Afternoon Gatherers,
I want to welcome Dan Coyle to this afternoon's Ask The Author to discuss his bestseller Lance Armstrong's War, which was just released in paperback. In addition to chatting about all things Lance Armstrong, Dan is hear to talk about this year's Tour de France, American hopeful Floyd Landis, and the general madness of professional cycling.
As you may know from all of our updates, Dan has been extremely busy the past few weeks and I wanted to share some of the highlights:
- June 1: Lance Armstrong's War released in paperback
- July 1: Daniel's cover story on Floyd Landis for Outside magazine hit newsstands.
- July 9: The New York Times Magazine published Daniel's profile of Floyd Landis.
- July 12: Dan appeared on The O'Reilly Factor to discuss the doping allegations that continue to follow Lance Armstrong.
And today it is our turn to ask the questions!
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If you need a refresher on Lance Armstrong's War, check out Dan's Gather page to read two excerpts from the book and answers to a few previously asked questions.
Welcome Dan. We look forward to speaking with you.
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Comments: 45
(I should confess right away that my French is a bit rusty, so if "bienvenue" is in fact a type of jelly pastry, my apologies.)
I'm glad to be here to talk about Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, the Tour de France, the dubious merits of leg-shaving, the metaphors of Sheryl Crow lyrics, and anything else that might come up in the next two hours.
So as the French would say, let les bons temps rouler. Or something like that.
--Dan
It is great to have you here. I have a bunch of questions that were emailed to me by Gather members who could not join us so I'll be coming in and out of the discussion.
"Daniel, in your book, you met and researched a huge cast of characters. Who do you think is the most likable guy in cycling today?
first - that was a great story on landis, in the NYT mag. thank you!! what an inside story you had, with the doctors and the hip. i have had lots of injuries myself - HOW can landis cycle through this pain??
Given the latest doping scandal and the unpredicatable results so far, do you think this Tour is doping-free?
You can take the boy out of Lancaster County, but you can't take Lancaster County out of the boy, apparently.
That said, there's lots of nice guys in the sport. Probably more than lots of sports, since it is so social. They're nice on the surface, but to be successful, they have to be extremely not-nice at certain times in the race (See Armstrong, Lance).
(1) do you get a sense that Landis is worried that his hip will prevent him from finishing the TdF?
(2) what do you make of the implosion of Iban Mayo? He seemed so promising a few years ago.
i read in espn magazine that his parents weren't going to the TdF, bc it is too hard for them (they need too much help. i get mixed messages about his relationship with his family - seems like he loves them, but bc he really isn't into the religion thing. i am glad he has a wife and child. are they in france, or at home in CA?
We've seen recent allegations surface from Frankie Andreau's wife, who said she was in Lance's hospital room when he admitted having taken performance-enhancing drugs. (And Frankie supported her on that.) Others who were in the room say it didn't happen and doctors say there isn't in Lance's medical records of him taking EPO or other performance enhancers. Do you know what the relationship between Lance and the Andreaus was like before she gave her deposition?
also echo richard's comment, above. i was wondering that, too. why would the drs lie?
First, on how severe that pain is: Doctors compare the pain of osteonecrosis ("bone death" in the cheery Latin) to that of bone cancer. The bone dies from the inside out. On a scale of 1 to 10, a doctor I spoke with said it would be a "50."
So how can he do it? Neurologists talk about the intepretive element to pain -- that is, there are structures in the brain that actively reprogram the signal. To put it simply, by working so hard and so long, he's trained his brain to handle this. He also told me that sometimes he gets mad at the pain, and goes even harder -- I thought that was revealing.
We have already seen a few questions on doping so I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject overall. Is doping always going to be a part of the sport? Will the most recent scandal (Ullrich and Basso) change anything? And of course, do you think Lance was involved in any doping during his career? I thought the most interesting person to come out against Lance was former mechanic Mike Anderson and would love to hear your thoughts on that.
has the race's popularity in europe changed at all, with this latest scandal? or do they just take it in stride?
For a fuller accounting, search for NPR's story they ran a couple weeks back by Tom Goldman, which talks more about the relationship and the various versions (shorthand is that Andreus say they're telling the truth; Armstrong says that Betsy hates him.)
A follow up from a Gather member on Jessie's question about the tour's popularity in Europe...
