STAGE 20
 
Lance wins! 

OK, when I say Lance is slipping, I mean that he looks like a mortal out there.  He's still the best cyclist by a pretty wide margin.  It's not like his reign is gonna end tommorrow, it's just that we can finally see the end of it on the horizon.  and most of that is due to the incredible quality of riders coming up right now.  I would've loved to see Vinokourov in this race, but even without Vino, it's not impossible to imagine one of the younger riders beating Lance next year.

Is it likely?  No.  He's still the heavy favorite.  But he's only one year removed from only winning this race by a minute.  If they ride this thing again, does Mayo have such a miserable race?  Does Hamilton crash out again?  Does Vino stay home?  Lance won last year when everything went wrong, he won this year with everything going right.   He's dropping hints about retiring or at least trying other races.  The point is, he has nothing left to prove in France.  And Indurain seemed invincible too when it all came crashing down. 

But, yeah, I'm clutching at straws.  Lance is the Man. 

The last two stages of competitive racing brought the unspoken doping controversy to the forefront.  So let's talk about it.  The American media, which has been instrumental in creating this image of Saint Lance, has seemingly tired of the storyline and is now trying to push the Lance the Cheater story.    I don't think they are out to get Armstrong, it's just that there's only so many times you can write a column about a sport you don't understand which says: "Hey, there's this Texan who's really frickin' good."  And with the recent doping scandals in track and baseball, expanding it to cycling is a logical step.

Of course, the American media's about five years late on this story.  Hell, they are about four years late on the track story.  The key question is ultimately unaswerable: Is Lance doping?  The answer is: I don't know and neither do you.

So what do we know?  We know that cycling had a rampant drug problem just a few years ago.  Because of this, a black cloud of suspicion hangs over every rider.  It also means there's a lot of drug testing.  Lance may be the most tested athlete in the world, yet the accusations still just hang there.  Which pretty much means to me that no athlete should ever concede to a drug test to clear his or her name.  Because it won't work.  A positive test means that the sport is dirty and a negative test just means you're doing a good job of hiding that you're dirty.  It's a ridiculous standard and a game Lance, or any athlete, should not play.  You think I'm dirty?  Screw you. 

I call it the Bonds approach.

Actually, I like Lance the best when he's sniping at the media or enganging in petty feuds with anonymous riders.  It's those times that we deviate from the official St. Lance script that he becomes a really interesting guy.  What makes him so good is that he really can be a collossal prick.  He's arrogant, cocky, and unbelievably driven.  That's how he wins.  It's also why he'll make Simeoni's life hell or take cheap shots at Richard Virenque in the press room.  Because that's who he is.

Maybe he should give Barry Bonds a call.