Tag: Lance Armstrong

Weekend Reading: Wheelmen

wheelmen

There are compliance lessons to be learned in Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell.

Lance Armstrong was one of the best cyclists in last 20 years. But his wins were built on a foundation of illegal doping and performance enhancing drugs. It’s not about the bike; It’s all about the needle.

Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell write a devastating tale of Mr. Armstrong’s rise and meteoric crash. Wheelmen is very well-written and well-researched. We only saw Lance on his bike. The book takes us through what was happening on the team bus and hotel.

I’m cyclist and a fan of cycling races. I first came to road cycling during the rise of Mr. Armstrong. His story as a cancer-survivor coming back to win the biggest race in the world was an inspiration. I remember watching his epic battles with Ullrich, Mayo, Beloki, and himself. Lance answered all the challenges during his seven Tour de France wins in a row. His team was stacked with great riders: Hincapie, Hamilton, Landis, Eki, Heras, Leipheimer, and many others. The team was run by a Bruyneel, a master tactician.

Those great riders and those tactics were reliant on a widespread campaign of illegal doping. The United States Anti-Doping Agency has stripped Armstrong of all of his cycling wins since his recovery from cancer.

It’s clear that most of the top cyclists during the Armstrong era were also doping. There are no Tour de France winners during those years because the men next to Armstrong on the podium most years have also been implicated in doping. It begs the question of whether Armstrong was the best cyclist or merely the best doper. Or perhaps a combination of the two.

I was sadly disappointed when the charges came out against Armstrong. Given that he had faced death, I did not think he would risk his health by doing.

“Armstrong said he wouldn’t be stupid enough to take drugs after cancer. ‘I’ve been on my deathbed,’ he said.”

It was like discovering the truth about Santa Claus.

The biggest compliance failure was that the cycling organizations had no incentive to investigate Armstrong. He was bringing media attention and fans to the sport. That meant more money for cycling. If they brought down their biggest star, the racing organizers and governing bodies would have lost money.

Good compliance programs have good testing. The cycling federations had poor testing. The riders knew how to stay ahead of the tests.

Armstrong provides an insight to the workings of a sociopath. Armstrong’s interview with Oprah was the window into the mind of a pathological liar. Armstrong had been telling the lie over and over and over. He lied to the public. He lied to the press. He lied to cancer survivors. He lied under oath.

He even lied about the testing. He proclaimed that he had been tested clean over 500 times. According to the authors of Wheelmen, the true number is half of that.

Wheelmen is great book to read if you have an interest in cycling or Lance Armstrong.


Lance Armstrong – A Lying Liar Just Like Madoff

sad lance armstrong

It’s tough to see a hero fall. I didn’t consider Lance Armstrong to be a hero for riding. But what he did for cancer survivors was remarkable.

Until recently, cycling was filthy with doping. Take a look at the podium finishers for the Tour de France. Only two of the podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1996 through 2005 have not been directly tied to likely doping through admission, sanctions, public investigation or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold. The sole exceptions are Bobby Julich – third place in 1998 and Fernando Escartin – third place in 1999.

I could forgive Armstrong for doping. It seems clear that everyone was doping. It leaves open the question of whether Armstrong was one of the greatest cyclists or merely one of the greatest dopers. We have no way of knowing whether his regime of doping merely leveled the playing field or elevated him above the level of his also doping competitors. Were his competitors lesser cyclists or merely less capable at doping?

What caught my attention about the Armstrong interview was the window into the mind of a pathological liar. Armstrong had been telling the lie over and over and over. He lied to the public. He lied to the press. He lied to cancer survivors. He lied under oath.

Beyond that, he attacked those who accused him of doping. He ruined the careers of journalists who dared accuse him of doping. He ruined the careers of riders who accused him of doping.

I put Mr. Armstrong in the same group as Bernie Madoff. Two men who lived their lies for decades. They both seem to regret that they got caught, not that they were lying and stealing money. Granted Mr. Armstrong’s theft was a bit more indirect.

I don’t believe most of what Mr. Armstrong told Oprah in the interview. He’s been lying too long to think that he is now telling the whole truth. But there may be bits of truth mixed in his interview. He did clearly admit to doping.

As with most pathological liars, Mr. Armstrong expressed more remorse that he was caught, than for the harm he caused. He found justification for his bad acts.

Sources

Cycling and Compliance

During the summer of 2001, Mrs. Doug was stuck on the couch recovering from knee surgery. She stumbled across the coverage of the Tour de France, and especially Lance Armstrong, on the Outdoor Life Network. We were hooked, and ever since have been glued to the television during July to watch the beauty and competition of the Tour de France.

The US Postal Service team was a well run dynamo helping to support Lance Armstrong during his dominance of the race for seven years. It was clear that Mr. Armstrong trained harder and was more focused on winning than any of his competitors. Unfortunately, the evidence has become almost overwhelming that the US Postal Service team was involved in doping, including Mr. Armstrong.

Any fan of professional cycling knows that there is long history of drug abuse in the peleton. Many Tour de France riders had been subject to disciplinary action for doping. Only three of the podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1996 through 2005 have not been directly tied to likely doping through admission, sanctions, public investigation or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold.  The sole exceptions were Bobby Julich – third place in 1998, Fernando Escartin – third place in 1999, and Mr. Armstrong.

I always thought Mr. Armstrong was above this. After all, he fought cancer. He looked death in the eye and said he was not ready yet. There were rumors that Mr. Armstrong was doping. Most of those came from other rides with a grudge against him or were otherwise relatively unreliable.

The US Anti-Doping Agency released its report implicating the riders of the US Postal Service Team in wide spread doping. My heart was broken when two of my favorite riders George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer admitted to doping.

Because of my love for the sport, the contributions I feel I have made to it, and the amount the sport of cycling has given to me over the years, it is extremely difficult today to acknowledge that during a part of my career I used banned substances. Early in my professional career, it became clear to me that, given the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them. I deeply regret that choice and sincerely apologize to my family, teammates and fans.

George Hincapie

The cycling team had a culture of doping, set with tone from the top to push your body with medical treatment to improve performance. I’m still sorting through the extensive material to find direct evidence of Mr. Armstrong’s doping. So far the evidence is fairly light about his use. However, the evidence of the USPS team’s acceptance of doping is overwhelming.

It seems that doping was widespread, but has since decreased since 2008. Jonathan Vaughters, a former USPS rider and self-admitted doper, offers decreased riding times as evidence of doping.

  • L’Alpe D’Huez
    • Fastest: 22.43 kph, 1,900 vertical meters per hour by Marco Pantani in 1997
    • Fastest since 2008: 19.98 kph, 1,670 vertical meters per hour by Carlos Sastre in 2008
  • Plateau De Beille
    • Fastest: 22 kph, 1,812 vertical meters per hour by Marco Pantani in 1998
    • Fastest since 2008: 20.57 kph, 1,678 vertical meters per hour by Jelle Vandenert in 2011
  • Fastest Grand Tour Climbing Rate
    • Fastest: 1,769 vertical meters per hour by Roberto Heras in 2004’s Vuelta a Espana
    • Fastest since 2008: 1,682 vertical meters per hour by Bradley Wiggins in 2012’s Tour de France

The data shows a 10% drop in average fastest times. This correlates to the 10% drop in hemoglobin rates reported by UCI doctors from 2007 until 2010.

Perhaps that still leaves us with Mr. Armstrong as the greatest rider of his time. He was competing against dopers, while probably doping himself. The playing field was level for the elite riders. It was just a medically elevated playing field.

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