Because Armstrong keeps winning, the spotlight of suspicion has shone brightest on him, the other riders simply incapable of accepting that Armstrong is stronger of will and more talented than they. His resting heartbeat is barely 30 beats a minute and his heart is a third larger than a normal man’s.

Coming back from testicular cancer that nearly killed him, he’s trained harder and more scientifically than anyone. Widely perceived as a good guy, he is, to his core, a heartless and single-minded assassin. And his sights are set on just one target, and it isn’t the Tour de Georgia. It’s his race, the Tour de Lance.

Get over it France. You, too, Germany. Ditto, Spain and Italy and the Netherlands and Belgium and Ireland and all the other countries that have tried and failed to run down Lance Armstrong.

The guy wins because he’s better than all of you. If you want to beat him, you have to do it on the roads of France, through the farms and up and down the mountains. It can be done, because there isn’t anyone who’s ever lived who can’t be beaten. And at nearly 34 years of age, Armstrong is pushing the envelope to the breaking point.

It’s as if the French think that if they prick Armstrong with enough needles and take enough blood out of him, they’ll get the edge they need. If they can’t run him down on a bike, maybe they can harass him until he loses his focus.

Fat chance. All the French are doing is ticking Armstrong off. Annoy him with enough needle pricks and he’ll just take it out on your riders on the course.

If you test him, test everybody. If you don’t test everybody, don’t test him.

Then sit back and try to appreciate something you haven’t seen from one of your own in the 20 years since Bernard Hinault won his fifth race — the best in the world doing what he does best for the last time.

It’s Independence Day, France. Lay off our Lance.

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