Joly, one of the six in the break, told Francetelevision. ''We knew Armstrong didn't want Simeoni to have a chance to win. It was all quite funny, really.''

Armstrong grinned when Simeoni decided to drop off the front group. When the main pack caught Armstrong and Simeoni, the U.S. Postal Service team leader spent time talking to other riders.

''I was protecting the interests of the peloton,'' Armstrong said. ''The other riders were very thankful.''

Here's another take on the event.

Armstrong, in a highly unusually move...surged off with Simeoni in pursuit of Mercado's escape group. They caught that group, stayed with them for a few minutes, and then suddenly eased up and waited for the trailing pack to catch up.

It was not immediately clear what prompted Armstrong to act as he did. But an official from Armstrong's team suggested the champion's motives were personal.

Simeoni, an Italian..., has testified against controversial sports doctor Michele Ferrari, with whom Armstrong has ties. Ferrari faces accusations of providing performance-enhancing substances to riders.

It must be particularly galling for Armstrong, all the doping rumors and accusations. Why? Because...

Armstrong is the most tested athlete on the planet, yet he has never come up positive, and while his critics still doubt his sincerity -- citing that the sport is rampant with illegal drugs -- that merely highlights his achievements. To put that another way, Armstrong is not only apparently winning fairly, but he is beating a load of cheats in the process.

I watched a bit of the post-stage show on France 2 and the presenter of the show, Gerard Holz, mentioned that similar incidents have happened and cited an example involving the great TdF champion Bernard Hinault, whom the French adore. I thought it was a gentle way of pointing out that Armstrong had not suddenly invented a new way of playing the game.

Posted by Valerie at July 23, 2004 07:59 PM