Armstrong Out to Break Cycling’s Last Taboo

Every other great cyclist’s career ended badly. Lance Armstrong knows that.

It’s been a given in the livelihood he chose, at least until now. Cycling tests endurance like no other sport, but has this in common with them all: At some point age trumps desire, and all too often, mocks it.

“The older you get the higher the risk you have,” Armstrong said last Thursday at a news conference in Challans, France. “I can’t argue with my birth certificate.”

Too much high-living leveled Jacques Anquetil at 30. Bernard Hinault was finished at 31, done in after double-crossing teammate Greg LeMond, a move that backfired. Eddy Merckx, still considered by many the greatest all-around cyclist, simply ran out of gas at 29.

Even Miguel Indurain, who surpassed that trio of five-time Tour champions by winning his all in a row, was forced to surrender at 31 -- though he managed it with such stealth that rivals on every side refused for days to believe what they had seen with their own eyes.

“It was,” writes author Daniel Coyle in a new book about Armstrong, “the cyclist’s perfect demise: five and half years of impermeable stoicism followed by a few seconds of collapse, the sphinx crumbling into dust.”

If Armstrong needs any more motivation, there it is. His rivals have seen him crack, but never break completely. He turns 34 in September, already the only six-time Tour winner and still going strong two years after all the other greats were humbled. Armstrong has defied cancer, historical precedents, rumors of drug use, and turmoil in his personal life, so that only one taboo remains: to go out on top.

Anybody looking for clues in Armstrong’s preparations is wasting their time. Some 48 hours before the start of the Tour, he acknowledged he’s had a lousy spring. By itself, that says little. Armstrong has shown up at the start line fit, focused and in great racing form; he’s shown up weakened, distracted and after struggling in training.

Some of those factors narrowed the outcome, but they never changed it. The race has always been about Armstrong’s will, and his rivals know it. It’s why they come by their reverence honestly.

“If he has a party,” said German Jan Ullrich, who has finished second at the Tour five times, “I hope he will invite me. There would be some special feelings.”

In his book, “Lance Armstrong’s War,” Coyle talks about “tells,” a term poker players use to describe the tics, throbbing veins and other nervous gestures that tells them someone is about to crack. Armstrong has been studied so hard for so long that in his case, the “tell” even has a name -- “the Dead Elvis Grin,” which a German journalist once used to describe Armstrong’s face when he’s been pushed to the limit.

Ullrich and more than a few of Armstrong’s principal rivals saw it often during the 2003 Tour. But the smart ones kept their mouths shut the following winter, and thanks to Coyle, we’re reminded why. The author moved his family to Girona, Spain, Armstrong’s training headquarters for the 2004 Tour, and began filling up his notebooks.

What emerges is a narrative showing Armstrong and his team determined to stay on the cutting edge of technology and biomechanics, and almost as close to one of the sport’s shadowy figures: Dr. Michele Ferrari. Described by Coyle as one of the “most brilliant minds in cycling,” Ferrari has been hauled into court but acquitted on doping charges.

We’ve seen glimpses of some of this before -- the endless tinkering with the bikes, the maniacal training runs at a moment’s notice, even how Armstrong’s food is measured every day to match his calories burned -- but rarely in such detail.

Most revealing of all, perhaps, is a behind-the-scenes confirmation that the champion is a world-class control freak, preying on the insecurities of his cycling rivals and teammates alike. Every so often, Armstrong chooses a spot on the map that’s too demanding or inaccessible to make sense as a training run, rides to it, whips out a cell phone and calls friend or foe just to ask, “Do you know where I am?”

Ultimately, it’s those pieces of the puzzle that make the book a worthwhile read. We debate and dissect motivation to the nth degree, talk about how fame and fortune fuels the will to win -- up to a point. Armstrong already has everything any athlete could ever wish for. Yet the portrait of him that emerges is one more consumed, even at his advanced age, than any of them.

It’s almost a shame that picture was drawn a year ago, since the stakes are even higher this time around. Then again, it’s hard to imagine that after pushing all those chips into the center of the table for one final hand, Armstrong is about to blink now.