Lance Drops A Few Hints
Lance Armstrong has been speaking about life, love and his future over the weekend, and has come out with one or two pretty interesting statements about where he is and where he’s going with his life and career.
In an interview with British newspaper The Times, Lance again came across as being a lot more intelligent and considered than your average sports star, but, as his history suggests, nothing about Lance is ordinary.
(And, of course, we carried our own Pez-clusive With Lance just a few weeks ago.)
“The Tour de France is the ultimate sporting event … since I came back from cancer, I haven’t lost a Tour, so I don’t know what it feels like and I don’t want to …… this could be my last year. I cannot imagine myself being retired 12 months from now, but I’m open to the possibility,” said Armstrong on being asked to consider the possibility of defeat to any of a host of rivals this July.
Armstrong also mused on rival Jan Ullrich’s state of mind given that the Posties leader took out a TT win at the Tour of the Algarve last week. “I wonder what Jan thought when he heard I won in Portugal, that I’m winning in February when I’m nowhere near my peak. This time of year is pure suffering for me ….. I’ll be at my peak in July. I’m no good at bullsitting. I think about Ullrich all the time.”
Looks like T-Mobile have a lot of work ahead as the mind games are already pretty well-advanced.
Lance also talked of Marco Pantani: “Of course …. I was sad, but I wasn’t totally surprised. People could see it coming, but, of course, when it happens there is real shock. We weren’t close … but I respected him. He was damn good.”
Armstrong’s legendary focus is all too apparent in the article which will hopefully introduce the brighter side of cycle sport – the heroism, desire, effort and guts – to a more general audience. The way he talks about his divorce (“I’m bitterly disappointed that my marriage failed”) and his children (he misses them so much it hurts) shows that some superstars are more human and grounded than others.
Lance is back in action at the Tour of Murcia which kicks off Wednesday. PezCyclingNews will keep you updated on how his preparation develops over that race.
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