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So it has been a few months since the Lance/Oprah interview and although there have been more burblings about court cases and movies people have moved on for now. So my mind turns to the winter and my dilemma. I have always been a keen fan of collecting team kits and riding/commuting in them. I have some complete sets of USPS kits from 2000 black/white and 2001 blue /red. I have enjoyed wearing these kits for over a decade and worn them on hundreds of occasions, but now I am embarrassed to see them sitting there on my shelf slowly working themselves to the bottom of the pile.
My philosophy has always been to have multiple uniforms to give me a variety of things to wear, there is always something clean and dry in soggy Manchester, and it greatly reduces the damage on the kits as they are in rotation. Maybe some days are red Saeco Thurdays. This way my kits can last for years and they have. I even go as far as buying two pairs of shorts for each jersey to reduce wear, and I have always been able to find other matching jackets etc. on ebay. So over the years I have built up quite a collection. I also have, Once, Saeco, Gerolsteiner, Leopard Trek items from the last 14 years of riding. In the meantime plenty of their riders have doped but none are like Lance. I doubt most people would be bothered what team the jerseys are from except US Postal.
I suppose this was to be expected as the rumours have been building for years, but way back when I first bought this kit I was just a kid but the only time you saw Lance was on the Channel4’s Tour de France coverage, half an hour a day for three weeks a year; there wasn’t any of the multiple streams going on like today. I just though it was sport, no more significant than a ManU shirt. It is a bit like seeing Morrissey in a bar, telling him you love his music, then he calls you uncooth and you are not allowed to like his music (which I do,) but at least we know Morrissey will do that. This is like Lance trying to steal back my years of happy riding.
I doubt pedestrians and motorists care what I wear, but I am concerned that riders I see going the other way might notice and shout out ‘cheat’ or ‘f*off Lance’ and think that I am condoning what he has done. I have already decided to never wear them to any events, just for local training, but don’t think I can part with *my* kits. I have traveled far further in them than LA ever did. The designs look as fresh today as when new. If I tried to sell them on ebay I don’t think I would get very much at all at the moment, and I can’t just chuck out hundreds of pounds of perfectly good bike kit. So I just can’t let go of them, but feel a little embarrassed to wear them. I have given the summer a rest but with limited winter kit available it might be time for the Blue to return to the streets. If I wore them would you tut or still give a wave?
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