Ron Borges\' thoughts on Lance Armstrong are so idiotic and ignorant that it astounds me that NBC would employ such an inept individual to write regular columns. Clearly he is trying to get a rise out of people, but he does so at the expense of his (and NBC\'s) credibility.
Borges asserts that Armstrong is not an athlete. He then defines an athlete as involving \"strength, speed, agility, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness and the ability to make your body do things that defy description.\" If any sport on this earth displays those characteristics, it\'s cycling.
Strength: Propelling your body up a mountain. Think that takes strength?
Speed: Sprint finishes for every race that doesn\'t finish on the top of a mountain.
Agility: Trying to get a bike into position in a sprint out of a large peleton is one of the trickiest tests of agility that exists.
Hand-eye coordination: Has Ron even seen how Lance descends a twisty mountain road at 60mph? Not only is hand-eye coordination crucial for victory, it is essential to not literally riding off the a cliff.
Mental toughness: Please.
The ability to make your body do things that defy description: Is he joking?
To further address some of Borges\' moronic comments: \"But could he do it if someone was playing defense?\" Uhh...Ron, have you even watched a single stage of the Tour, and noticed the way the ONCE team was trying to \"defend the Yellow Jersey\" (which is an oft-used expression) when they had it. There is constant defense, but Ron is clearly too obtuse to see it.
\"Whatever Armstrong is doing, most of the sporting world could?t care less.\" What Ron fails to recognize is that the sports that the sporting world \"couldn\'t care less about\" are boxing and football, which he apparently covers for the Globe. All of Europe is crazy about cycling...in fact it\'s the 2nd most popular sport after soccer. It\'s wildly popular in South America as well. Football has no following outside the US, and boxing gets the mainstream population\'s attention because of theatrics, not feats of athleticism. So, if we\'re truly talking about the world, boxing and football are the real fringe sports.
On Borges\' insinuations that Armstrong is doped: The guy is tested more than any athlete on this planet, and has turned out clean every time. Sammy Sosa, on the other hand, is lauded by the public, but refuses to take even one test.
Anyways, it\'s good to see that NBCsports is doing its part to help out the welfare system by employing otherwise unemployable jackasses like Borges.
Sincerely,
Kohlberg