Quoted in this morning’s Chicago Tribune from L’Equipe in a front page editorial “This man who dedicated a piece of his life to our magnificent July festival deserves the greatest respect this morning. But we have no desire to say thanks to him.” Wow, this seems so very, very disrespectful. I don’t see Lance as perfect and I’ve always taken the comments about the french not liking Lance with a grain of salt but this seems like a completely unnecessary comment. Could someone with insite please explain. Was it taken out of context? poorly translated? one paper’s inflammatory statement? Not that big of a deal? What gives?
My guess (and it is only a guess) is that they respect the accomplishment but not the man. Do you think Lance cares one bit? I remember him having the last word on Sunday.
I speak French. If you have the quote in French I could translate and possibly give you the probable meaning.
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Yeah, it’s hard to say w/out hte original or the context. I took a look on the l’equipe website, but there’s pretty minimal overlap btwn the content of the website & the content of the paper. You can download the paper in pdf format for a euro but i guess you have to set up an account and stuff.
apparently, the newspaper Le Parisien (kind of a usa-today level paper, maybe even a little more low-brow) had a “journal de lance” feature throughout the tour, describing stuff in his whole life story. sounded neat.
I tried to get a friends’ issue of this morning’s l’Equipe but it had already been passed on to other colleagues… What it said bout the article on Armstrong is as follows: in a nutshell the journalist said his racing style was closer to Anquetil’s than Merckx’s of Hinault’s, i.e. maybe less agressive and more “calculated”, and than Lance never really had opponents up to the challenge. Merckx had Ocana, Hinault had Lemond and Fignon, Anquetil had Poulidor. They also stressed the fact that Lance tactics have for the most part been absolutely flawless.
Again I have not read the article myself but it sounds like it is more direspectful to Jan than Lance…
Is the Chicago Tribune known for its French-bashing antics? Do they really read French, or have I missed part of the article (which again is by all means an option)?
I have this edition of l’Equipe at home. I remember reading the article, although I was kind of skimming as I was still waking up on the TGV. I think the quote could be a bit out of contest, from memory there’s a lot more explanation in the article.
I used to read l’Equipe and it’s not a newspaper where this kind of statement appear as is…you would have said Liberation (communist newspaper, doesn’t mind bashing anything american) it could be plausible…
From l’Equipe, it’s either out of context or a poor translation
Thanks all you “frenchies”. I don’t have a link to the article and I don’t speak french so I can’t provide more info. Please keep us posted so that Mike doesn’t represent all americans. I don’t think the tribune is a “french” bashing paper. It’s really more a Chicago paper and to be honest not wholly worldly imo.
Hi Trillini, finally here’s the full text of the article in French. Sorry, it took a couple of days, but I’ve been working around the clock.
It’s the editorial from l’Equipe on Monday July 25. It certainly doesn’t just say “But we have no desire to say thanks to him”. I’ll try to translate it later (unless François wants to do it first… François ?!)
Il Restera À Part
L’Edito
Le champion qui vient de remporter pour la septième fois d’affilée la plus exigeante des épreuves s’est adressé hier, sitôt son exploit accompli, au peuple des Champs, mais surtout « à ceux qui ne croient pas au cyclisme, aux cyniques, aux sceptiques », se déclarant « navré qu’ils ne croient pas aux miracles ». Faut-il que le malaise soit profond, encore et toujours, au sein du Tour de France et du monde du vélo, pas seulement autour de la personnalité de celui qui vient de conclure l’un des exploits les plus considérables, sur la durée, de toute l’histoire, pour que Lance Armstrong éprouve le besoin de parler de la sorte en pareilles circonstances. Il y avait bien peu d’émotion à cet instant, en ce lieu si prestigieux, et c’est terrible, pour le sport tout entier d’ailleurs. Saluons Lance Armstrong pour son prodigieux septennat, pour la force mentale qu’il lui a fallu au fil des ans afin d’accomplir une telle prouesse, pour le professionnalisme révolutionnaire dont il a su faire preuve, pour l’exposition universelle jamais atteinte qu’il a offerte au Tour de France. Cet homme qui a dédié tout un pan de sa vie à notre magnifique fête de juillet mérite ce matin le plus grand respect. Mais nous n’avons nulle envie de lui dire merci. Oui, nous croyons au cyclisme, mais là quel gâchis : Lance Armstrong est celui qui aura remporté les sept Tours de France qui ont suivi celui de l’affaire Festina, en 1998. Sans, à aucun moment, avoir incarné le renouveau. Un grand personnage de l’histoire du sport s’en va. Il a la vie devant lui, lui sait que cela veut dire. On prie pour qu’il en soit de même pour son sport, « sensationnel » selon ses propos élyséens. Comme il a raison !
Boy thanks. I tried to remember my grade school french, something about the tour, Lance Armstrong, Festina LOL I guess I can do the english part of frenglish. Translation would be much appreciated. Truth is though, that with all the American troll sportswriters making comments just for the sake of controversy I doubt a French editorial could get me excited anymore. Even if it is a total thumb in the air @ Lance at worst it’s just one person’s opinion. In other words it ain’t gonna make me hate the french.
They begin by saying how great all his accomplishments were. Then they say that at the end, when he had an opportunity to say something great with everyone listening, he didn’t have anything to say and was fairly emotionless.
Basically, I get the sense that the French, or at least the writer, wanted some gushing speech saying how much cycling had given him and meant to him, full of tears and emotion a la Dick Vermeil winning the Superbowl. What they recieved was more of the Lance the cold and heartless champion. Which is ridiculous because some people get emotional and some do not. I cry all the time on special occasions, but I have never seen my dad cry his whole life. Does that mean one or the other of us is wrong. Hardly.
Someone with a better grasp of French can certainly correct me if I’m off base, but that is what I got out of it.
the main message in the article (no time to translate right now) is the following
the author says that Lance is an awesome rider. But they don’t want to say thanks…not personally to Lance, but to cycling in general. After the Festina affair everyone talked about the renewal of cycling and the author says that this renewal hasn’t happened (and he doesn’t blame Lance for it), it’s still the same sport with the same stuff going on…
the author says indeed that emotion was lacking because ‘doping issues are so deep inside cycling that Lance felt compelled to talk about it’…
he more or less suggests that this may not be the right time to do this.
Ha, I guess I’ll stick to translating simple sentences. Eight years in the Marine Corps and 10 years since my last trip have not helped my skills, or lack thereof.
Lance never really had opponents up to the challenge.
I really hope it does not say that. Ullrich was there in contention every year and he certainly is a great rider. Just recall how dominant he looked prior to Lance winning the Tour.
I think this article from l’Equipe is not the one my friends told me they had read.
And I second François, it is so poorly written I am still not sure I understand what the editor meant. No wonder it stirred (a tiny) controversy on your side of the pond.
It seems to me that the author is lamenting about the fact that nothing has really changed since the Festina scandal… and he is unclear enough as to let one think he deems Lance responsible for this lack of fresh air in pro cycling.
This article is so poorly drafted that even French speaking people could “misread” it. I do not blame the Chicago Tribune. I for one do not know for sure whether I have caught the gist of it or not. This is poor journalism, and too bad, this guy is French. There are morons everywhere I am afraid.
Merci Lance for the show.
Le Tour will I think be more interesting now that you are gone, but nobody ever kicked a$$ like you did. And this is what road cycling is about, and why I love it.