I had already read that article, it's typical of Bayless, although I don't disagree with some of what he writes, I would only say, it is apples and oranges when it comes to sports, the fact that Lance CHOSE to ride a bicycle as opposed to learning a ball sport means zero, zilch. All great athletes, or actually most great athletes, LEARN to play a sport, LEARN and DEVELOP hand eye coordination, PRACTICE until they practically faint to perfect a move or improve a portion of their game, virtually none, and I do mean NONE, would be great without dedicated, hard work, exceptions being someone who is so huge they simply have no equal, Shaq for example, but I daresay there is not an athlete in the ball sports who could compete for even one stage of a serious bicycling stage race, and Bayless's comment about him having perfect equipment is laughable when compared to the millions of dollars spent on trainers, euipment, therapists, scientific regimens and all the other perfect effort that goes into giving the professional ball sport athlete an edge, Lance's equipment isn't even worth 10 minutes work for Shaq in a given game, this is simply a joke.
If a naturally talented athlete like Lance had applied himself to say baseball, and LEARNED and DEVELOPED hand eye cooridation like all ball players must, who's to say where he would be in the Majors, likewise a ball sport athlete who had chosen instead to master the SPORT of endurance riding and supreme physical fitness? Crossover athlete like Bo Jackson only prove my point, they are so EXTREMELY rare as to be almost a nonfactor. Look at Jordan, his failure at baseball by Bayless' criteria relegates him to: "So what he can play basketball? He can't play baseball so he is less than brilliant". So what Lance can't play baseball, Joe Montanta probably couldn't have played pro Baseball at the level he played football, so he is less of an athlete than Wille Mays was? Give me a small break?
When you stand athletes side by side, and when it comes down to pure, unadulterated physical fitness and conditioning, Lance Armstrong has no equals, period. Being a ridiculously avid rider myself, I know what kind of balance, control, focus, and dedication it takes to ride at a high rate of performance. Add to that the fact that in the Tour De France, you do over 100 miles a day (the longest stage is 143 miles) for 21 days in a crowd of 200 riders with completely uncontrolled crowds pressing in on you, throwing water on you, waving flags and towels in your face, often while you are moving at better than 30 MPH, avoiding crashes in front of you, fighting off challenges from 200 riders behind you, to the professional bicycle racer, that is the 7th game of the world series or the NBA Finals, it is the Superbowl, and it is not you against one batter, one defender, one free safety, it is you against 200 other riders who would do anything, including gang up on you, to destroy you. You have 21 chances to win even just one stage and it is so rare that riders will ride the Tour for 15 years and never come close to winning a stage, Lances teammate George Hincappie won his first stage this year after 10 straight years riding the tour and said now he can retire a happy man having won one yellow jersy, in 210 tries. It is so difficult to do that in the cycling world, stage winner in the The Tour De France behind a rider's name is equivelant to having a Superbowl ring.
I never said Lance is the best ball sport player, I said when it comes to being a purely physical fit athlete, he is the best that ever lived.
