This has been sitting in the back of my head for a while. In 2003, Iban Mayo, the Basque Euskatel-Euskadi rider, was a huge threat to Armstrong during the Tour de France. I believe Mayo even beat Armstrong during the Dauphine Libere before the Tour, which say a lot. And during the 2003 Tour, it was looking like Mayo was a serious contender until Armstrong crashed and then remounted to destroy everyone up the rest of the mountain.
Afterward, what happened to Mayo? Ever since, he’s come nowhere close to performing at the level he did in 2003. Why? What the hell happened?
Of course, I have my own conspiracy-like theory.
In 2003, Mayo hits the juice and he hits it hard. Or he finds himself a new trainer or a new doctor who finally puts him on the best possible performance-enhancing drug path. He’s now in the big leagues and ready to go for the gold.
Unfortunately, Armstrong isn’t exactly cool with giving away his Tour de France champion title and wins the race for the fifth consecutive time.
Over the next few years, Mayo consistently struggles in the mountains during the Tour. What happened? This dude had been flying, so why is he unable to step on the gas the way he did in 2003?
He’s no longer on the juice. Maybe he’s the kind of guy who says to himself, Why bother with this anymore? Maybe the guy actually has a conscience and decides to remove the needle from his ass and decides he’ll try to do it au natural. Or maybe something happened with the team, but that’s probably unlikely.
But now Mayo’s on a new team (from orange to yellow) and he just won a mountain stage in the Giro d’Italia, so what’s he up to now? Back on the juice?
No comments:
Post a Comment