Lance Armstrong

Here at the blog we like to serve up fresh and tasty nuggets of nonsense, but today we are going to follow the plan used by bakeries worldwide and serve up one or two day old leftovers instead. (I would say that we were offering these leftovers at a reduced price, but since the blog is free, the only way I could reduce the price would be by paying you to read this stuff, and I’d rather not. You’ll have to take your chances without monetary compensation.)

Lance Armstrong crashed hard in Monday’s opening stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León and was transported by ambulance to a hospital in nearby Palencia, Spain. Race organizers and the Astana team doctor confirmed that the seven-time Tour de France champion had broken his right collarbone after Armstrong underwent an X-ray at a hospital in the city of Valladolid.

“Lance suffered a fracture of the middle third of the right collarbone as well as some bruises on his right hip and arm,” said team doctor Pedro Celaya, who was with Armstrong at the hospital.

Armstrong left the hospital Monday evening and said he was "miserable." "It has never happened before, I feel very disappointed," he told reporters as he left the hospital. "I feel miserable right now so I have to relax a few days."

He nodded when asked if he would return to the United States, telling reporters his participation in the Giro d'Italia in May "will be very complicated."

Now, Lance Armstrong is, of course, a worldwide success story, an immensely wealthy man and someone who competed successfully at the highest levels of his sport. I am a guy sitting behind a keyboard pretty much because I can’t think of anything more entertaining to do, so when it comes to choosing between the two of us, your best bet is to go with Lance. Now, you would think that this would pretty much be a cue to me to end this post here, but, since I can’t take my own advice, I shall now type some more words.

Lots of people have been watching Lance’s comeback at the ripe old age of 37. (Since I am older than Lance, I get a bit depressed when I hear people talking about how old the poor fellow is, practically in his dotage and all that, but it does seem to be a point that a lot of people feel a need to comment on.)

In his heyday as a professional cyclist (and if “heyday” isn’t a strange word, I don’t know what is) Lance was renowned for his mental toughness and resilience. I guess we’ll see if taking a few years off from racing has done anything to reduce that mental toughness now.

And, speaking of mental toughness…

I have been doing paperwork all day. This requires a sort of physical endurance, I suppose, and it definitely requires some mental diligence and effort. What I really want to be doing is…riding my bike. Yes, we are all stunned by this revelation – the guy writing the cycling blog wishes he were out writing his bike. It’s very cold out today. The weather is going from frigid to quite temperate every few hours, apparently unable to make up its mind, but, cold or not, windy or not, I wish I was out there. (It is easy to say that you wish you were on the road in spite of the wind when you know you have no chance of getting out there, but in this particular case it happens to be true.)

Lance is having some enforced time off the bike. I’m having some enforced time off the bike (and there all similarities between us end.) I hope that you are managing to get some ride time. If you are, have fun.

See you on the road.