Selling the Yellow Jersey
Page 33
sional elite.”42 Despite these facts and the anxiety caused by the perceived decline of French cycling in the global era, the French School’s gravitational pull remained inescapable. Greg LeMond’s successes and stardom came thanks to
the French School’s wealth, infl uence, and ability to develop young appren-
tices into international superstars.
3. Tour de Lance 1999: Heroism Redefi ned
Lance Armstrong’s victory in the 1999 Tour de France electrifi ed the Ameri-
can public and transformed him into a national hero. Cable News Network’s
(CNN) report on his victory proclaimed, “All hail to ‘Armstrong the Con-
queror,’” and described the Texan as a “triumphant American in Paris” and
“no ordinary human being” who “pummeled [the Tour] into surrender.”
The report’s editors included few athletic highlights from the 1999 Tour.
Instead, most of the four- minute clip dwelled on Armstrong’s inspiring,
compelling personal story, especially his battle back from death’s doorstep
after vanquishing testicular cancer. The piece included clips of fl ag- waving, yellow- clad Americans on the Champs- Élysées and in Austin, Texas, Armstrong’s hometown, chanting “USA! USA! USA!” CNN reporter Phil Jones
described Armstrong’s triumph as the “sporting achievement of the cen-
tury . . . covering in glory an event which was dubbed the ‘Tour de Farce’
just last year amid a drug scandal.”43 French television carried similar images of fl ag- waving Americans on Paris promenades and quoted the minister of
sport and youth, who proclaimed that the 1999 event represented a “transi-
tional Tour that contains a note of hope” for the future.44
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183
The French press’s skepticism counterbalanced transatlantic television’s
exuberance. Despite Armstrong’s inspiring performance, the specter of dop-
ing loomed. Many in the French press doubted that the 1999 race, dubbed
the “Tour of Recovery” by the organizers to signal the era of a new, drug- free Tour, could erase the scars remaining from the scandal- plagued 1998 competition. Le Monde pointed to disturbing coincidences during the race that hinted that “racing at two speeds”— drugged and not drugged — continued
in the peloton. Spanish riders seemed to be worthy of special scrutiny, ac-
cording to Le Monde. Although they were traditionally strong in the mountains, Spanish racers exhibited astounding climbing prowess, and Spanish
teams placed unusually high in the team rankings. Meanwhile, veteran rid-
ers seemed to fi nd novel, possibly drug- induced talents. Italian rider Alberto Elli placed second in the mountain climbing competition and “exhibited
unprecedented climbing talents.” At the top of the list of longtime Tour rid-
ers who found new legs in 1999 was winner Lance Armstrong. As Le Monde
pointed out, Armstrong was no “newcomer” and had “been in the peloton
for many years.” Le Monde indicated that the 1999 Tour was the “fastest in history” and hinted that Armstrong’s record average speed might have been
catalyzed by an “EPO placebo effect” from cancer treatments, even if the
American had not injected himself with the blood- enhancing drug during
competition.45
The 1999 Tour marked an important turning point in the event’s history.
French riders dominated the Tour until the mid- 1980s. During this period,
the French won more than twice as many Tour titles (36) as the runner- up na-
tion, Belgium (18 titles). Armstrong’s victory, the fi rst of seven in a row for the American cyclist, confi rmed that cycling had defi nitively entered the global
age. Armstrong’s victory followed triumphs by riders from Ireland (Roche),
the United States (LeMond), Spain (Delgado and Indurain), Denmark (Riis),
Germany (Ullrich), and Italy (Pantani). On the athletic front, then, the 1999
Tour confi rmed that cyclists from nontraditional cycling nations, including
several from outside Western Europe, competed at rough parity with their
rivals who hailed from France and the rest of the European cycling “core.”
Doping dominated the French public discourse during the 1999 Tour. The
public dialogues about heroism, athleticism, and drug use — many of which
coalesced around emerging champion Armstrong — signaled a sea change in
the Tour’s cultural meaning and context in France and abroad. In France,
the wounds of the 1998 Tour drug scandals remained fresh and stinging. The
French press immersed its reading public in thousands of column- inches of
fact, fi ction, and conjecture about drug use during the 1999 event. The public dialogues on drug use, in which Le Monde fi gured highly, were symptomatic
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of a broader process at work. The French press was developing new measures
and standards of heroism that linked athletic prowess, courage, and nobil-
ity to drug- free cycling. This process had been going on since the Anquetil
years, but the drug crises of the late 1990s and Armstrong’s astounding vic-
tory forced it to a rapid conclusion.
Lance Armstrong’s well- known, inspiring life story served as the back-
drop for the drama that unfolded during the 1999 Tour.46 Armstrong grew
up in Plano, Texas, in a broken home. Armstrong’s father abandoned the
family when Lance was a baby and his mother, Linda, worked as a temporary
secretary. He began his athletic career as a top- level professional triathlete. In the early 1990s, Armstrong focused on his greatest talent, cycling, won the US
amateur title, and earned a spot on the 1992 US Olympic cycling team. After
he turned professional in 1992, Armstrong enjoyed good success, won the
Verdun stage of the Tour de France in 1993, and took the mantle of America’s
best road cyclist after Greg LeMond’s retirement the following year. Arm-
strong’s future looked bright in the mid- 1990s.