"Daniel, it feels like the tour has not been talked about as much this year – at least in the US. Do you feel that way? Is interest down? If so, what do you think has been the biggest contributing factor? Do you think now that Floyd is in yellow things might change?"
Truth is, cheating's been part of the fabric of the sport since it started. Actually, the first winner of the Tour, a guy named Maurice Garin, was kicked off the following year when he was caught taking the train. Following years have had all kinds of stuff -- tacks on the road, amphetamines, and, more recently, advanced pharmaceuticals.
And yeah, it seems to be pretty endemic to the Tour, because it's simply such a hard event (three Everests of climbing, 17 Big Macs worth of energy per day), and because doping works. By taking EPO (which gives you more red blood cells, hence more oxygen to your
muscles) you can increase endurance capacity by 15 percent.
This year, we had the second, third, and fourth-place finishers from last year booted because of doping. And it looks like this isn't just hearsay and accusations -- the Spanish police busted a doctor who had a fridge full of blood (an image out of Stephen King), and that blood apparently belonged to Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, and a few dozen others. They say they're innocent, but they haven't volunteered any of their DNA to disprove it. Which sort of tells the whole story.
That said, there's still no proof that Armstrong has doped. Lots of smoke, but no smoking gun.
As for this year's Tour, word is that it's the cleanest in a long time. Which, according to some riders I've spoken with, is why it's been so unpredictable and entertaining.
"Daniel, I am sorry but I have to ask, why do you think Sheryl and Lance broke up?"
There's a saying about the sport in Europe when it comes to scandals like this: "C'est le metier." Which means, "Hey, it's the job." They regard scandals in cycling somewhat like we regard scandals in Congress -- they're expected, regular, and entertaining because they produce a steady supply of villains and dark subplots. Substitute Jack Abrahmoff for this Spanish doctor, and it's pretty much the same reaction.
Mostly, they're enjoying the race because, for the first time in six years, the result is not a foregone conclusion.
As for the US interest…
TV ratings are down 50 percent from last year -- but on the other hand, they're up 50 percent from 2002. So a bridge has been built, and a lot of new people are getting interested. Floyd is exactly the right guy to sustain that interest -- especially with his hip condition, his story will create a wide ripple.
The longer answer, which I give in a footnote in the paperback, goes something like this: In the breakup's aftermath, during which it was universally agreed that Armstrong had initiated the split, three theories competed for the public imagination: (1) she wanted kids, and he didn't; (2) age difference became too much; and (3) their relationship was rocky from the get-go. Of these, I'm half- interestedly voting for (3). The question of which theory is closest to the truth, and whether we should devote a single brain cell to analyzing the issue, seems only to point to the larger truth: All love is mysterious, and none so mysterious as celebrity love.
"I'm interested to hear how Lance regards you given your ambivalence on the doping issue. Do you think Lance now views you as part of the evil journalist pack when he divides the pool into people who avoid the doping topic and those who seek to bring him down? Has he had any reaction to your book?"
Regarding the timing of Floyd's news: He contacted me in mid-May (after I'd finished a profile of him for Outside) and said he had a big secret to tell me, and that I should come down to California for a visit. I couldn't resist, so I went, and he met me at the airport with his doctor and a fat pile of X-rays, and a question: what do I do with all this?
His motivation was that he wanted his story to be told right, and he knew that he was never going to have a better time to tell that story than during the Tour. He knew he'd do well (based on his good results), but at the same time, he didn't want to be in the distracting position of having to explain everything to the 1,500 reporters at the Tour for the first time. He knew that, if he wanted to concentrate on the race, he needed to have someone write a complete inside account that the media could use as a kind of shortcut.
I contacted the Times, which expressed interest, and the rest was mostly happenstance. I wrote it quickly, and the Times decided to run it during the Tour, when interest was the highest. And that suited Floyd fine.
It sounds very organized, but trust me, like most things in the news world, it wasn't.
He won't be too old -- he's still only 30, so he probably has three or four years left. This race really could be his last, because while he's been able to maintain performance with the osteonecrosis, a hip replacement is a different challenge. Things could go wrong, and in this sport, a 1 percent drop in performance is huge.
That said, it's exactly the type of challenge that appeals to Floyd. Remember, this is a guy who drank 15 cappuccinos just to see if he could do it.
