As the federal government’s $100m lawsuit against the disgraced cyclist prepares to go to trial, it’s worth asking: what exactly is the point here?At what point will society’s fury against Lance Armstrong be satisfied? Will it be when Armstrong has to sell his remaining luxury items, including his houses in Aspen and Austin? Or will it be when Armstrong has to hand over most of his earthly possessions not to the people he truly wronged – such as Greg LeMond or Frankie and Betsy Andreu – but to former teammate/fellow doper Floyd Landis and the US Postal Service, both of whom profited handsomely from association with the cancer patient-turned-Tour de France megastar-turned-pariah? Related: Whatever your opinion on Lance Armstrong, liking...
French campaigner called a political machine benefits from anti-British backlash after scandals to easily defeat Brian Cookson in UCI presidential election“A political machine,” wrote the respected French journalist Jean-François Quénet of his fellow countryman David Lappartient, a man who, it seems, has never lost an election, rising seamlessly through French local and two-wheeled politics to simultaneously hold positions of power in the Morbihan region of Brittany and world cycling. His victory over the incumbent Brian Cookson in the UCI presidential election on Thursday is, just the latest in a long list of political triumphs.However, the scale by which he drubbed the Lancastrian – 37 votes to eight – points to a massive backlash against the former British Cycling head, who...
Chris Froome is only the third man to complete the double after managing to hold his form for 12 weeks after coming into the Tour slightly undercookedAs Chris Froome flew south from Asturias to Madrid for a final, ceremonial Vuelta stage in the Spanish capital on Sunday morning, Bernard Hinault was standing with his gun on the edge of a maize field in Brittany, waiting for wild boar to emerge from cover. The last man to win the double of Tour of Spain and Tour de France in the same year, back in 1978, the “Badger” said he believes that Froome, who was set to emulate him after 39 years, should go on next year to attempt a grand slam...
Articulated race hub for the Vuelta a España shows not only the disparity between teams but also how far cycling has moved away from its more rustic pastIn these troubled days, we’re learning that you can watch a bad thing developing in front of your eyes, in real time, and yet feel utterly powerless to stop it. Fill in the blank with your own choice of contemporary socio-political phenomenon. But it can happen at a much more modest level, too, even in something as essentially trivial as sport. Which is how we come to the appearance of Team Sky’s “race hub” at the Vuelta a España.The race hub is a large articulated vehicle decorated with the team’s logo and those...
No one has won Tour de France and Vuelta in same year since it switched dates and Chris Froome is taking nothing for granted in race that he calls brutalIt is 22 years since the Vuelta a España was shifted from its late April slot in the calendar to its current position after the Tour de France with the world championships on the horizon. The notion then – propounded by the architect of the move, the late Hein Verbruggen – was that the race would be a post-Tour revenge match, where the riders who had slipped up in France could try to salvage their seasons.It has taken a while but that is now how the Vuelta looks, partly because Team...