Stop hating on Lance

I don’t have an opinion on the recent controversy with L’Equipe and Lance Armstrong – which remained unresolved at the time this issue went to press – but it got me thinking that a lot of people hate on Lance for a lot of reasons, and he really doesn’t deserve it.

Let’s break down a few of the most common gripes:

Lance must be doping.

The basic argument here is that one has to dope to win the Tour de France, so Lance must be doping. Given what we know about the prevalence of doping throughout the history of professional cycling, the top racers will never be entirely above suspicion. But what can Lance do to prove his innocence?

Lance has passed all the tests and asserted that he’s not doping, but the haters have continued to suggest that he’s using an undetectable drug or that he’s been given a free pass for PR reasons or even that he’s paid off the testers. The old axiom that “you can’t prove a negative” has held true every time Lance has said, “I’m not a doper.”

Lance isn’t nice.

I don’t know the man so I can’t say for sure. But even if he doesn’t have the sweetest personality, so what? He helps a lot of people through his foundation and fundraising efforts, and that’s pretty nice of him.

Then again, why should we care whether or not Lance is nice? He does his job and lives his life, and how nice he is has no bearing on how we do our jobs and live our lives. In our friendly little sport, there are plenty of bike racers who can’t manage to be nice - even without the unique responsibilities of being one of the most famous humans on the planet. Why single Lance out for not being a sweetheart?

Every day, Lance wakes up as the CEO of a sprawling company with tens of millions in revenue and hundreds of employees, all dependent on his personal performance. I don’t know that anyone could be nice with that kind of pressure.

Lance isn’t doing anything to help the rest of cycling.

It’s true that the “Lance Effect” isn’t lining most racers’ pockets. But instead, his success might inspire the next generation of athletes, team managers, and race promoters to become better sports marketers and businesspeople. In other words, Lance hasn’t given us a fish, but he might teach us how to catch our own fish.

When I started racing, shaving one’s legs and wearing bike shorts wasn’t cool. I don’t know that it’s cool now, but it’s definitely less likely to get something thrown at you out of a passing car. A lot fewer people are dismissive of cycling these days, and we have Lance to thank for that.

But the man doesn’t owe other bike racers money. A door is open much wider now, and it’s up to the rest of the sport to walk through that door on its own.

Lance has ugly clothes.

I’m sick of everyone saying, “Lance Armstrong, what can I say about your suit that hasn’t already been said about Afghanistan? It looks bombed out and depleted.”

[That joke was from the “Player Hater’s Ball” sketch on Chappelle’s Show.]