Every time I see the WEDU Wednesday ride on Zwift, it hits me like a gut punch. It stirs up a mess of emotions—because, like it or not, Lance played a role in my cycling journey. Decades ago, when my main sport was paddling, he inspired me to take cycling more seriously, and for that, I can acknowledge his impact. But then the other side crashes in—the cheating, the lies, the ruthless way he crushed anyone who stood in his way—and it makes me sick. Zwift giving him a platform feels wrong. It’s not just about him; plenty of other cyclists cheated too, but few faced the kind of reckoning he did. Still, that doesn’t mean he should be front and center in a community that’s supposed to celebrate the spirit of the sport.
Counterpoint: If you hadn’t created this thread I’d honestly never have known.
This sport sure pays a lot of attention to the winner of the 1998 Tour de Luxembourg.
Its really odd position considering the position Zwift takes to many other things. Though they do turn a blind eye to cheating on the platform, so perhaps im wrong and its perfectly in line with their principles.
My issue with Lance was never the doping in cycling, it was (sadly) part of the culture, it was the fact he went after non-riders and really turned the screw on them when they tried to voice the truth. He destroyed peoples lives to try and save his own.
I really do like his podcast however, always great insight into racing from Lance, Johan and George.
Same here.
Pretty sad it took until around 2013 for anything to be done about his cheating and then they simply left a succession of TDF from the noughties with no official winner.
I expect he was allowed to get invloved with WEDU rides because of $$$$, he was rightly slated during the first one he hosted by an awful lot of zwift users on the ride.
Umm, No. Johann is friends with one of the WEDU founders and joins the Wednesday and Sunday rides regularly. He introduced Armstrong and that’s how it got started. The concept of money being involved is … interesting.
I have my own take on the antics of those involved in USPS and pro-racing in that era and what’s gone on since. I’ve got family and personal friends who’s life trajectory was influenced by those events so I sympathize with the OP’s take here.
I wish Lance Armstrong no ill will.
I even feel he can keep his victories, I just would like to hear or see him no more.
Lance who?
I have no idea, do some rides on Zwift even have voice overs? I have sound turned off.
Sorry if whoever that is might be famous or used to be. and if you are a cheat - then you wouldn’t like my response.
In fairness to the UCI (wow…have never typed that before…) if they vacated LA’s wins for doping but wanted a winner, consistency would have them awarding the win to the Lantern Rouge, which would be a bad look.
To clarify, there’s a weekly Wednesday ride with Lance Armstrong?!?!? I wouldn’t be opposed to joining that, if it wasn’t for my measly FTP.
It sounds like it’s an audio podcast or something like that.
Maybe people could just do some sort of power doping in those rides and use Lance as justification.
I haven’t done the ride in question so just assuming.
No thanks, doping is for wimps.
Doping has been the norm in professional cycling since its beginning in the late 1880s. That is a hundred years of doping before Lance turned pro. The best thing the sport could do is be honest by admitting reality instead of pretending it was just a few bad apples. It was a bad orchard, and by all appearance still is. Scapegoating a few individuals is ridiculous. It amounts to the UCI and blind fans still trying to deny the truth.
The WEDU ride has zero effect on the OP. Don’t like it? Don’t join.
I don’t like LA because he tried to destroy lives and sue into oblivion people who were telling the truth. No 100 year cycling tradition of that.
You could start juicing!
I’m not a Lance fan for similar reasons. I hope he has sorted himself out but I’ll pass on investigating that. I have joined one of the WEDU rides, he was not present, and it wasn’t my jam as the leader chat was contrary to my values, being more about service of self than service of others. Plenty of good group rides out there.