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Posted on 07/23/2004 4:37:31 PM PDT by flying Elvis
When Lance Armstrong lays down the law in the Tour de France, others riders sometimes have no choice but to obey. Just ask Filippo Simeoni.
The Italian, who is involved in a legal battle with the five-time champion, tried to speed ahead of the pack Friday on the Tour's 18th stage. Armstrong's reaction was unequivocal: No way.
Even though Simeoni is way down in the overall standings and cannot threaten Armstrong's march to a record sixth Tour victory, the Texan chased after him.
Their animosity stems from Simeoni's testimony against sports doctor Michele Ferrari, with whom Armstrong has ties. Ferrari faces allegations of providing performance enhancers to riders and in 2002, Simeoni told an Italian court that Ferrari advised him to take drugs.
Ferrari has testified that he never prescribed or administered banned substances.
The result at this Tour is bad blood between Armstrong and Simeoni.
``All he wants to do is destroy cycling and destroy the sport that pays him, and that's wrong,'' the Texan said after his extraordinary move to rein in Simeoni.
The Italian was trying to catch a group of six riders who, in an effort to win, pulled away from the main pack early in the stage through eastern France.
Armstrong went tearing after him. When he and Simeoni caught the escape group, the riders there told Simeoni he was not welcome. They knew that their chances of winning the stage were nil if Armstrong stayed with them. Simeoni eventually demurred, breaking off his attack and returning to the main pack — with Armstrong.
``Armstrong demonstrated to the entire world what type of person he is,'' Simeoni said. ``It is not reasonable that a great champion doesn't give a chance to a small rider like me and the others. ... I suffered an injustice from him while everyone was watching.''
Juan Miguel Mercado, who was part of the escape group Simeoni wanted to join, went on to win, beating fellow Spaniard Vicente Garcia Acosta in a sprint at the finish at Lons-Le-Saunier.
The stage win was 26-year-old Mercado's first in two Tours. He finished 36th last year.
He completed the 103.2 miles in 4 hours, 4 minutes, 3 seconds.
``It's a fantastic day,'' he said. ``I had the good fortune of being in the right escape.''
Simeoni could only rue what might have been.
``I felt very, very good and I made a great move to get to the front,'' he said. But he added: ``When I understood that Armstrong would stay there because I was there, out of respect for the other riders I sat up and went back.''
That Armstrong felt the need to spike Simeoni's effort showed both the depth of his anger at the Italian and that he is feeling so confident about a sixth Tour victory that he can afford to take his mind off the race momentarily.
Armstrong said other riders congratulated him when he brought Simeoni back to the main pack.
``Everybody understood that this is their job and they absolutely love it and they're committed to it and they don't want somebody within their sport destroying it,'' he said. ``He's not a rider who thinks about other riders and the group in general. So ... when I came back I had a lot of riders patting me on the back and saying 'Thank you.''' After his three wins in three days in the Alps, Armstrong and the rivals he outclassed were in no mood to race Friday. Because none of the riders in Mercado's group ranked highly in the overall standings, they let them get away, rolling in as a giant bunch 11 minutes and 29 seconds after the winner.
``It was a pretty relaxed day,'' Armstrong said.
His overall lead on Italian Ivan Basso remained unchanged at 4:09 — more than enough to see him through to the finish in Paris. He will carry that advantage into the last big challenge of this Tour — a time trial Saturday in Besancon, where Armstrong is again a favorite to win.
The next day, barring a major disaster, Armstrong will become the first six-time winner of the 101-year-old race. And the bad news for his rivals is that he's not done yet.
He said he will race another Tour, although maybe not next year. He is eager to try other events, including Classic races that are an important part of cycling tradition and which ``require a different type of focus.'' Armstrong has faced criticism within cycling for focusing too heavily on the Tour and ignores other events. ``It's a special race. It's everything. You can't have this intensity in any other event,'' he said. ``I'll do it again before I stop.''
In a newspaper interview earlier in the Tour, Simeoni defended his testimony against Ferrari and said that Armstrong was giving him the cold shoulder. He also said Armstrong has called him a liar and because of that, he is suing him for libel.
``In the morning I look for him, I ride up to him, but he is cold, detached. He acts as if I don't exist,'' Simeoni told the French sports daily L'Equipe.
Sebastien Joly, a French rider who was in the escape group, said they asked Simeoni to leave them.
``When he let go, Lance had the kindness to do the same thing,'' he said. ``I think it was a reaction of pride on Armstrong's part.''
``It was bizarre, really strange,'' Mercado added.
Wah effing Wah!
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Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my Tour de France 2004 list. *Warning: This may be a high-volume ping list at times during July 2004.
Boo hoo hoo...
So that's the story behind Lance's breakaway today. Cool.
Girlieman.
They need affirmative cycling!
when I was a kid we played baseball. we used real baseballs and real bats. there were clear winners and clear losers. Simeoni must be a T-ball player.
Boo-freakin'-hoo! A true winner (whether he wins the race or not--it's the attitude I'm talking about) doesn't want to be "given a chance" in that manner. Any victory would seem hollow if it was achieved because somebody deliberately held back.
Funny.
I didn't know why Lance broke away when I was watching the Tour earlier, but this is funny as all get out. Lance taught a very whiny little boy a very grown-up lesson.
"Girlieman."
Mmmmm perfect! Anyone that can translate into Italian? French? German?
Arnold may have really started something.
Go, Lance, Go!
Another article I read on Velonews stated that once Simeoni got back to the peloton, he took a major verbal lashing from the rest of the bunch. He couldn't stay in it, and couldn't stay in front of it, so he finished 145 out of 147!
This is the significant part of Armstrong's statement, and I find it disturbing. In what way does Armstrong believe that Simeoni is seeking to "destroy cycling"? His threatened lawsuit against Armstrong? I think not. Simeoni's "crime," in the eyes of the peloton, is that he gave sworn testimony regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs in cycling. Simeoni specifically named Dr. Michele Ferrari, with whom Armstrong himself has had a controversial relationship. Simeoni, however, did not make any accusations against Armstrong.
What this looks like to me is Armstrong, as the "patron" of the peloton, taking it upon himself to publicly humiliate Simeoni for his haved dared breach the code of "omerta" that has surrounded professional cycling for years when it comes to the use of performance enhancing drugs. Kimmage, Manzano, Basson . . . it's always the same, year in and year out. For all the grief Greg Lemond got for his recent comments regarding Armstrong, this was what he was getting at. As Lemond said, when it comes to doing anything that might threaten Armstrong's carefully-preserved reputation, it's either "you're a liar" or "you're out to destroy cycling." How ironic that, with Simeoni, we've now got Armstrong saying both things.
What Armstrong did today, to my mind, what an ugly, classless act. There was a time I would have thought it beneath him. While I've always tended to give Armstrong the benefit of the doubt in the face of the accusations regarding drug use (even given his troubling relationship with Ferrari), now I'm not so sure.
How big of you.
How about Spanish? Maricon!
I too thought it was classless. I wonder what the other riders think though, and why.
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