Cycling great Floyd Landis perfectly explains what it means to take a full measure. 🚴🚴🚴
It begins @1:16
"I decided that if I was going to be here, if I was gonna be taking these risks, I might as well just accept it and stop being afraid and stay focused ... If I'm gonna be here taking these risks, I have to either accept that that's what they are, or just quit."
If he rode tentatively, then it's the worst of both worlds where he still has roughly the same risk and no chance at a good outcome. He'd be taking a half measure when he should be taking a full one.
Quitting is lame, but it would at least have a purpose (of keeping his body safe) and not be as bad as riding tentatively.
He bucked up, and one day would become a champion at the event.
People in suits and ties would strip him of his claim to the title. But whatever. I'm not a believer that that means anything.
Doping does change the landscape.
Tyler Hamilton explains it well.
Some people will take differently to the advantage. Bodies react differently, and some people will have better tactics or even just a more aggressive risk tolerance.
So it's possible Floyd wouldn't have won if doping wasn't a thing.
But you can say the same about the people behind him in the race. You can generally taint the landscape and consider that we don't know who truly was the best natural cyclist. But it doesn't mean the 2nd and 3rd place finishers are any more worthy of the title.
The difference between them and Floyd is just random, or maybe even political and deliberate. All you know for sure is that Floyd won the race.
He's a champion.
Inspiring words from Floyd, and I am going to guess a source for your username. :)
Hehe yup!! Well the message behind Floyd is my source -- I had never heard this from him until recently.
The inspiration for my name actually comes from Breaking Bad, when Mike warns "no more half-measure, Walter" after Walter similarly takes an in-between type of move that was worse than either extreme.
Lol, good ole Breaking Bad. :)
😛 lots of lessons embedded in there
I have always been a huge fan of Cycling. I was a huge fan of Lance Armstrong. Since his doping scandal It was so much disappointment that I stoped watching cycling for some time. Before this whole scandal, he was on of my heroes and I’m sure for many people as well, it hurt that much. I hope these guys know what they are doing, because eventually it will come up one way or another. I like your writing.
Thanks!! And I think it's still fine to regard Lance as a hero. Lance the cyclist is heroic. I think heroes are better that way anyways -- we all have our skills and our gifts and I think it's fine to celebrate aspects of people and appreciate what they do well.
And of course there becomes the ethical gray area anyways when everyone is doing it. Personally I don't hold it too much against him, other than just to me it all doesn't seem worth it in terms of what you put your body through and the stress and effort etc. I at least don't hold it against him anymore than generally all competitive cyclists. But that's a separate issue.
No better way of putting it! Once you learn this you learn how to get a lot of shit done! Like he said, there's no point going half way. It's better to quit than siton the fence and get nothing done. If you choose to go, then choose to go all in! Glad he's figured that out.
Don't really know much about Floyd, but I definitely see where you're coming from. One can't ever tell who is 'natural' or who isn't. At the end of the day all you can do is enjoy the race and acknowledge the winner.
Yup! There might be some correlation with "getting caught" and "using more than the next guy", but it's a pretty inexact science (connections and the skill of covering your tracks correctly and just variance/luck seems like most of it). So to me it doesn't seem like a defining thing when they catch someone.
I'd rather just take the sport in general with a grain of salt, but then whoever wins wins.
You have a point. It’s up to the athletes whether they are willing to increase their ability in what they do. However, everything has its drawn back. You can’t think that if you use doping your health will be in a good shape after while, it will always have side effects. It’s only up to the athlete if he is willing to risk his health. I personally would rather be 4th in race and not using any substance than first first and risk my health.
Great post though!
Oh, for sure. It definitely isn't healthy. But whether the next guy who was also doping is any more worthy of the title is a different question.
Or another way to look at it is he's a champion at potentially harming your body longterm in order to win cycling races.
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Cycling is a healthy sport, I often exercise ...
Haha good! Move that body. Cycling is low impact so a great sport for your body.
I like cycling...thanks for sharing the post...
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That is an inspiring quote. It takes a very special mentality to compete at the highest level in sports. These guys are going 30 mph, and if you just bump someone it could be catastrophic. It's the same for Tom Brady who is always at risk with someone diving at his knee again while he is in a position where he will never see it coming. The risk tolerance is insane when you sit back and think about it.
I could care less about the doping or steroids in general in sports, because it's inevitable at the highest level of competition. How many of the suits take adderall to get an edge? How many porn stars take viagra?
For better or worse PED's are baked into the cake of the American Dream at this point.