I find it sad that people hold Lance in high regard knowing that he is a cheat. Would those who feel like that still feel the same if they were clean and racing against him? I would not accept cheating from my 12 yo boy and would be ashamed if he won anything by cheating. I have higher expectations of a grown man.
That’s exactly why people hold him in high regard, because he’s only in the mythical peripherals of 99.9999% of people’s lives and has never directly harmed them or their lives.
“He raised money for cancer and my dear grandmama had cancer — so how bad could he be?”
I totally agree. I just cannot understand how people can get so upset with Lance. It is only sport. All athletes I have admired in my lifetime, was because of their athletic talents, not there personalities. Whether one likes Lance or not, I do not believe it should provoke such visceral hatred. Outside of bicycling, if one can look at Lance objectively, his work for the LAF, and cancer community, I feel was undeniably a good thing. As my previous post states the top 5 athletes in his 7 TDF victories all tested positive. Regarding his athletic abilities probably the best metric were his competitors, Ulrich, Julich, etc., they all admired his athletic ability. The other issue, we are all flawed as human beings,
First hit on Google when searching, “Why is Lance Armstrong Hated”:
I’d go so far as to say that as he was under such complete control by his own pathological ego that he lacked basic “free will”. Thus, when an average person can make weighted decisions about whether or not to imbibe in illegal or “immoral” conduct, his decision mechanism was non-functioning, i.e. nothing was off limits when it came to getting to the top and staying at the top.
Also kinda funny how he wanted to be the best cyclist but in the end wound up being nothing more than the best cheater. Top of the heap but a heap of rot.
It’s fascinating that Lance is so polarizing. I think it’s because like no other cycling personality before he took on mythic status with his comeback from cancer. It was a story people wanted to follow.
I never loved Armstrong back in the day. I’m 54 so Lemond was my guy. My formative cycling years were the Lemond/Hinault/Indurain years. I can proudly say that I never wore a stupid yellow bracelet.
And I think the hatred comes from the former yellow bracelet wearers. They feel so deceived and let down. The thing is, cycling has been a doped sport for forever just like track and field, weight lifting, and every other sport. The USA won all those medals in 1984 using blood bags (quasi legal at the time). Were they pioneers or just doing what everybody else was doing in Europe?
Anyway, Lance doesn’t bother me much because I was never in love with his story. Watching the 30 for 30 show I can see that he was such a douce back in the day. I can see why I never fell for him. I think I always sort of rooted for Pantani. 
Probably ditto. Pantani was more about the panache and putting on a show; the other guy was consumed by ‘me, myself, and I’, basically he took cycling and himself far too seriously. he was never going to “cure” cancer, even though he did beat it…well, his team of top doctors beat it for him; as with the rest of his life, he was merely a conduit for actions he could not control.
My go to guy isn’t even a cyclist! 
#thegreatone
Thank you for forwarding the information. I enjoyed reading it all.
I’m a little younger than you, but this is me to a tee. I can vividly remember LeMond winning the Tour, it was earth shattering. Its also what brought me to cycling.
Oh FFS…ESPN is showing 2 hours of LA Tour “highlights”.
The LA Redemption Tour continues…
Your comments are all so true.
In Europe, cycling has always been primarily a working-class sport, and for most riders a pro contract is their ticket out of a relatively mundane future. When I rode on a French amateur team in the early 1980s, my teammates were shocked when they learned that I could attend university (college). None of them attended school and most held relatively low-skilled jobs; a pro contract was their dream. And pro contracts paid far less than a first-year schoolteacher salary. Most first year pro contracts provided little more than two kits, a bike and some spending money and riders had to wash their jerseys, shorts, and socks. Riders, their families and friends, and sponsor employees knew what was going on and played along.
Makes you wonder if European dominance in cycling might be largely due to this dynamic? Does the USA have any sports with similar class mobility reasons driving the depth? Basketball?
The answer to that is, “What are the reasons driving socioeconomic mobility in the USA?”.
They always say boxing is a poor man’s sport.
Boxing’s a poor man’s sport. We can’t afford to play golf or tennis. It is what it is. It’s kept so many kids off the street. It kept me off the street.
Sugar Ray Leonard
Now maybe you could say the UFC falls into this category.
If you guys that are watching want to check out the Inside the 30 for 30 it’s George, Bobby and Tyler chatting with Jeremy Schaap. Interesting way to wrap up the show. It’s only on ESPN+ though.
I raced in France (amateur, cat 4) in the late 80s and I knew a low level pro that used to ride with us. He would do plumbing under the table for his family and then collect unemployment during the off season. In France, unemployment was around 90% of your income. I’m guessing that they gave them 8 month contracts so they could get some government benefits to make ends meet.
Nah. UFC is expensive. Have you seen how much is a membership to take MMA?
I think Basketball is the best comparison. There are hoops everywhere. A basketballs is relatively affordable.
Football is probably good comparison as well.
It’ll be anything which has a very low barrier to entry, requiring very little to no specialisation, e.g. running.
It’s why soccer is the #1 sport in the world.
It’s one of the many reasons why you don’t see poor Black kids jamming up the equestrian and yacht clubs.
Also culture. Marginalised kids aren’t lining up to buy America’s Cup kicks or Preakness jerseys.
Let’s not forget that most pro b-ball players come out of college. Higher education in itself is a fairly substantial barrier for a lot of kids.
That is because of the rules of the NBA…it has nothing to do with access or opportunity. To get drafted into the NBA, you have to be one year removed from high school. Most kids therefore opt to play college ball for at least a year.