It's a tragedy Lance Armstrong can't ride out drugs storm

John Inverdale
10.07.09

While John Terry's future at Chelsea or Kevin Pietersen's performance at Cardiff may have been exercising lots of your minds at home over the past 48 hours, be assured that in a bar in Brussels this week, neither topic was of any interest to a collection of Belgian hockey supporters.

They didn't particularly want to talk about hockey either. They wanted to discuss - endlessly - the cloud that still hangs over arguably the greatest sportsman that ever lived.

And despite events on the Centre Court at Wimbledon on Sunday, we're not talking Roger Federer here.

We're talking Lance Armstrong, who in two weeks' time could well find himself pedalling into Paris for an incredible eighth Tour de France victory.

It is impossible to exaggerate the hold that cycling has on this part of Europe. Radio news bulletins lead with updates from the Tour and, afternoon and evening, that day's stage is mulled over repeatedly on television.

Which is why at this time of the year it's the only topic that Belgian sports fans want to talk about.

So why, after winning the Tour, beating cancer, winning the Tour, retiring, and then potentially winning the Tour again, is Armstrong not admired like Federer? The gaggle of Belgian hockey supporters were split down the middle.

Some were lost in amazement at his achievements, others convinced despite all the (lack of) evidence, that he has systematically cheated his way to success, aided in some way by the treatment he received for his cancer.

It's a deep mistrust, borne of losing faith in a sport which has steadfastly failed to confront the drugs issue over the years, and also of a vindictive campaign by some elements of the media to discredit the American.

The fact that he is an American who has monopolised this most European of events probably hasn't helped either, nor has his offhand and dismissive manner which certainly hasn't endeared him to Belgian hockey fans and beyond.

Nonetheless, the vitriol aimed in his direction by a not unintelligent group of individuals still took me by surprise.

"Where is the evidence," I asked repeatedly, to which the general response was that if I fully appreciated what a gruelling event the Tour was, then it would be obvious that no one could exercise such a stranglehold on it without outside aid.

"What about Federer winning six Wimbledons?" I enquired. "That's completely different," they said.

They care about cycling in the way that we care about the Ashes and (some) care about Terry.

They revere Le Tour as an event beyond sport and hate the way its reputation has been tarnished over recent times, and some can't bear the thought of an eight-times winner being exposed as a cheat at some stage in the future to discredit the great event beyond redemption.

Will Armstrong care at all about what men in Belgian bars think of him, should he once again cycle into the French capital in triumph? Probably not.

But it's an indication of the cynicism that pervades the modern sportsfan that for some he will forever be guilty until proved innocent. Which is a tragedy for him and for the sport.

Casual crusade can tie up BBC cash gap

The art of letter writing is by no means dead.

The final week of Wimbledon is the signal for a whole collection of correspondents (most of a certain age, one suspects) to pick up their quills and write to complain about a whole raft of issues, of which the dress code of some BBC presenters is near the top of the list.

Not wearing a tie is the main source of anxiety, followed in one case by outrage at the fact that Pat Cash's shirt wasn't tucked in, to one lady expressing "astonishment that Boris Becker and John McEnroe's wardrobes for the evening had not been properly co-ordinated".

However, one letter may in years to come be seen to have had profound significance way beyond Wimbledon.

"I would even be prepared to pay for a collection of ties to be worn by all BBC presenters in future," it said.

In these times of austerity, viewer donations could turn out to be an as yet untapped and a potentially lucrative source of income for the BBC.

Reasons to be cheerful...

In the history of sporting protest gestures, surely the South African rugby team's 'Justice 4 Bakkies Botha' armbands last weekend rank as the most ill-advised and pathetic that I have had the misfortune to see.

However, 20 minutes from the end, with the Springboks a beaten and shambolic mess of a side, clueless and bereft of ideas, outplayed by a passionate Lions team in which individuals like Shane Williams were reborn as top rugby stars, it was clear that justice had in fact been done.

The idiots who thought of the protest, and the sheep who agreed to voice it, had received their just desserts.