I Am Sick Of Lance Armstrong.

Cycling used to be one of those sports that only a a few of us cared about. Then came Lance. Never mind that he will never never never be as good a rider as Eddy Merckx.

I realise that cycling's ratings have gone through the roof--well, the cycling-version of a roof--since Lance. But during all the TDF coverage this year, I don't think Phil and Bob and the other guy could go five minutes without reminiscing about Lance. Who has retired. At least poor Axel Merckx has escaped most of the inevitable comparisons to his father. They were too busy comparing Axel to Lance.

Now that Lance let his life get rapidly out of control retired, I was hoping to hear less about him. But no! Now he's running in the New York City Marathon. Why? Get this. To raise awareness of his cancer foundation. My man, please. Have you been anywhere in America and not seen at least 30% of the people wearing those yellow bracelets? You have already achieved what we marketing people call 'saturation of brand awareness'. Livestrong is the Coca-Cola of cancer foundations.

I guess I should be happy that he's made the news for some reason besides his increasingly screwed up love life. But somewhere deep inside me I realise I'm developing an Armstrong allergy. He's becoming cycling's version of Elizabeth Taylor, spiralling out of control while desperately clinging to past accomplishments.