Lance getting bashed again

At least this guy doesn't bash distance runners. In fact he supports them. Kinda odd pairing here...

Atleast this guy gave semi-decent reasons for his logic. Perhaps his logic is a bit skewed, but hey, runners are getting a little bit of recognition for what they do. Woot Woot, time to bust out the bubbly..

I like the guy's statment:

"My 10K (6.2-mile) best is 35:15, which is pretty close to five minutes per mile."

Yeah, and my 5K (3.1-mile) best is 14:45, which by his rounding is pretty close to a world record. LOL

Articles like this just add more fuel to the fire for Armstrong to keep winning.

:) jag

Pathetic how these writers, or anyone for that matter, feel the need to put people down instead of giving them credit for the great things that they accomplish. There are so many sports out there, each sport requiring various talents and skills; and so many athletes who bust their asses to be successful... it's damn near impossible to compare everyone and then pinpoint one athlete as being superior to all. This debate is pointless and only serves to undermine Lance Armstrong's achievements, and perhaps the achievements of other deserving athletes as well.

note that by his definition of an athlete, "Athletic greatness requires rare amounts of hand-eye coordination, body control, strength, speed and explosion (quickness or spring)" Pele is not a great athlete as he never demonstrated hand-eye coordination not to mention he also was probably not much "stronger" than an average HS football player. Babe Ruth didn't have much speed either, so he's out as well.

carlc- very true.

also i would personally bet that lance has some pretty decent running speed.

If you read his autobiography, you'll learn a little more about his background and how he got serious about biking. He was a fairly good triathlete in his early days, so yes, he CAN run, AND swim, AND bike. He chose biking, but who knows what he would have amounted to if he'd chosen running, or even swimming. He's got the heart and lungs to do incredible things.

:) jag

After reading the articles I have a few ideas on how Lance can become more of an athlete. I thought these up fairly quicly, but maybe other people can come up with more improvements.

1. Limit his biking to 90 ft or 100 yds at a time with rests inbetween.

2. Not bike the whole Tour de France. (have substitutes to bike for him when he gets tired)

3. Lance should sit out every third or fourth Tour with contract disputes. (note: he will not practice or attend training camps during this time)

4. Lance's sponsors should declare that they are on the verge of an Enron-like bancruptcy because of Lance's exhorbitant contract, and they will be unable to make payroll next week. (During this time they will try to sign away bikers from other teams by offering them lucrative contracts).

who ever wrote that artical is a flamer, even if he does like runners.

I actually wrote this guy a little note. As follows:

Now I have to admit I find this whole debate about who is the world's "greatest" athlete kind of silly. It doesn't seem like their is any real objective way to determine this, not to mention the fact that there's no real point to it. I also found your contention that marathon running was more "athletic" than bike racing to be somewhat perplexing.

Riding a bike, especially at the level that pro cyclists ride, requires a hell of a lot of athleticism and skill, and yet you treat this dismissively at best. Piloting a bike up and down huge mountains sometimes at break neck speeds and around hair pin turns is the ultimate test of coordination and body control. Split second decisions and subtle body movements must be made almost instinctively, in the same manner that a "ballplayer" reacts to situations on the court/field, etc., except the consequence of a miscalculation in this case amounts to more than just an error or INT attributed to your stats. Marathon running requires little more than jostling for position at the water table and making the occasional turn at ~12mi an hour (if you're KK). Now obviously a 2:05ish marathon is truly an amazing feat, but it doesn't strike me as being more athletic than racing a bike around France for three weeks in the all-star game of bike racing.

"But Armstrong benefits from eight teammates dedicated to sacrificing for him. They help shield him from head winds, provide ``drafts'' that help ``tow'' him up mountains and chase down and tire out rivals who break away from the pack."

While all of this is true, I'm not sure how you mean to show that it makes Lance less of an athlete, or for that matter how it refutes the fact that bike handling skills require a great deal of coordination and body control. Lance may indeed have all of these benefits as you've enumerated above, but hey... so do all of the other top riders. Team strategy is a part of cycling just as much as it is in football. How many running backs would rush for 100 yards a game or 1,000 yards a season without people to block for them? How many Superbowl championship rings would Joe Montana have without good receivers?

As far as running speed goes, what does that have to do w/ cycling? By your criteria then does any sport that does not involve running in it preclude it's participants from being considered great athletes? How fast do you think Babe Ruth could run a 100m anyway? How 'bout Ali? How 'bout Tiger?

As an "athlete" myself (although not a cylist) I find your need to debate or call into question Armstrong's athleticism disappointing and poorly reasoned. Undoubtedly we all admire different types of athletes for their skill and the enjoyment we derive from watching them, but let us not diminsh others as a result of our own personal biases.

A bit of advice -- take anything Bayless says with a grain of salt. I cover sports for a newspaper outside of Chicago, and covered the Western Open golf tournament last summer. Bayless was there (he wrote for the Chicago Tribune at the time), but instead of paying attention to the tournament, he spent most of the time BS'ing and talking on the phone to God-knows-who. The next day I read his column and knew for sure that he hadn't been paying attention, because the column was crap -- just a bunch of blather that the tournament was nothing because Tiger wasn't in contention, blah, blah, blah. He usually doesn't put too many original thoughts together, and what I saw him do that day pretty much sealed my opinion of him forever. He brought up some good points, but if two miles of riding equals a mile of running, Lance pounded out a marathon a day for three straight weeks. I'm a big KK fan, and am glad he has the record back, but there aren't too many things in the world that can compare to what Lance had to do day in and day out.

As far as Brainless -- I mean Bayless -- goes, you guys out in the Bay Area can keep him!