Commentary – 28 Million Survivors

Lance Armstrong is a smart guy. He’s been riding the Tour de France for years. He knows the rules. I think it would be fair to say that Lance knew what he was doing this morning when he launched Team RadioShack in the beautiful black “28″ kits. He knew the officials would stop his team for a rules violation. He knew the media would be all over the story. He knew that even if Team RadioShack was made to remove the black jerseys, the message would go out and be seen all around the planet. I think the tour organizers and the officials were right in their tough stance. I think that if they let one team make radical changes during the race, other teams will want to do the same. Team RadioShack would have set precedence that would have been difficult to deal with in future Tours.

That said, The Tour officials were given ample time to cut off Team RadioShack before the start of the race. Members of Team RadioShack were clearly touting the new kits well before the race. The media was already part of the circus. It would have been just as easy to stop Team RadioShack before the race started. Instead of that, the officials allowed Team RadioShack to dawn the kits, get on the starting line and roll out with the rest of the riders. This was a very carefully orchestrated publicity stunt – and it was brilliant. Lance Armstrong and the Livestrong organization could not have paid for better publicity. The amount of time the cameras were on the team as they stopped and Lance discussed, or bickered with the officials, delaying the removal of his jersey as long as he could, was valuable time not spent covering the Tour itself. And Lance taking off without his numbers was even more fuel for the fire. People will debate whether Team RadioShack should, or should not have been allowed to wear the kits for the last stage of the race. This will not diminish the fact that the message sent by this display of support was not lost. As the parent of a cancer survivor, I applaud the effort. As a fan of the Tour de France, I applaud the decision.

By J A Bailes, staff writer