Sport still needs rehab

Drug-stained past continues to haunt cycling.

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — The man who elevated cycling to unprecedented popularity and then undermined it with one of the biggest sports scandals in U.S. history isn’t fading into the oblivion — even if many in his sport strongly wish otherwise.

Lance Armstrong, who is banned for life for his use of drugs that helped him become history’s greatest cyclist, is offering race analysis on the Tour of California this week for his podcast. Armstrong’s commentary links the 13th Tour of California to cycling’s checkered past. And his own decline mirrors the path of professional cycling, which today lacks American stars and gets just a fraction of the attention it once received.

“A lot want to hear what he has to say,” said Derek Bouchard-Hall, president and chief executive of USA Cycling. “Others roll their eyes. ‘Can’t we let that go?’ ”

The Tour of California launched in 2006 at the height of cycling’s popularity in the United States just after Armstrong had won a then-record seventh consecutive Tour de France. Then along came Floyd Landis, who gained his own celebrity by winning the inaugural California race and then the Tour de France later that year.

Cycling officials would like nothing more than to put the names of Armstrong and Landis — and a slew of other now-disgraced American stars — in the rearview mirror. But it’s almost impossible to shutter the past with their long shadows resurfacing just as the peloton gathered for North America’s most prestigious road race.

The seven-stage tour still attracts some of the great sprinters, including world champion Peter Sagan of Slovakia and rival Mark Cavendish of Isle of Man. It also has some of the best Americans, such as Tejay Van Garderen, who has twice finished fifth at the Tour de France, and 2016 Olympians Brent Bookwalter and Taylor Phinney. But none of these pros resonate with the U.S. public the way Armstrong did before admitting, in 2012, to a systematic drug program that helped lead to all those nowstripped Tour titles.

Armstrong was such a commanding figure that the details of how he cheated took a toll on thousands of fans who stood by him until his confessional interview six years ago with Oprah Winfrey. The 645-mile Tour of California no longer enjoys Derek Bouchard-Hall President and chief executive of USA Cycling

‘Twenty years from now we’re going to talk about whether Lance should be listened to or not.’

the same status from its heyday, when Armstrong captivated millions with his America-first, cancer-survivor storyline.

“If you don’t have somebody immediately to root for or root against, you’re just looking at a pack of colors,” said Bouchard-Hall, a Stanford graduate and 2000 Olympian. He said Armstrong did for cycling what Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods did for their sports.

Cycling’s reduced status frustrates riders such as Bookwalter of Santa Rosa, Calif.-based BMC Racing. He has experienced the changes since entering cycling at the end of Armstrong’s career.

“As far as Americans are aware of cycling it’s the Tour de France — that’s it,” he said.

The cycling sideshow also includes Landis, 42, who has resurfaced as well. The man who helped expose cycling’s prevalent drug culture has gained attention recently because of a settlement in a U.S. government civil fraud case against Armstrong. Landis will get $1.1 million of a $5 million settlement announced last month. Armstrong also will pay his former teammate another $1.65 million in legal fees for a case that began in 2010 with Landis’ whistleblower civil suit.

Landis had enjoyed rock star status while winning the California race in 2006, a preview to his stunning victory that year at the Tour de France. It didn’t last for a man who today sells medical marijuana in Leadville, Colo. Landis tested positive at the 2006 Tour de France and became the first domino to tumble in what over the next six years led to the downfall of most of the great Americans who had helped turn a once-obscure sport into a marketing bonanza.

“These are complex figures,” Bouchard-Hall said. “They were good people. They cheated. They were bullies and did bad things. I don’t see that going away. Twenty years from now we’re going to talk about whether Lance should be listened to or not. That’s the complexity of the human condition.”

The drug culture, though, remains a problem even if international cycling officials like to present a “new era” image. They don’t need Armstrong and Landis to trigger discussions about drugs.

Just look at Team Sky of England, one of 17 squads entered in the Tour of California. Sky has scored a victory in five the past six Tours de France while promoting clean sport. But champions Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins face scrutiny over potential banned drug violations.

Froome, a four-time Tour winner competing this month in the Giro, denied wrongdoing after French and English newspapers reported in December he had failed a drug test while winning the 2017 Vuelta a España.

Wiggins, a retired Tour, Olympic and world champion, crossed an ethical line, a British parliamentary committee recently reported. Investigators found Wiggins abused the sport’s therapeutic use exemption system that allows athletes to take banned drugs if legitimately treating a medical condition. Team Sky and Wiggins denied the report’s findings in news releases.

California race spokesman Michael Roth disputes those who say the event has lost its appeal because of seemingly endless stories on drugs. Although attendance figures are debatable without ticket sales, Roth cites other barometers, most notably the fact biotech giant Amgen has been the title sponsor the entire time. He also said the event continues to sell out the rest of its sponsorships. Another favorable factor is the race attracts some of the world’s best riders even though it runs at the same time as part of the Giro d’Italia, considered the sport’s second-biggest event.

The simple truth is Americans perk up when a compatriot dominates. It happened in the late 1980s when Greg LeMond became the first true domestic cycling star and put the Tour de France on the U.S. map. Armstrong and his generation made it possible for the Tour of California to become a reality.

Bookwalter, who finished third and fourth, respectively, at the previous two California races, appreciates his era despite the fact he isn’t well known. “I was fortunate enough to be a young rider when the sport was cleaning up and entering a new era but still capitalizing on some of that excitement of the Lance era,” said Bookwalter, 34. “Hopefully I am part of a revitalization and reinvigoration of the sport.”