Q&A with Lance Armstrong
We spoke to Lance Armstrong this week from Annecy, France, where the seven-time Tour de France winner was in the midst of scouting stages in the Alps. The following are extended excerpts from that interview:
Question from Bonnie D. Ford: Back in the day, you were famous, or infamous, for having things dialed in, for having a grip on your environment and being able to maximize that for your optimal success. There have been more events beyond your control since the comeback. How do you think you've managed overall?
Answer from Armstrong: I think the best way to say it is that I'm just having a good time. While I probably don't have the confidence on the bike that I had previously, I think I'm enjoying myself more. This is something I wanted to do, something I felt was right for a lot of reasons. I'm nearly 38 years old. I've got everything I ever wanted. If I wasn't having fun, I have no problem flying home tomorrow. But I don't want to. I want to do this.
It's enabled me to roll with some of this stuff. Except for the crash. [Editor's note: Armstrong broke his collarbone in multiple places in a stage race in Spain in late March.] The crash was a real jolt. That was something where I said, "OK, a day ago I was having fun, and today I'm laying in the ditch, this is not fun." That one was very hard to work through, mainly because it hurt, also because it had never happened before, so it was new for me.
But other than that, the other stuff, I've tried to be pretty relaxed with, if it was AFLD [the French anti-doping agency], if it was the [Alberto] Contador situation, if it was [Astana's financial problems] -- that one especially doesn't affect me. I'm concerned, obviously, for the others, because they're the ones who aren't being paid. My paycheck went from zero to zero, so that's not really an issue for me. It's something I wanted to fix for them, so that's the reason we had the funding in place, to make sure people were paid. But apparently it's worked itself out.
Q: Was there any part of you that would rather have seen the Astana funding fall through so that you could start fresh with your own thing?
A: Had it fallen through, we would have been in a new kit [Editor's note: A proposed Livestrong-Nike sponsorship] and one that was more aligned with my mission and the mission of the foundation, while not being a professional cycling team funded by the foundation, obviously. That's part one. Part two, had we done that, Contador would have left. Those are two fairly significant points. On the funding side, it just got too complicated with the UCI, with litigation potentially happening with them, we didn't have the time. We never would have been able to make the switch, was what I could gather. And on the Contador plan, we all read about it [Editor's note: Various media outlets reported Contador was talking to at least two teams, Caisse d'Epargne and Garmin]. It would have been interesting for him, and myself, and cycling fans and the media. But it didn't happen, so I don't want to get into it that much.
Team dynamics
Q: [Astana director Johan Bruyneel's] announcement that Alberto was the leader of the team differs a little bit from what we were hearing two or three or five months ago, that it was going to be the strongest guy.
A: I understand all three positions: mine, Alberto's and Johan's. I still think that the road sorts all these things out, and the road starts in Monte Carlo. It doesn't start 10 days later in the mountains. It starts from the get-go. I'm staying open-minded about it, and open-minded means I'm giving myself a good chance, and if I'm not that guy, then I'm not going to be a selfish fool about it, I'm going to help him, although I think people have a hard time believing that.
I can't go against team orders, that's never been my M.O., and it won't be. I'm giving myself a fair shot to have a good race and I have every reason to believe that I'll be strong. As of today when I went up Col de Romme, without revealing the time I went up it in, and the VAM [rate of ascent] I went up it in and the watts that I produced and the body weight that I have, I'm not far off.
Q: This is a position you haven't been in since early in your career. Is it fair to say that's motivation for you?
A: I'm motivated anyway. I think it's a fair thing for Johan to think and everyone to think. Four years is a long time to be away from the Tour. It isn't written anywhere that you get to come back after two years or four years or 10 years and be the leader of a team. It would be one thing if we had a guy who had put up a few sixths or sevenths in big Tours, but he's won the three big ones. I think the consensus is he's the best multistage racer in the business.
Q: The story that broke last week was pretty sensational, with Alberto talking to Garmin in particular. The way the story was sourced, it leaked from your team. There was some speculation it was designed to distract Alberto.
