Stirring 'wins' in the drug-tainted Tour de France

Watching Lance Armstrong successively “win” the Tour de France was stirring.

Lance Armstrong - he
cheated his way to seven
'wins' in the Tour de France.

The intrigue of recent times has blunted somewhat the celebratory mood; intrigue arising from a deception of dimensions never before seen in elite sport.

There is, however, within that an inspiration that reaches beyond human artefact.

Millions around the world drew strength and courage, not to mention commitment and hope, from Armstrong’s well-chronicled confrontation with and survival from testicular cancer.

Armstrong cheated at cycling, but such trickery was not an option as he wrestled with the reality of cancer.

Locked in a life and death wrestle with cancer, the man who was to become a hero to many, never blinked and the steely determination that enabled his survival, morphed, it seemed, into a purpose-driven cycling career in which the desire to win overrode decency and good sense.

Confronted with such an implacable adversary that is cancer, Armstrong employed whatever he could find in the medicinal armoury to win and it seems the “take no prisoners” attitude such a confrontation demanded worked, for years, without apparent fault in elite cycling.

What Armstrong did was unquestionably wrong, but without apologising for his behaviour, it is important to judge him in context of the time, his life and in losing our salvos of criticism, remember the Bible quote in which it is argued that he, who is without sin, should cast the first stone.

The doings of Armstrong were quite clearly wrong, offending the values most hold decent, filtering through cycling and leaking into other sports.

In the broad sweep of world events, the corruption of the sort inculcated by Armstrong is inconsequential compared to other happenings in which hundreds, if not millions of people, young and old, innocent and willing participants, died from hunger or political malfeasance.

Arguments of difference immediately enter the conversation, but at base the drivers are identical – the desire to succeed at the expense of others, whatever the cost.

Armstrong’s influence on cycling was majestical and being a cancer survivor with an intense force of personality, he had a magical hold over cycling and drove both counterparts and competitors to do distasteful things, just as a despot contrives to offend a population.

Many have stood beyond the present controversy arguing that it was Armstrong’s inspiration that saw them survive the trials of cancer. Armstrong was, a still is, for many the beacon that lead them through difficult times.

Watching Armstrong guide his team through the Tour de France and other similar events, was inspirational for despite his indiscretions, he demanded discipline and dedication; needed traits if humanity is to endure the difficulties ahead as civilisation wrestles with a burgeoning population and the depletion of finite resources and a changing climate.