Armstrong could use LeMond’s support, not attacks **** Monday, August 02, 2004 KURT ROBINSON ****
Outrage, disbelief, shock. Those three words summed up my reaction to the comments made by Greg LeMond about Lance Armstrong. What motive would such a prestigious American cyclist have to make such harsh and completely unfounded comments about a fellow countryman? 
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Jealousy?
Perhaps LeMond cannot handle that Armstrong is the new American icon of cycling. A title that once belonged to LeMond is now gone. Greg who? Yes, that is the answer that most Americans give when LeMond’s name is mentioned. An overweight and out-of-shape cyclist is what LeMond has transformed himself into. The spotlight is gone and the only way to reclaim it is to make harsh accusations of drug use against Armstrong.
Armstrong gets tested for every known drug in his system about as often as rain falls in the Northwest. To have representatives from a company banging on your door at 7 in the morning, hand you a cup, tell you to do your business in it or else your career will be over is quite intrusive. Yet Armstrong seems to take it in stride.
LeMond should have been in France supporting his countryman, instead of bad-mouthing him. LeMond, a three-time winner of the yellow jersey, opened his mouth and uttered comments that are extensively fictitious. I could walk up to Lance Armstrong any day of the week at any hour, hold out a small plastic cup, and he would know exactly what I wanted.
Much like columnist John Canzano of The Oregonian going up to Blazers guard Damon Stoudamire in March and asking for the same favor, Armstrong would follow suit and oblige just as Stoudamire did. Just like Stoudamire, he would pass and come clean.
Though Stoudamire and Armstrong are great athletes in their respective sports, it is not fair to classify them in the same category. Armstrong accomplished a feat so extraordinary that he joins a list of . . . well, he created that list. No other cyclist has ever pedaled his way to six – count them, six – Tour de France titles. LeMond wore the yellow jersey at the end of three Tours, half of what Armstrong accomplished. So it could be understandable that LeMond might be a bit envious of Armstrong, but why the comments?
Perhaps because of Armstrong’s past association with Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari, who is on trial for fraud and distribution of banned substances, LeMond assumed that Armstrong should be in that category as well. Why would the Texas native, who underwent chemotherapy for testicular cancer, see the need to use banned substances? Armstrong stared death in the face, and pedaled right past it.
Forget about the cycling titles; forget about even being able to cycle again, just being alive is a miracle in itself. Armstrong’s determination and will to survive and make it back in the saddle of his Trek bike is an accomplishment that should not be overshadowed.
To go through rigorous chemotherapy treatments, drugs that push the body to limits unimaginable, then to take performance-enhancing drugs would be senseless.
Armstrong looked up to LeMond in his early days of cycling. Why couldn’t LeMond keep his comments to himself? Why did he go public? If he needed attention, he got it. Much like Armstrong’s rival, Jan Ullrich, LeMond could not seem to stop from packing on the pounds in the offseason. Had he not done that, who knows, the possibility of riding his way to six Tour de France titles might not have been out of reach.
Armstrong then would have to fight for another title to be the only cyclist with seven titles. LeMond had the pleasure of watching Armstrong ride into Paris with his U.S. Postal Service teammates and claim the yellow jersey for a record-breaking sixth consecutive year. Armstrong knows the doping allegations will never cease, but hopefully they will from fellow Americans, such as LeMond.
Kurt Robinson lives in Newport.
