Catching up
Jul. 29th, 2007 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieIt's been a fairly busy couple of days, with lots going on. A few random thoughts:
And then there's the Tour. Congratulations to the Discovery Channel team, who essentially handed every other team their asses, picking up the yellow jersey (Contrador), the white jersey (Contrador), third place in GC (Leipheimer, and it would have been second if it wreen't for a controversial 10-second time penalty he got when his chain broke), 2 stage wins (Contrador and Leipheimer), the overall "team jersey" (fastest overall time for a team), and if there were a class act award, they'd have it too (Popovich and Hincapie and the whole dang team). The drugs-and-doping scandals sucked, and I completely understand how people are frustrated. However, being an American, I have a hard time with the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude an increasing number of fans and press have. Specifically, I find the flawed logic of "well, Ullrich cheated and Basso cheated and Vinokourov cheated, so Armstrong must have cheated too, even though he was tested incessantly" meme annoying in the extreme. For those interested, here's my thoughts on the recipe for Armstrong's success:
Mix well to combine, and bake constantly for 10 years. No results guaranteed. One-in-ten-million chance of uber-success. Significant chance of death or permanent disability. Make at your own risk of incessant testing, observation, and constant accusations of cheating.
Given a recipe like that - even if it guaranteed success, which of course it doesn't - it's no wonder that other riders chose less drastic ones (like blood doping). (Even if it did guarantee success, I can't see most riders going for step #3.) Let's face it; Armstrong is a mutant, a freak of chance, luck, and discipline. He's probably the most tested athlete in modern history. And sure, there's always going to be rumors and whispers and sniping at the sheer impossiblity of what he accomplished - but there's never been an athlete who's gone through what he did before, and there's unlikely to ever be one again. The proof is in the recipe - and there's not likely to be more than one batch, ever.
All unpleasantness of the 2007 Tour aside, I enjoyed watching it, I'm happy for the winners and for everyone who made it through to Paris, and I hope that the system gets straightened out soon. It's an insane, fascinating sport.
- Fresh, ripe peaches are one of the best foods in the entire known universe. That's right, it's "Ohmigod" peaches season.
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fisherbear and I went to our favorite farm stand at the Market on Friday, and there they were, beautiful, fragrant, and so dang ripe that the three "eat today" ones we picked up nearly had to be eaten with a spoon, they were that delicate and juicy. We'll probably kill off the last two of the six we bought today, and be looking for any chance to get back to the market and replenish our supply. - When going to a big arts fair, take the bus, even if it's the "off" day. We got lucky and did eventually find a place to park - and it was a nice day and a lovely walk to get back to the fair - but still, if we ever go again, we're taking the bus. And we didn't find any coasters, either. Or one of the photographers we were hoping would be at the show, whose work we've been contemplating getting a print from. Oh well, it was still a great time, and ArtGeek had a great booth.
- If you have to have insomnia, best to get it on a Friday night. I don't get insomnia often, and when I do, more often than not it's because I'm on a creative jag at the computer and don't really realize that it's, uh, oh geez, four in the morning already - no, now it's five a.m. - dangit! But it was a good thing that it was a Friday night/Saturday morning, and I had all weekend to catch back up on sleep. I'm really getting too old to stay up all night - these days, I can feel consequences the next day or two.
And then there's the Tour. Congratulations to the Discovery Channel team, who essentially handed every other team their asses, picking up the yellow jersey (Contrador), the white jersey (Contrador), third place in GC (Leipheimer, and it would have been second if it wreen't for a controversial 10-second time penalty he got when his chain broke), 2 stage wins (Contrador and Leipheimer), the overall "team jersey" (fastest overall time for a team), and if there were a class act award, they'd have it too (Popovich and Hincapie and the whole dang team). The drugs-and-doping scandals sucked, and I completely understand how people are frustrated. However, being an American, I have a hard time with the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude an increasing number of fans and press have. Specifically, I find the flawed logic of "well, Ullrich cheated and Basso cheated and Vinokourov cheated, so Armstrong must have cheated too, even though he was tested incessantly" meme annoying in the extreme. For those interested, here's my thoughts on the recipe for Armstrong's success:
- Train yourself to be a world-class athlete by the time you're 20 years old. Preferably specialize towards sprinting and the classic one-day events.
- Endure a year of chemotherapy, wasting away your entire body mass until you're 87 pounds or so.
- While you're at it, snip your balls off.
- Rebuild up your body mass and muscle back to world-class athlete status, fundamentally changing where your muscle ratios in your legs and your overall carriage from sprinter/classics to climber/GC.
- Channel all that frustrated sexual energy into obsessive training schedules and a monomaniacal focus on a single event (the Tour de France). Skip out on performing excellently in more races, the Olympics, etc.
- Join one of the most well-organized, most-disciplined teams in the world - and the only team from that country, which makes them have even more to prove.
Mix well to combine, and bake constantly for 10 years. No results guaranteed. One-in-ten-million chance of uber-success. Significant chance of death or permanent disability. Make at your own risk of incessant testing, observation, and constant accusations of cheating.
Given a recipe like that - even if it guaranteed success, which of course it doesn't - it's no wonder that other riders chose less drastic ones (like blood doping). (Even if it did guarantee success, I can't see most riders going for step #3.) Let's face it; Armstrong is a mutant, a freak of chance, luck, and discipline. He's probably the most tested athlete in modern history. And sure, there's always going to be rumors and whispers and sniping at the sheer impossiblity of what he accomplished - but there's never been an athlete who's gone through what he did before, and there's unlikely to ever be one again. The proof is in the recipe - and there's not likely to be more than one batch, ever.
All unpleasantness of the 2007 Tour aside, I enjoyed watching it, I'm happy for the winners and for everyone who made it through to Paris, and I hope that the system gets straightened out soon. It's an insane, fascinating sport.
