Originally Posted by
dawg80
He definitely was a punk as a teenager and was starting to be successful in triathalons. His first coach helped him a lot, financially too, and then Lance dumped the guy when they were in Bermuda. And, Armstrong continued to be a punk, of sorts, throughout his career. He was all about winning...at any cost, and that meant using people and then dumping them when they no longer suited him. That part of Lance's story is sorry-ass. BUT! he's not too different from many, many other very successful people, including in sports.
On the use of drugs...performance-enhancement substances and techniques. In 1993 Lance was 100% drug-free when he won the World Championship of Cycling. And, he destroyed the world-class field doing it. There is no doubt he had REAL talent and ability, and that proved it. It was in 1994 that some Italians, under the guidance of that Dr. Farrari, started using EPO and they were winning everything! Lance talked about how riders he had blasted the previous two years were all of sudden winning big races. Lance says he and his team couldn't understand what was happening so they went out and trained even harder. Another thing about Lance...no one worked harder or trained harder than he did. All the talk about the use of performance-enhancement drugs later in his career, while true, does not diminish the fact he worked hard at his sport. Well...by 1996 Lance learned the truth about others using EPO. It appeared that was the "new normal" in professional cycling, so either you did it as well, or you chose another profession.
With the playing field level again...i.e. ALL pros using the same stuff....Lance once again emerged as the best, and his 7 straight Tour de France titles proved that. The one thing that did not change was his work ethic and his singular, focused drive to be the best. That has been my point all along. When all things were equal...1993 no one on drugs, 1999-2005 everyone on drugs, Lance was the best.