What a difference 8 years makes

Triathlon Forum
1

I was paging through an old issue (May '98) of Bicycling Magazine and I came upon a really interesting quote from Lance Armstrong.

Q: If this year goes well, what are your long-term goals in this sport?
A: I’ll focus the rest of my career on one-day races and shorter stage races. The combination of my situation and the emergence of Jan Ullrich rules out any overall victory for me in the Tour de France. . . . Riding the Tour would be lunacy even if I were competitive by then.

2

That is indeed a great quote!

I have been recording all my cycling VHS tapes to DVD, and last night I was transferring the 1996 Tour, the one from which Lance dropped out during a nasty rainy stage (not knowing that his lack of form was due to already having cancer) and rode back in the direction of the start. A couple stages earlier he was trying to box another cyclist he believed had caused a crash.

Definitely “most combative rider” back in those days.