Strange as it may seem, but the Tour De France will be all the better for the retirement of Lance Armstrong.
The American did as expected when he completed his seventh successive win in the world's greatest road cycling event over the weekend, but who really cared?
The facts are that Armstrong
has become even bigger than the race itself.
He has been so dominant for such a long time that the result has become little more than a foregone conclusion.
And with that happening the whole aura of the race has taken a bashing, hasn't it?
I mean every time you turn on a television or read a newspaper all you get is Armstrong has done this, and Armstrong has done that.
It doesn't matter that many of the other riders are also fine athletes in their own right they hardly rate a mention.
In fact, as you read this tell me who finished runner-up to Armstrong in the latest edition.
I know I couldn't answer that myself without doing some research.
Somehow though it doesn't seem to matter, Lance did it again and that was that.
Sure, we all appreciate the exceptional talent of the man but wouldn't it be nice if just for once someone else was wearing that famed yellow jersey.
It would be nice too if that "someone else" was charismatic, a quality which could never be used in a Lance Armstrong profile.
I remember reading somewhere where he was described as "robotic" and I couldn't help thinking how accurate that description was.
Both on and off the bike.
On it the grim facial expression hardly changes as he batters his rivals into submission and off it he has that same school masterly look about him as he tells the world just how he won?again, again and again.
Without Lance Armstrong the Tour De France will again grab the attention of the wider sporting public.
Suddenly an event which has been for so many years a one-horse race will be open slather with any number of participants capable of emerging from the shadows.
Which for those who like a competition to be exactly that is good news, isn't it?
