On the final day of the 2010 Tour de France there was once again controversy surrounding Lance Armstrong and his team. This controversy, however, had nothing to do with performance-enhancing drugs or blood doping.
Sunday morning the RadioShack team lined up to begin the final stage of the race. There was one difference today: the team had switched into new jerseys. The team's new jerseys were all-black and simply had the number 28 on them. The number 28 was used to represent the 28 million people in the world living with cancer today. Lance said that today, his last day ever racing in the Tour de France, the team was racing for everyone in the world who has been affected by cancer.
The International Cycling Union had other ideas though as they forced the RadioShack team to return to their regular jerseys. The team had to wear their regular race jerseys as the rule states, no exceptions.
Obviously rules are rules and once you allow one person to bend them you begin your way down a slippery slope. But today should have been a rare exception.
Lance has already announced that this is absolutely the last time he will race in the Tour de France. He battled cancer, won and came back to win every Tour de France from 1999 through 2005. He has raised awareness as well as tons of money for cancer research. Unlike some in cycling he has never tested positive for any use of performance-enhancing drugs or blood doping after his tour wins. Today's decision to switch jerseys was one last simple way to give recognition to those battling cancer before he calls it quits. There was nothing flashy; no showing off. Just a simple black jersey with the number 28 worn by an entire team to give tribute one last time to all those in the battle against cancer. Every rule has at least one exception.
Cancer awareness should have been the ICU and Tour de France's one exception to the jersey rule.
Absolutely, Chris. I concur wholeheartedly with you. I understand the slippery slope argument as well, but this is a situation so rare that an exception must have been made. This isn't like Chad Ochocinco appealing to the NFL to put some decoration on his jersey because he's a jackass. This is Lance Armstrong, arguably the greatest cyclist of all time, who, after miraculously surviving cancer, has done so much for cancer victims and the search for a cure and is only asking to pay his respects at a race he won more than anyone else, leaving an indelible legacy. And, by the way, much of his promotion for his organization has been done through cycling. So, it would only be appropriate for him to wear that special jersey for his last stage of cycling in the Tour de France.
ReplyDeleteI just think people need to be smart about these types of things. Think for one second. For example, the Armando Galarraga ruined perfect game. If you change that result in the record books, you're not opening the doors for an inordinate amount of other results to be changed. That's an extreme and inaccurate prediction. His was an incredibly rare situation affected by a grossly egregious decision which everyone, including the commissioner of baseball, agreed was wrong. So make it right! Just do the right thing. And, clearly, in Lance's situation, the right thing was to let he and his team ride with the special jerseys.
Thanks for the comment, Mike. I agree with everything in your post. For some reason, not just in sports, when we know someone or something is wrong we're afraid to simply make it right. The perfect game example is great. Who would that have affected or infuriated if Major League Baseball had put the perfect game in the record books? My guess is no one.
ReplyDeleteThe same goes for the jersey. The entire racing team was going to be in the same jersey. So it may not have been the jersey from the beginning of the Tour, but is it that big of a deal when they clearly stated the message of the jersey and what they were riding for that day? One day I hope we will see some of these decisions righted the way they should be, whether it's "against the rules" or not.