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Armstrong's Tour comeback truly under microscope

The Associated Press

Armstrong has referred to himself as "the most tested athlete in the world." Despite all the suspicions and allegations, no charges have stuck.

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 14, 2009

It's fair to say that most people, and I include myself, don't have a clue about the sport of cycling in general and the Tour de France in particular. Our basic knowledge of the sport begins and ends with Lance Armstrong.

I appreciate that a lot of folks have great passion for this two-wheeled torture test, but all I know is that the race seems to go on forever, filled with time trials I don't understand and climbs through mountains I can't fathom.

I assume there is a lot of dirt in the sport because everything I read says there is, but is it dirtier than track and field or baseball? Even if we know for certain it is, we're getting numb to that sort of thing anyway.

So it hasn't been a front-burner issue with me for years, even when Armstrong was winning seven championships and winding up on magazine covers. I mean, it was pretty cool — as a cancer survivor, he had a tremendous story to tell — but then he went away and the Tour wound up back on Page 6 where overall interest dictated it belonged.

It's different this time, though. Armstrong is back in the race at age 37, and he might just win it.

What once seemed like a gimmick has the potential now to become arguably the most inspiring sports story of a generation.

It also has equal potential to crush people's psyches. We just won't know for sure until the final drug tests come in.

Armstrong transcends cycling, and I think the casual fan wants desperately to believe he's clean and a hero. In the absence of proof, he remains just that. If it should be proven he used performance-enhancing drugs to make his comeback possible, it will be one of the biggest blows ever dealt in all of sports.

For as many who embrace Armstrong, there are just as many who will never be convinced he didn't build his superior body through chemistry. Suspicions have run so high that Roselyne Bachelot, France's sports minister, said Armstrong has a big bull's-eye on him, and it has nothing to do with the yellow jersey the race leader wears.

"The [doping] controls will be multiplied, and I tell Lance Armstrong that he will be particularly, particularly, particularly monitored," Bachelot told i-Tele, a French cable network.

How arrogant would Armstrong have to be to compete dirty, knowing so many are waiting for him to trip up? Armstrong has referred to himself as "the most tested athlete in the world." Despite all the suspicions and allegations — even Dick Pound, who was president of the World Anti-Doping Agency at the time, made statements suggesting Armstrong was dirty — none of the charges has stuck.

The doubts and cynicism about Armstrong are a natural offshoot of the age. People believed Alex Rodriguez was clean, too. Rafael Palmeiro pointed a finger at a congressional committee and said, under oath, "I have never used steroids — period." Three months later, he was suspended after banned substances were found in his body. We don't believe anybody anymore.

Armstrong's body has been analyzed like no other. His heart is 30 percent larger than a normal person's. His standing heart rate is about 32 beats per minute. His body apparently doesn't produce an abundance of lactic acid, which leads to muscle fatigue. It's getting way too deep for me at this point, but I mention it because it shows how thoroughly Armstrong has been examined.

So here we go again. You can argue that the Tour is the most difficult sporting challenge on the planet, and if a 37-year-old guy who has been retired since 2005 comes back and wins it, well, you don't have to know anything about cycling to understand just what that means.

If he's clean, and he wins this Tour or even comes reasonably close, it'll be a phenomenon the likes of which we have never seen. They'll throw him a parade.

But if Armstrong is ever proven beyond a doubt to have chemically cheated, particularly as he tries to accomplish something that could define a champion for the ages, it won't be safe to believe in anything ever again.

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