Damning with faint praise?

...tour de france 2005
Originally uploaded by l--o-o--kin thru.

Apart from Chris Boardman, it seems to me as if the BBC SPORT web team got a pretty weak set of "tributes" to Lance Armstrong following his 7th TDF win.

Nobody likes a winner, do they? Is it just an odd quirk of history that we've been living through the Armstrong era, the Schumacher era? Interesting that in Formula 1, they felt the need to change the rules a lot in order to ensure Spoonface couldn't walk away with the drivers' championship again; whereas Le Tour has been basking in reflected glory, and will be concerned now about what will happen to their global television audience.

Both are team sports, and it's arguable whether both men would have been as successful as they have if not for the support of their team. Ferrari's Ross Brawn is something of a tactical genius. On the other hand, I've seen Armstrong do that thing he does, in the mountains, that thing where he wipes out his main rivals with extraordinary feats of physical strength and endurance, I've seen him do that seven times. That ain't no fluke. His team actually let him down badly on two occasions on this Tour, not that you'd have noticed.

As I said to Roy the other day, the key thing about Armstrong is that just one of those mountain stages would be the death of most ordinary mortals. That 150+ other cyclists can get over them is beside the point: only Armstrong has consistently used the hardest mountain stages to prove that he's better than everyone else. It takes a special kind of cyclist to be good in the mountains (hence the King of the Mountains jersey) and - usually - a different species to be good in the time trials - in which you race against the clock, and yourself. Chris Boardman was a time trial specialist, but could never hack it in the mountains.

But who has been the best time trialist in the past seven years? Oh, yes, that would be Lance Armstrong.

As to all the snide remarks about alleged EPO use on Armstrong's part, I simply don't believe he could have gotten away with it, given the number of times he must have been tested, given the spotlight of attention he commands. Besides, even if guilty of some transgression, his achievement is still incredible. You could give me all the drugs in the world and I couldn't get up one of those HC climbs.

Anyway, I for one will keep watching Le Tour. The agony and the ecstasy, the sprints, the crashes, the climbs, the descents. It's compelling viewing, with or without the giant who just retired.