A: I wouldn't be able to confirm or deny that. I can tell you it certainly didn't come from me. I had heard bits and pieces through the grapevine. All I did was listen. I didn't say anything about it. At first, it took me a long time to believe it. It seemed like an odd fit.
Q: You've had an ability to exert psychological force in your job as well as physical.
A: Yeah, that's just part of cycling. Cycling's a mental game, too. There's a lot of games that are played, it's dramatic in the press, it's dramatic in the group. This year, I've tried to avoid all that, as best as I could, just stay out of it. I've got enough stuff going on. I don't want to stir the pot any more than it's already being stirred. And that is a departure for me for sure from the past.
Q: My point is that the strongest man competition is not just won with the legs and it's fair to say that if you emerge as the stronger GC rider, it's going to be partly because of your mental strength and possibly gamesmanship on the road.
A: Yup. The honest-to-god truth is that I really don't know Alberto. The most I was ever around him, we were on separate teams. When he came to Discovery, I was never around him. I've been with him a handful of days this year. From what I gather, he's very mentally tough. So I wouldn't rule him out. He's a fighter. Even when we see him make tactical mistakes, which we've seen this year, he comes back hard the next day, which shows how tough he is.
Reception in France
Q: Last fall, in the weeks before you committed to riding the Tour, you expressed a lot of ambivalence and some anxiety, and then that flared up again around the whole AFLD incident in March/April. [Editor's note: Armstrong, then training in France, delayed submitting to an anti-doping test for roughly 20 minutes and left the tester's sight to take a shower while Bruyneel checked the man's credentials. Armstrong later speculated that French authorities might keep him out of the Tour.] I'm wondering where you're at with that now. I read that you had some communication with [AFLD head Pierre] Bordry.
A: If I go back to the seven years, granted, I was not 100 percent accepted in this country, but there's two things to remember. The Tour is not just a French event, it's an international event. I'm going head-to-head with [Jan] Ullrich and [Ivan] Basso -- that pulls people from those countries and they're not my supporters. So you get that tension. And there's some French that aren't your supporters, either. But I think the bunch would tell you, and I would tell you, that the vast majority were supportive.
Fast-forward to the last few days -- I'm riding in Livestrong stuff, and riding around the Alps, not a big production. The reception from the people tells me that I don't have anything to worry about. They've been absolutely extraordinary. I'm not worried about my security. I know there's going to be some animosity, but I'm not going to get down about the minority.
Q: Do you feel like you're on a good footing with the organizers?
A: Uh ... good enough. I don't talk to them, there's no real need to talk to them. I think we've been treated fairly. You can look at the [team] hotel list and figure out if you've been treated fairly.
Q: What about this communication with Bordry?
A: After that all happened, they asked me to write a letter and explain my side of it. That's what I did. [The tester] came alone. We'd already had some people coming by the house looking for pictures, it was weird enough. Time out, let me just make sure this is cool. Nothing nefarious. It didn't need to be a story because they had urine, blood and hair. The hard-core skeptic would say, "He went to the bathroom and used a catheter and someone else's urine in his bladder," which to me is the most f----- up thing you could ever imagine. They had blood and hair to back it up. Unless I had a fake vein and I was wearing a wig, none of those were happening.
The other message
Q: A couple questions about the cancer campaign. I spoke with [foundation president] Doug Ulman and he said you haven't received the same level of cooperation from the Tour as you did in the Tour of Italy. What are your expectations about the impact the campaign will have in France given that you've said that is your first priority?
A: I don't think any cyclist is necessarily going to be trusted politically here in France right now. My story is a little more sensitive to them, but nobody's going to get that help or access with cycling in France. With ASO, the best way I can put it is, we're in a trial period, a trial marriage [laughs] or a trial reconciliation. We're just tiptoeing into this thing. I didn't expect them to put up Livestrong banners everywhere and put a car in the [publicity] caravan.
