Lance & France

Doping has been a rotting rat in the Tour de France for a very long time. Does anyone imagine that Lance was the culprit who introduced these drugs? Those that doped won, those who didn’t knew they weren’t going to. In a recent interview Lance dared to say he felt that he was leveling the field. No one dared ask what he meant...... 

If Lance does not show the tears of contrition, consider how long he has been at the vortex of doping accusations: at least a decade & a half! He has become quite inured to media and personal accusations & it is doubtful that he is going to find some fresh sensitivity. But, give the guy some credit. Has he shunned the press or gone into hiding? Did you wish that he had?  

The short story of.....  Lance & France

My husband and I were roaming around the French countryside and spent the night at a chambre d’hôte, or B & B. Thanks to another unpopular person, ex-French President Nicolas Sarkosy, just about anybody who was property-poor could create a small business by opening a B & B. It allowed the French economy to open up nicely to more tourists and helped struggling real-estate owners to at least pay their crushing taxes. The couple who ran this B & B were approaching their 80’s. They depended on their grandson to help with operations, as both of them had evidently slowed down quite a bit. They were elegant in the grand old style, speaking beautiful French & knowing how to stroke their guests. 

The manor matched the couple by being genuinely noble in appearance, antiquated, & in need of repairs. With a few instructions on the peculiarities of the establishment our overnight promised a genuinely French provincial experience. Our room was vast, about the size of a medium-sized classroom, painted sky blue and trimmed out in curlicue off-white. The ceilings were no less than 10 feet high & two long single-paned double windows opened out to the gravel driveway and porte-cochére one story below.  The bed was composed of two singles pushed together, unified by an upholstered faded French blue velvet head board & bordered in gold braid. The attached bath with ancient fixtures was a trot away. The impractical wood-inlaid chest of drawers and uncomfortable upholstered chairs rested on delicate bowed legs with carved paws...which we wouldn't be using. 

The next morning we discovered the breakfast room of five tables was filled to capacity. Even an American foursome had found this place and their French was admirably functional. Madame notre (our) hôtesse made brief appearances, to tell her servant how to serve hot croissants, homemade preserves, & café au lait, for she was obviously tenuous on her swollen ankles.  But, the person in charge of keeping the conversation lively was definitely Monsieur notre hôte who remained feebly standing & ready to relay our slightest need to the back kitchen. 

Imagine our surprise in such a historical setting when right away our host began to tell us that he had been a biker in the Tour de France back in the 70’s. He obviously enjoyed expounding & fielding a few polite questions concerning the Tour in his day. How the French loved Poulidor who never won a Tour de France, but consistently came in second!  The winner was Jacques Anquetil who won five times. As Monsieur  spoke he conveyed the excitement & competitive nature of the Tour. He spoke openly about how his body had suffered, why he limped, and was arthritic. But oh, it was all worth it!  We guests were captivated as we ate quietly & mostly listened. 

Once he had gotten our undivided attention he began to explain that doping had been part of the Tour de France culture as far back as he could remember. In those days the teams came from various European countries, and from a few French provinces. There were 2 categories of bikers. Category 1 included the potential champions who were, in fact, the leaders of their teams, deemed most likely to place in the Tour de France. As team leaders they deserved the best dietitians, masseurs, & soigneurs. These sports doctors discovered that they could administer substances to their cyclists on a particular day without leaving traces in their systems.  And so it happened that the leaders were offered drugs to enhance their performance on days when the climbing was particularly arduous.

Category 2 was Les domestiques (servants); their purpose was not to win the race, but to serve the leaders of their team. Our hôte quite openly cast himself as a domestique. "Our duties were to switch out a broken bike, always have water & plenty of snacks, & help the leaders to rejoin the peloton (the leading group) when they were stopped on the side of the road for any reason. Les Domestiques were never offered drugs." 

What we learned was that doping was part of the Tour de France culture well before the advent of Lance. Not until the sudden death of champion British biker Tom Simpson in 1967, did anyone really questioned the use of drug enhancements. From then on the Tour de France governing body began systematic urinalysis and blood tests on daily winners to control doping. When Lance entered the competition in 1992 he failed miserably on the mountains. He soon learned that the only way to win was to dope. At a time when cheaters were being outed left & right Lance found a way to beat the system. In this way he won seven Tour de France to the dismay of other runners who maintained that he was doping.

Our always-a-domestique-but-never-a-leader closed with this rousing statement. "The Tour de France is such that every participant is under tremendous pressure to win at any price. This is something that is almost impossible for fans to grasp. If I had been offered to take drugs, I tell you, I would have been honored to take them! That would have meant I was destined to be a leader. & who knows? Maybe a winner!” 

With this declaration there was a prolonged silence. If this old biker was not ready to cry out, “J’accuse!", should we? Probably none would have had the courage to defend Lance, but I doubt we would be jumping on our soap box to excoriate him.  

Epilogue

Lance Armstrong has never been caught taking drugs...as so many others have been i.e. Alberto Cantador, Bjarne Riis, & Marco Pantini. The case against him has been won on the testimony of teammates, in particular Floyd Landis who thought he could win after Lance retired, but got caught for doping anyway.