As Tour of California starts, sport can’t hide from scandals
North America’s top pro event still reels from sport’s doping fiasco
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, will offer race analysis on the Amgen Tour of California this week for his podcast.
Armstrong’s commentary links the 13th Tour of California, which begins in Long Beach today and stops in the South Bay on Wednes- day, 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.
The event began in 2006 at the height of cycling’s popularity across America just after Arm-
strong had won a then-record seventh consecutive Tour de France. Then along came an eccentric Pennsylvania Mennonite by the name of Floyd Landis, who gained his own celebrity by winning the inaugural California race and the Tour de France later that year.
The seven-stage tour — North America’s most prestigious road race — 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 top 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 now-stripped 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 event that includes an individual time trial in Morgan Hill no longer enjoys 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 lost prestige frustrates riders such as Bookwalter of Santa Rosabased 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 in France.
It didn’t last for a man who today sells medical marijuana in Leadville, Colorado. 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.”
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 of the past six Tours de France while promoting a 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 d’Italia, has denied wrongdoing after French and English newspapers reported in December that 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 that 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.
California race spokesman Michael Roth disputes those who say the Amgen event has lost its appeal because of the 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.
Jim Birrell, who has played a major role in developing American professional cycling for 30 years, portrays a less optimistic perspective because increasing costs have made producing a multiple-stage road race in the U.S. difficult.
“It’s a million-plus a day to put on a quality stage race,” said Birrell, who ran the first 10 Amgen tours.
The managing partner of Medalist Sport said costs have led the Amgen tour away from California’s major civic centers where large crowds swelled to watch the finishes. But would non-cycling fans bother today without a household name?
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 Amgen tour 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,” Bookwalter, 34, said. “Hopefully I am part of a revitalization and reinvigoration of the sport.”
Birell, however, doesn’t see the halcyon days returning in his lifetime. He sees no up-and-coming Americans destined for Tour de France victories.
“I don’t see anything in the pipeline,” he said.