Lance Armstrong on current cycling's friendliness and hugging after the finish line: "Never even crossed my mind"

Lance Armstrong was the headliner of professional cycling for several years, and looking into the current sport, he is surprised with how friendly rivalries are nowadays with the world's most talented riders.

"This generation now, these guys go hammer, race each other, some guy will lose. The guy who wins is waiting at the finish line. They're fucking hugging it out... I'm like, what?" Armstrong said in a podcast with Danny Duncan. "You're just waiting there so you can all hug this out? After you just lost? I'm not saying that our generation was the way to do it or that I was proud, I think it's kind of cool to see, but it wasn't like that for us. Never even crossed my mind."

Sure enough in past decades back rivalries were at times more intense, sharp and less well spirited. Like any sport, these exist and are often big reasons of excitement for fans. In recent years however some superstars have emerged that are not only tremendously talented but also very friendly and loved figures within the peloton itself like Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel who sometimes even train with each other. An atmosphere that was unthinkable for Armstrong he says, as the peloton at the time simply did not have this type of mentality.

"I do think our generation's racing was better... We didn't hate each other but even for me, nobody ever did anything to me that would have led me to be like I hate this motherfucker. I would make things up and read an article and be like, 'well, I guess I could read it in a certain way, well, fuck them'".