The twenty- fi ve- year- old’s testicular cancer diagnosis in fall 1996 nearly
ended his life. By the time doctors discovered it, the disease had spread to
Armstrong’s lungs and brain. Armstrong underwent surgery and endured
months of intensive chemotherapy. Due to his inability to race, Cofi dis, the
French team that employed the ailing Texan, terminated Armstrong’s con-
tract. Following a year of recovery, in early 1998 Armstrong announced his
intention to return to competitive cycling and compete in the Tour de France.
He signed a low- salary contract with the United States Postal Service (USPS),
which sponsored a second- tier professional racing team.
Armstrong did not enter the 1999 Tour as a favorite. The Dallas Morning
News published a lengthy article about Armstrong’s comeback just before the race. The piece mentioned that USPS team director Johan Bruyneel placed
two other riders on the Tour squad who would take over as team leader if
Armstrong struggled. The noncommittal Bruyneel commented that if Arm-
strong faltered, “it’s OK because he has already overcome cancer.” The Texan’s
personal coach, retired professional cyclist Chris Carmichael, commented
that although Armstrong “has that ferociousness in him,” his best chance to
win the Tour might not come until the following year.47 The American and
French press picked Colorado native Bobby Julich, who had fi nished third in
Armstrong caused an immediate stir by winning the prologue and don-
ning the yellow jersey in his fi rst day back on the Tour. Although he gave
up the race lead in the fi rst week, when sprinters’ teams dominate the Tour,
Armstrong recaptured the yellow jersey in stage 8, an individual time trial
t h e g l o b a l t o u r a n d i t s s t a r s
185
in Metz. In stage 9, a mountainous course to Sestrières, Italy, Armstrong la-
bored over the col du Galibier, broke away from rivals Alex Zülle and Fer-
nando Escartin on the fi nal climb to the Alpine ski resort, and won the stage
to take a commanding lead in the overall race standings. He was challenged
anew by rivals in the Pyrenean mountain stages, but Armstrong cemented his
Tour victory during the penultimate stage by winning the second individual
time trial at Poitiers’s Futuroscope theme park.
His dramatic victory made Armstrong an American national hero, where
the young champion became one of the United States’ most visible athletes
and a vocal advocate for cancer research. Long before the momentum built
toward Armstrong’s victory during the 1999 Tour, however, the specter of
drug use once again dominated the French press coverage of the event. In
the week before the start of the Tour, the UCI reinstated French climbing
specialist Richard Virenque, arguably France’s most popular rider. Virenque
had been disgraced during the 1998 Tour’s Festina drug scandal. Just before
the race, border agents stopped Festina team trainer Willy Voet as he at-
tempted to cross the French border in a car fi lled with EPO, amphetamines,
and other performance- enhancing drugs. Tour offi cials disqualifi ed Festina
and French police arrested the entire team. Under interrogation, Festina’s
riders and coaches, save Virenque and teammate Pascal Hervé, admitted
to systematic doping. In the race’s closing days, riders protested by striking
and race offi cials canceled an Alpine stage. Prosecutions related to the case
dragged on into the new millennium as Virenque and others contested the
charges and their suspensions from the competition. Journalists labeled the
1998 race, won by Italian Marco Pantani, the “Tour de Farce” in the wake of
the scandals.
Virenque’s untimely reinstatement by the UCI prompted the French
press to resurrect the derisive moniker. Following Armstrong’s unexpected
prologue victory, which organizers hoped would refocus the French press’s
attention away from doping, the Tour’s surprise leader addressed question
after question about drug use on the professional circuit. “It’s been a long
year for cycling, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s history . . . we test [for drug misuse] as much as possible and at some point we have to realize enough is
enough. . . . We all have to fall back in love with cycling.”48
Armstrong and Virenque became the target of the seemingly contradic-
tory, counterproductive efforts to root out, expose, hide, and ignore dop-
ing all at the same time. Virenque’s unexpected reappearance prompted the
Tour’s organizers and broadcasters to attempt to erase the Moroccan- born
cyclist’s presence on the Tour. Before the prologue, Tour staff washed away
dozens of white inscriptions hand- painted on the roads by Virenque’s fans
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c h a p t e r s e v e n
and supporters. French television cameras avoided Virenque in the peloton.
Such ham- handed attempts to render Virenque invisible served only to pique
the public’s interest in the controversy.49 Virenque captured the polka- dot
jersey ( maillot à pois), worn by the best climber in the Tour, during the decisive Sestrières stage (stage 9, won by Armstrong) by streaking away from the
pack on a dramatic breakaway attack over the fi rst mountains on the day’s
race route. The popular climber could no longer be ignored by the media.
