Armstrong and Contador: The Past and The Future

Look at the photo.  Notice anything about the body language?  There is no love lost between Armstrong and Contador to be sure on the winner's podium. Now, notice something else: Andy Schlek. I admire Lance Armstrong. I respect him enormously. But, the sport has now moved on without him, and he seems not to notice. Contador and Schlek are the future. They're hungry and competitive.  Contador has now been tested, both physically and mentally in this year's Tour, and Schlek, though incredible in the mountains, has to become a better time trialist and sever his emotional attachment to this brother, Frank Schlek, as it relates to his career, but Andy Schlek now represents the most realistic threat to Contador, and these two riders represent the future. Mark Cavenish and Bradley Wiggins also had stellar performances and performed way above expectations. 

Despite Contador's immaturity and paranoia, and his tendency to "hot dog" it by himself, in this year's Tour, all of these bad tendencies served him well. Armstrong had manipulated the media to ensure that he came across as the good team player, who sacrificed himself for Contador's win, when nothing could be further from the truth. Contador had legitimately expected to be the team leader of Astana going into the tour. Then, Armstrong decides to come out of retirement, states that he won't ride for anyone else other than Johann Brunyeel, the Team Director (Brunyeel and Armstrong are personal friends and have a long history of tour success together in Armstrong's multiple wins), making it virtually impossible to secure Contador's status within the team, and making a tour win for Contador less secure. Brunyeel and Armstrong then proceeded to play mind games with Contador, with Armstrong testing Contador's toughness going all the way back to the Paris-Nice race, when Contador failed to secure the win and "bonked" on a crucial mountain stage. 

I actually fault Brunyeel even more than I do Armstrong. Armstrong is a competitor. He's a hardcore competitor. That's what won him seven tours and played a part of his recovery from cancer. You have to be a fierce warrior to accomplish those feats. But, Brunyeel, inexplicably, threw his hat in Armstrong's ring, even before actually knowing if Armstrong would be able to win the 2009 Tour. Brunyeel failed to provide full-fledged support to Contador, even sending out the lower-level domestiques to the Paris-Nice race, when he knew Contador deserved stronger support in order to win that race. And, then, during this Tour de France, Brunyeel criticized Contador in the press, played Armstrong and Contador against one another for the supremacy of team leader, and generally let Armstrong get way with challenging Contador's automatic GC leader status during the race, when it was apparent that Armstrong was not the rider he was three-and-a-half years ago.

Is it money, status, or going to your comfort zone?  Who really knows.  Short-term, Brunyeel becoming Team Director of Armstrong's new team, sponsored by Radio Shack, is a good move. There is no future for Astana, and whatever dominance it had goes out the window by next year. But, the sport of cycling did change while Armstrong was in retirement.  The progress was awkward, it was painful, but it did take place. The absolute and total Armstrong dominance or dominance from any one rider has morphed the sport into something new, featuring a new crop of riders, whose talent, freshness, and potential have brought life and surprise back into competitive cycling.  Is Brunyeel going to have a career hawking an over-the-hill Armstrong, even if he does win in 2010, or even worse, if Armstrong fails to win in 2010.

Armstrong put competitive cycling on the map. He is a uniquely American rider, whose fierce competitiveness, brashness, and physical gifts, propelled him to the top and kept them there. Even now, Armstrong's tactical skills and physical gifts were amazing for his age but he can no longer accelerate in the mountains and I'm not sure he can win an individual time trial to gain enough time to offset the time lost in the mountains. Having said this, however, Armstrong will be a formidable opponent in the 2010 Tour, and even Contador concedes this.

I think Armstrong coming back was a mistake, and his peculiar media interviews, PR tour, and belittling of Contador make me think he's undergoing a good old-fashioned mid-life crisis. 

If you love your sport, sometimes you have to know when to leave it.