"Who is Lance Armstrong to give moral lessons? He stole cycling, he drove a lot of people away from cycling" - Eurosport commentator slams former Tour de France winner
CyclingTuesday, 31 December 2024 at 10:38
Lance Armstrong is a figure that has marked the history of pro cycling but not for good reasons. A cancer survivor, his story to then became a Tour de France record winner had been a story many admired - until it came crashing down due to the revelation that it was built on a systematic doping program. Until today he remains a vocal figure in the sport, mostly through 'The Move' podcast, but not everyone is fond of this including Portuguese Eurosport commentator Olivier Bonamici.
The podcast Ontem Já Era Tarde went through plenty topics but one of them was cycling and the Monaco-born journalist talked through some of his opinions: "I don't have a favorite cyclist, I like some, but not all of them... In cycling there are no clubs, there is no 'clubitis'. There are those who are Pro João Almeida, Anti Evenepoel, Pro Pogacar, Vingegaard..."
The central theme ended up being Lance Armstrong, someone Bonamici wouldn't sit down with:. "Maradona (the football player, ed.) took drugs, but he didn't give moral lessons. He cheated soccer. Who is Lance Armstrong to give moral lessons? He stole cycling, he drove a lot of people away from cycling," he says firmly. Armstrong and the doping structure that was built around US Postal were the central figures in building a negative image of the sport in Portugal. Up until this day, the American continues to be one of the most known and debated figures.
He was an idol, because everyone did what he did and he was still the best, it was argued at the time. "But you have to prove if the others were doing it too. My fellow journalist who uncovered the fraud called Lance Armstrong, took a big risk. It cost him his professional life. It was a terrible fight against a whole class. All for the sake of convenience," and then goes on to say that "when you're a journalist, you'll have a drink with a cyclist from time to time and then it's hard to speak badly of him".
For Bonamici, there is no doubt that "anyone can make mistakes", but Lance "stole cycling" and should pay for it: "I don't understand how this man has the nerve to comment on cycling again".
Read also
Olivier Bonamici: “Lance Armstrong nunca me enganou, não suporto quem dá lições de moral. Fez publicidade com o cancro, é um desrespeito” https://t.co/XGPzl7J887
— Expresso (@expresso) December 26, 2024
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- This is pretty much a low bar for a star rider. Domestiques from other teams got higher GC rankings than him. Either he has to really train for those 1 hour climb or give up on GC hope altogether. Not a fan of Pidcock, but I think he's definitely capable of doing better if he really trained for long climbs, which his coach said he didn't. Best of luck to him.
KerisVroom05-06-2025 - Nuh, realistically, Jonas is the only main rival unless some accidents befall Tadej.KerisVroom05-06-2025
- I just simply don't believe team orders were at fault. In what world would a pink jersey leader knowingly throw away their lead just to follow team orders? Del Toro surely knew the gap to Yates was growing and he was going to lose his lead. So either Del Toro didn't have the legs or he was stupid and listened to alleged team orders to only follow Carapaz. It simply does not make sense - I mean even if the team orders were true, Del Toro shouldn't take it literally e.g. if Carapaz crashed and all the other top ten riders went 3mins up the road, would Del Toro really be stupid enough to "follow team orders" and stick with Carapaz? This is an exaggerated example, but it is exactly what Del Toro did with Yates. Del Toro only has himself to blame - if someone is threatening your lead, you chase, it shouldn't take team orders to tell you to do that!Pogboom05-06-2025
- Chris Froome...who cares yet he gets top billing here!frieders305-06-2025
- "The idea was we’d race to win every day – or every day that suited me – and do the best GC I could." It was supposed to be "either or", not "and". The dreams of GC glory are confounded by the lack of recovery. He should have stuck to stage wins.abstractengineer04-06-2025
- There are three GT winners in that group and all different onesabstractengineer04-06-2025
- Nobody, it aint the TDFabstractengineer04-06-2025
- RIP Mustafa Ayyorkun.
santiagobenites04-06-2025 - From what I can gather, seems the DS had drilled into Del Toro before the race and again at the start of the long climb that he must mark Carapaz. Imperfect info made it difficult for the DS to directly tell Del Toro to close on Yates before the end of the climb, so it was mostly left to Del Toro's unexperienced judgement, who may have been near his limit anyways. In the end, probably either one could have lead the chase, but then would have come in third, while helping the other to first. Great execution of a great plan by Visma in Wout getting on top of the climb in advance and Yates being able to get that separation that caused the stalemate behind him. Also, in hindsight, big mistake by both EF and UAE in letting the break and Wout get so far out.Meeper04-06-2025
- Don't think Carapaz and Del Toro could have reeled him back in once Yates got to Wout; too big of an engine. The lead would have been stretched long enough to prevent them from closing the gap at the end.Meeper04-06-2025
First in here needs to tell everyone else which low level story we can pump clicks into to discuss humanity's trauser stain or politics, otherwise the bots will keep pushing LA data up to the content decision makers. So tired of seeing anything LA related because it does not provoke any meaningful discussion. It just provokes long held polarized views from the early 2000s.
Ok, I was actually reflecting on the consequences of these threads the last few days so I have a suggestion, if everyone/most agree we could launch a try.
If we feel like pursuing a discussion launched on a texas turd related article, we move it over to an unrelated article (best would be one that would not get any attention in itself).
Don’t reply, let’s just use the thumbs up function to vote for. Anyone (only the first person then) with a problem or better suggestion who wants to comment can lead us the article of their choice. Also, let’s avoid using the name or commonly used alternatives to it.
Hope that helps and we can start making a small difference in 2025 :-)
voldemort