Virenque defended the polka- dot jersey all the way to the fi nish in Paris.
Meanwhile, as Armstrong emerged as the leading contender during the
middle week of the Tour, the French press, led by Le Monde, targeted the American cyclist for special scrutiny. The power, dominance, and calculation with which Armstrong dispatched his competitors in 1999 led the French
press to describe the rising American star’s cycling using many of the same
terms as they had when writing about former champion Jacques Anquetil. In
the pages of L’Humanité, Armstrong’s racing was “too mechanical” and “had no electricity.” In the fi nal three kilometers of the climb to Sestrières, Armstrong glanced at his watch as if calculating his exertions, then broke away
from his rivals. At the fi nish line ceremonies following Armstrong’s victory,
the crowd saluted Armstrong, but “with little enthusiasm, in the end.”50
Armstrong’s stunning, dominant victory at Sestrières raised eyebrows.
Le Monde engaged in thinly veiled speculation about the Texan’s drug use.
Armstrong’s “astonishing ability in the mountains [intrigued] and [angered]
certain members of the peloton.” Although Armstrong claimed to have “suffered” toward the end of his victorious climb, his “incredible,” “extrater-
restrial” performance and the strong rides of his closest competitors were
evidence that “cycling at two speeds still exists.” Retired cyclists and media
commentators hinted that drugs fueled Armstrong’s exploits. Two- time Tour
winner Bernard Thévenet explained that he had “expected to see the Ameri-
can suffer more than that in the mountains.” France 2’s Claude Sérillon,
quoted in Le Monde, observed “Armstrong is strong, very strong, too strong.
How could this rider who was never considered to be a climber have infl icted
such a terrible lesson on the mountain climbing specialists? Only [Arm-
strong] has the answer.”51 Le Monde speculated that Armstrong’s chemo-
therapy may have enhanced the cancer survivor’s athletic performance, since
his anticancer drug regimen included substances that increase testosterone
production and resulted in physiological changes similar to those brought on
by taking anabolic steroids.52
The French press’s fi xation on drug use produced an unlikely, controver-
sial hero, cyclist Christophe Bassons. Bassons raced as a domestique for La Française des Jeux, a middling team sponsored by the French national lottery.
t h e g l o b a l t o u r a n d i t s s t a r s
187
He was an average, perhaps mediocre Tour cyclist, but Bassons relished his
role that year as the sport’s most frank, outspoken critic of doping. The gadfl y cyclist agreed to write a daily journal, published in Le Parisien and quoted extensively throughout the French press, during the fi rst week of the Tour in
which he excoriated the cycling establishment and its pervasive doping cul-
ture. Before and during the 1999 Tour, Bassons leveled doping accusations at
the sport as a whole as well as at its top stars. As a result, the peloton and even his own team ostracized Bassons and nicknamed him “Babasse,” a bastard-ization of his last name made vulgar in French by adding the “asse” suffi x.
In his journal, Bassons speculated about how doping shaped each day’s
race results and accounted for the great perform
ances of the Tour’s stars, in-
cluding Armstrong. The rider also refl ected on his relatively weak perfor-
mances, the drug culture of the peloton, and how his frankness led his team
and the rest of the riders to ostracize and persecute him. From the moment
the Tour began, Bassons hinted that Armstrong doped. Bassons fi nished
44 seconds behind Armstrong in the time trial prologue, which he character-
ized as “a lot, too much” for such a short, 6.8- kilometer race, even with the
attack of “stage fright” that he suffered on the starting block. After the fourth stage, a sarcastic Bassons characterized eventual second- place fi nisher Alex
Zülle as a “pure class act” who “doped himself ” and “raced on high octane
fuel” ( rouler au super), a euphemism for drug use. During the Tour’s second week, Bassons accused former Festina teammate and eventual polka- dot
jersey winner Richard Virenque of doping. In Bassons’s account, Virenque’s
obsession with using drugs and covering his tracks was so pronounced that
he refused to speak to or even recognize the existence of his teammate when
Bassons made it clear that he refused to dope. Following Armstrong’s victory
in the Metz time trial on July 11, Bassons again made veiled allusions to the
Texan’s drug use, pointing out that Armstrong’s gear ratio was “monstrous”
and hinting that only a drugged rider could generate enough power to pedal
such a diffi cult, heavy gear.53 After Armstrong’s Sestrières triumph, the rider also claimed that others in the peloton were “disgusted” by Armstrong’s obvious doping but shut their mouths for fear of losing their jobs.54
In his journal and in interviews, Bassons painted a saintly self- portrait
and elaborated on his sense of martyrdom at the hands of the cycling estab-
lishment and its stars. Bassons refl ected on his family as he embarked on his
inaugural Tour de France and explained that his father was a mason who
“worked hard . . . knew nothing about cycling” and spent winters repairing
the family home’s exterior “with frozen hands in fi ve below zero” weather.
Despite hard training, strict diets, and even hyperbaric oxygen chamber
therapy, Bassons found he was unable to match the unusually high blood