I'm betting no. They're both facing a four-year ban if they're proven to have doped. Their lawyers are revving up the indignation, but so far neither has volunteered DNA to clear them (Basso's lawyer demurred because DNA testing is "only" 99.9 percent accurate). It doesn't look good.
Good question. While a year ago I would have said politics, now that seems less likely. I think Armstrong sees Bono as a kind of model: a roving ambassador who can make things happen on both sides of the aisle.
Though I did meet a French journalist who placed a $100 bet that he would one day be President of the U.S.
Ah, Dr. Ferrari -- what a guy! (Was there ever a character with a more appropriate name?)
As you indicate, Ferrari (aka Dr. Evil) is a shadowy Italian physician who's been alleged (but never convicted -- his 2004 conviction for sporting fraud was recently overturned on appeal) to have been involved with doping for years. He was clearly a key element of Armstrong's team (they spent one week together per month, three weeks before the start of each Tour), and at the center of most of the suspicions surrounding the American.
T-Mobile's move is necessary from a public-relations angle, given that the sport seems to have embarked on one of its periodic clean- ups. The association is simply too damning.
My opinion on Ferrari: personally, I find him entertaining and undeniably brilliant. Do I believe that he has helped bike racers dope? I've got no proof, but I wouldn't be surprised if proof emerged. At all.
15 cappucinos, eh? no wonder he can do anything. he has a fantastic drive and seems like interest in life.
What is your take on Ty Hamilton? Do you think he was wrongly convicted given his reputation as the nice guy in cycling?
His official reaction to the book was that he was "OK with it."
Unofficially, I think that translates as he dislikes some of it, and likes some of it. I haven't spoken to him since the book came out, but I've spoken to Bruyneel and a few others, and they gave basically the same answer.
Here's the deal: Armstrong sees the world in black and white, friend and enemy. While I don't think he sees me the same way he sees someone like David Walsh, I haven't gotten any Christmas cards either. Maybe I'm somewhere in the middle.
Until a few weeks ago, I was ready to do a "on the one hand, on the other hand" take on Hamilton. In fact, that was what I'd done in the book, given him the benefit of the doubt. Because personally, I like and admire the guy.
Then Operation Puerto came along -- http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/ 10110.0.html -- and that take suddenly seemed pretty naive.
I guess, as with so much of this, we're left to make up our own minds based on the evidence. And also to imagine how we'd behave if we were in a similar situation to these athletes.
I'm sure a lot of people (including Armstrong's lawyers) are interested in the answer to that one.
As far as I know, Tour samples (blood and urine) are kept frozen.
However, there are no approved protocols for testing them, and the science here is uncharted territory. We experienced a preview of the sort of controversy this can create last year, when a French paper linked Armstrong to a handful of samples given in 1999, which allegedly tested positive for EPO. Armsrong argued, rightly, that this was out-of-bounds, violated athletes' rights -- and he also pointed the finger at World Anti-Doping Association president Dick Pound, accusing Pound of having a vendetta against Armstrong.
(Background-- the two have had a rich feud over the past few years.) Armstrong won that round when an independent investigator determined that, due to all the unknown factors involving the freezing, possible tampering, that Armstrong should be vindictated. But Pound is promising another investigation, and Armstrong is petitioning for Pound's firing.
ANYWAY, the bottom line is that they freeze the samples mostly to scare the athletes into acknowledging the possibility that they might get caught, someday.
I know you need to run so let's finish with this year's tour.
What is your prediction for the top 3 and who do you see as the most exciting new crop of riders for us to watch in the next few years?
We've been in touch with the Andersons, and they seem happy since this dispute got settled. Of course, like most of these settlements they can't talk about any specifics.
As for what really happened there, this might shed some light
I will say this: I don't think Mike or Allison remotely fits the stereotype of the gold-digging assistant. All they gained from this experience was heartache and legal bills.
1) Floyd Landis
2) Denis Menchov
3) Cadel Evans
As for guys to watch in the future -- Keep an eye on Alejandro Valverde, a Spanish rider who broke his collarbone early in this Tour. And, more distantly, for a young American named Danny Pate, who currently rides for TIAA-CREF, a team of underdog Americans coached by former Armstrong teammate Jonathan Vaughters that is going to make a splash in coming years.
Thanks so much for all of the insight. It was great having you with us today!
Merci beaucoup, and Go Floyd Go!
Dan