Lance Armstrong goes off on journalist at the Amgen Tour of California press conference

A former pro cyclist, and now journalist for the London Times felt the full wrath of Lance Armstrong during a press conference preceding the Amgen Tour of California.  Paul Kimmage was bold enough to ask about Armstrong's support of two 'dopers' (Floyd Landis and Irwin Basso).  Armstrong let loose with a tirade against  Kimmage for writing a piece calling him 'the cancer' of cycling, clearly a metaphor for the alleged use of Armstrong's PEDs leading to his multiple Tour de France wins.

Kimmage apparently has violated the la cosa nostra code of omerta within the cycling doping fraternity by 'spitting in the soup'.  That brought him vitriol from multiple outposts of cycling.  Perhaps his metaphor was not appropriate in discussing Armstrong (should he have used 'venereal disease', which would also make everyone uncomfortable;  maybe 'common cold').

Armstrong told Kimmage he "wasn't worth the chair he was sitting on".  Nice comments from a guy who is a purported humanitarian.  Although Armstrong took umbrage at the 'cancer'  metaphor, he needed to understand the comments were a metaphor only.  The journalist was not endorsing cancer.  The journalist was not promoting cancer.  The journalist in the past used cancer as a metaphor and was not using it in his question.

Armstrong wimped out by saying 'Floyd doesn't believe he is guilty' (and has any doper ever believed he is guilty; forget that international courts found Landis red-handed guilty), then added some other illogical verbiage.  Here is a report from The Examiner (complete with video):

Last night, I sat in the second row of the Amgen Tour of California Press Conference. I listened to and asked questions of cycling greats like Basso, Fiere, Cavendish, Hamilton, Leipheimer, Vande Velde, Brooke Miller (winner of last year’s women’s race)and Lance Himself. Everything was going as press conferency as usual...

Lance asked the gentleman his name. The man answered, “Paul Kimmage.” I render a guess Paul may have legally changed it by now. Kimmage, a former pro cyclist from the ‘80s and author of doping expose Rough Ride, is known for exposing the use of drugs in cycling. This is good! The problem? He thinks Lance’s general popularity has made the scandal of doping “disappear”. This is bad! This, however, is even worse: When Lance began his comeback, Kimmage said, in a September interview, “Well he [Lance] is the cancer in this sport. And for four years this sport has been in remission. And now the cancer's back." Kimmage literally called Lance Armstrong “a cancer.” Lance responded in what I can only describe as verbal chemotherapy. And an awesomely high dosage at that.

And Armstrong's response:

"I am here to fight this disease. I am here so I don't have to deal with it, you don't have to deal with it, none of us have to deal with it, my children don't have to deal with it. Yet you said I am the cancer. And the cancer is out of remission. So it goes without saying, no, we aren't going to sit down and do an interview."

“You [pointing at Kimmage] are not worth the chair you’re sitting on.”

The problem here was that Kimmage didn't judge the crowd in the room.  He essentially went into the Roman forum and asked the Cesar if Rome, indeed doesn't suck...not a good idea.

Armstrong, feeling all righteously indignant, and riding for his 'cause' (although the comeback is more about Lance the personality than Lance the cancer fighter) unleashed an unprofessional and undignified tirade on the journalist, clearly veering from the topic and the question.  Methinks he protested too much.

A more professional response would have been to coolly kept on-topic.

Pro cycling will never rid itself of doping (and it has proven that competitors will drug cheat with disturbing regularity at every opportunity) while the cycling mafia controls the enterprise (and rooms like this).

Cycling fans and various groupies will adorn Armstrong with attention.  Pro cycling will ignore doping, to the determent of the fairness of the sport.  Denial is a powerful force.  Death and disability from doping is powerful too.

Remember, doping kills -- just like cancer.

Comments

[FromLancetoLandis]

Though Kimmage's words seem a bit strong, Lance certainly took heavy offense. If Lance has nothing to hide, I think he would have been a bit more moderate in his response, instead, tasteless as Kimmage's words are, we wonder if Armstrong's responses are reminders of past bullying acts by the 7-time Tour de France champion.

Lance, hires once suspended Ivan Basso, Lance had as his doctor Ferrari who must be notable for EPO use, Lance chased two anti-doping cyclists down in different incidences to give them a piece of his mind, Bassons and in the second case, caught on tape, Simeoni. I mean the Simeoni incident is the reputed "zip it up" case, why would you do that to anyone? Furthermore, one can see Carmichael training systems ads on the internet. It goes to show Lance as the family man. I claim no moral highground but I'm sorry, I thought I read the guy left his wife and being unmarried is going to be a father again soon with that Olsen actress. If this is true, it is just part of the contradictory nature we are looking at with Armstrong all the time.

Kimmage, author of Rough Ride and some other books of note, was strong worded; but I've got to think, there are those out there, who are absolutely positive on even a personal level, that Lance doped so this in part could be reason for his bravery.

[Steroid Nation]

Kimmage obviously feels he was wronged in his career by the dopers. It is obvious he is on a crusade, which likely compromises his role as a journalist.

Not saying Kimmage's metaphor is appropriate; the cancer metaphor is not in great taste to describe Armstrong.

At the same time does Lance Armstrong want all the same groups he invoked, including he and his children to deal with doping? Does he think abusing EPO is any less of an issue than cancer? Is one disease more worthy than another disease?

As misplaced as the Kimmage metaphor was, the Armstrong tirade also was way out of line.

[UberSlug]

Irwin. Nice...

[John]

Did anyone else see the video made my LA's former personal assistant? This video was aired on a Local Community College TV Channel in my area, (Seattle, WA) in 2002. In it, this woman fully described when, how and why LA began taking performance enhancing drugs. To this day I wonder how such vital testimony could have been lost or removed from the public record.

[Paparidis]

The interesting point here is that ..... Kimmage himself was a doper ... by his own admission. Despite doping he could never as much as get close to the podium, let alone winning anything. So he left cycling and has been a bitter individual ever since. Now he is trying to reinvent himself, poacher come gamekeeper, and all he is doing is throwing mud and trying to smear reputations. It is unfortunate that a serious newspaper like the London Times has given provided him with a platform where he can spread his venom from.

[wq]

durp da durp