Outside the relationship we share with Nike, there's no common bond there. But listen, I think it's drastically improved and I'm optimistic that it's going to continue to improve. [French president] Nicolas Sarkozy has not made a commitment to the [foundation's] global initiative. That's OK. It is the Tour de France, but it's a global event. So everybody that has committed is paying attention to this event in France. In terms of interest in the foundation or name recognition with Livestrong, they've been a very helpful partner without knowing it.
Q: There is a school of thought that you're lining your pockets by putting exclusive content on Livestrong.com as opposed to Livestrong.org. What is your answer to that?
A: I haven't made a dime off Livestrong.com. Obviously the .org is the foundation, .com is a subsidiary of Demand Media. Both the foundation and myself have equity in Demand. But I think that the promotion of the .org kinds of things, the charity side of things on .com makes it the reason we do it. To me, .com is really about prevention and .org is about treatment and care and survivorship. I think if we paid closer attention to the .com side of things, ultimately a lot of people wouldn't need the .org side.
Q: What are your plans for contributions to either of those sites during the Tour? I was curious about whether there would be content posted on both sites as you go along.
A: Yeah, I would think so. There will be less videos from the Tour, because it's the Tour. At the Giro, I'm rolling around in 12th and goofing off. I had a bouffant haircut. It's cut now. The Tour will be a little more serious. The back of the bus is Alberto's studio for the Tour. It'll just be harder to pull that stuff off.
Q: I wasn't at the Giro, but I was a little surprised at what happened with the media [Editor's note: Armstrong stopped speaking to reporters after the first week of the race]. You've been accused of a hell of a lot of worse things than starting a rider protest.
A: It got portrayed as a "media boycott" when it wasn't. Granted, they went crazy on this Milan episode, and that was frustrating. I speak to the media plenty. At the beginning, after the crash, they said "You'll never be ready." Then when I show up, it was, "Why aren't you winning?" Then it was, "Why are you creating this rider protest?" Don't come and ask dumb questions. I'm not interested in a media boycott. I do think in the future, what I will do is talk less.
Q: The Tour is the biggest stage in the world, and it seems to me you might not be able to afford the luxury of getting tired of talking to the media.
A: To be honest, this one's going to look a little different from 2001 or '04 or '05. There's not going to be a big press event in the beginning. If by chance I'm in the yellow jersey or any position like that on the rest day, I'm not sure I'm going to do a big blown-out press conference again.
Test pattern
Q: I want to come back to your independent drug-testing program, what you envisioned [Armstrong originally asked U.S. anti-doping researcher Don Catlin to perform independent testing on him, but that arrangement fell through] and what you've wound up with. You came into this thinking, "I have to have this, it's important to my credibility; people almost expect it now." Going forward, do you view that as something that will continue to be important to the sport, and is what [Danish researcher] Rasmus Damsgaard [who does a separate analysis of test results for Astana] is contributing to what you're doing?
A: I think ultimately Damsgaard's program or Catlin's program [for Garmin and Columbia] or any other program of that sort will eventually evolve into the UCI's biological passport. I'm not a scientist, but I think a comprehensive blood profile taken over multiple points of the year, they would all agree it works. I think people, for the most part, know I've been tested in excess of 30 times, and that's enough for them. If I set out to do this in a credible way and have people believe in me, I think I've done that.
Final climb
Q: So interesting that it ends on Mont Ventoux.
A: Ventoux is the time trial. Something's going to happen. Somebody's going to be real good, or somebody's going to be real bad. It's just too hard of a mountain. I've just done these [Alps] stages, I didn't do all the way up to Colmar, even that stage is hard. Bourg-Saint-Maurice, very hard. High elevation, comes the day after a rest day. The Verbier climb in Switzerland, some people say it's easy, that's a bunch of bull----. It's a mini-Alpe d'Huez. It's not long, but it's steep. The stage I did today, it's like the one we always do, it's up and down, it's about 3,500 meters of climbing. Then you have a time trial, which is of course hard enough. And then they throw in a little sneaker like the day before Ventoux. That ain't easy either. Then you've got Ventoux. This final week is sinister.
Bonnie D. Ford covers tennis and Olympic sports for ESPN.com. She can be reached at bonniedford@aol.com.
