A ruthless Lance Armstrong refused to allow his rivals a consolation stage victory as he came from behind to outsprint German Andreas Kloeden in the last few meters of the 127-mile 17th stage of the Tour de France Thursday.[...]
The U.S. Postal team leader, impressive in his time-trial at l'Alpe d'Huez Wednesday, could have been expected to let his rivals grab a consolation victory in the race's last mountain stage.
However, he refused to allow them the satisfaction and rode down Kloeden in the final meters to seal the 20th individual stage victory of his career, adding to two team time trial victories.
"No gifts this year for stage wins," said the American. "The Tour is too special for me. My condition is super and like everybody saw, the team was unbelievable today, they controlled everything. I had no problems," he added.
[...]
The only other rider left with a chance to shine Thursday was France's Richard Virenque, who took advantage of the five climbs to secure a record seventh King of the Mountains jersey.
The last climb, the Croix de Fry, looked like a lap of honor for the 2004 Tour, with the top-four riders overall -- Armstrong, Basso, Kloeden and Ullrich -- in front, with Armstrong's team mate Floyd Landis opening the way for them.
Armstrong obviously wanted Landis to win but they were taken off guard when Kloeden surged in the last 1,968 feet but Armstrong refused to allow the German the victory and mercilessly rode him down in the final few meters.
Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.
Just what the hell is Francois Thomazeau, the author of this article, trying to say with this terminology? This doesn't seem to be an isolated occurrence. Other instances of this usage of aggressive words:
By conquering France every July since 1999, Lance Armstrong has adopted as his own the French maxim that "impossible is not French."
Lance Armstrong grabbed the Tour de France by the scruff of the neck Friday, outlasting his main rivals and charging from sixth into second place overall.
Lance Armstrong's relentless pursuit of a record sixth Tour de France title gathered pace on Saturday as his main rivals cracked.Armstrong produced a devastating surge up the final 15.9 km climb of stage 13 to snatch victory from Italian Ivan Basso -- a neat reversal of Friday's finish at La Mongie.
Basso, who has emerged as the U.S. Postal rider's main rival, was handed victory the previous day but this time the five-times winner was not in such a generous mood as he repeated his stage victory here in 2002.
Mayo had beaten Armstrong to win the eight-day Dauphine Libere event in June but his Tour hopes took a major blow as early as the third stage when he was involved in a pile-up which cost him almost four minutes.Armstrong, on course to win a record sixth Tour de France, then crushed him by a massive 37 minutes and 40 seconds when the American won the 13th stage.
Lance Armstrong seized complete control of the Tour de France on Wednesday with an awesome display of power cycling to win the 9.6-mile individual time trial.The American, bidding for a record sixth overall Tour victory, blasted round the 21 hairpins on the twisting climb to the Alpine ski resort in 39 minutes 41.47 seconds to annihilate his nearest rival Ivan Basso.
For Lance Armstrong, the time for giving on the Tour de France is over.[...]
Armstrong said another five times Tour champion, Bernard Hinault, had congratulated him for the lack of generosity shown to his rivals on the 127-mile 17th stage.
"When I went to the podium, Hinault met me at the top of the steps and said: 'Perfect. No gifts," Armstrong said.
Frenchman Hinault, another merciless boss of the bunch, won 28 stages on the Tour.
"I've given gifts in the Tour before and I've never been paid back. The Tour is too special to me. It means more than any other race," Armstrong said.
The storming American dealt a potentially decisive blow to his rivals as he won the 15.5km time trial in 39 minutes 41.45 seconds - more than a minute quicker than the next fastest rider Jan Ullrich.
Perhaps Mr. Thomazeau just likes describing tough cycling in this way, cycling so obviously authoritative. I won't discount that out of hand as it's entirely possible. I haven't checked to see what he writes in regards to other Tours de France or other sporting events he may have covered.
That first article just jumped out at me, though. Especially the parts about letting Mr. Armstrong's rivals get in a feel-good win. Of course he shouldn't do it. Success is something to attain, to earn, and to cherish. Not to give away.
UPDATE(7/28/2004 5:02pm)
Slate has a round-up of a few of the things the international press has been saying about Mr. Armstrong: Tour De Lance - The international press snipes at America's superhero
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Don't understand this hype about Armstrong. The man left his wife after the new twins were only a year old. It takes a woman 2 years physically to fully recover from childbirth, and she'd had TWINS. The man is a monster to leave her after all she'd sacrificed for him, to have those 3 kids by artificial means and to manage affairs while he was off training every year. And no one puts him down as a role model after that. It is very sad.
Perhaps she was a pain to live around. Perhaps they had "irreconcilable differences." Do you know the circumstances of their seperation? I don't. That doesn't diminish his standing as a world-class cycler.
Posted by: Drizz on September 1, 2004 04:58 PMWell.... Feel rather proud in a sense that my humble prose should spur such a reaction on the other side of the Atlantic! Ironically, I'm not the one to blame for the somewhat emphatic adjectives used in my copy as they have often been added into my stories by the Reuters Sports desk in London. I'm rather a Lance admirer myself as well as a peaceful guy, harmless and unaggressive, which is a trait I thought Americans disliked about us froggies. This said, the Tour is a pretty violent and merciless affair and there is nothing wrong with Lance being ruthless at times. That's what it takes to win the Tour. And my impression is that Lance has had more problems when trying to act as the nice guy he is deep down inside than when acting ugly. To put the record straight, I never had the impression I was writing stuff against Lance. Quite the opposite, to be honest
Posted by: François Thomazeau on September 9, 2004 02:55 PMMr. Thomazeau, welcome to my website. Checking my logs seems to confirm it is you, but please excuse any doubt I may feel. This is the Internet and people have been duped before.
Quite honestly, it was that very first article that grabbed my attention and shook me so. The tone was just very aggressive and didn't seem normal for one of the Big Wire Agencies to use for covering the event. Granted, I noticed during the recent Olympics the reporters using a more personal and emotional voice than you'd expect in an objective news article. So perhaps there is an unmentioned exception for sports news. I don't follow sports so I can't compare this usefully.
In any event, I appreciate you dropping by and offering your thoughts and perspective.
Posted by: Drizz on September 9, 2004 04:39 PMHe is a sad excuse for a role model with the way he left his family. i can't even imagine. I bet that LANCE was probably a pain to deal with b/c of his ego & womanizing ways, not to mention being an athiest. I'm sure with Kristen being a Christian it could not have been easy being married to a man that so fervently denies that GOD exists.
Posted by: KC on September 17, 2004 08:32 PMKC, I am an atheist and I get along great with all my Christian co-workers. Not having the same beliefs as others around you doesn't preclude you from having good relationships with them.
I also think you can seperate Lance's athletic achievements from his personal life and praise them on their own without endorsing what he's done in the past. Role models don't need to be complete humans to inspire others.
Posted by: Drizz on September 18, 2004 10:11 AM