Offend Lance Armstrong, And Face The Consequences

The hatred so many people in the cycling world have for Lance Armstrong once seemed a little bewildering to us outsiders. The guy beat cancer! He's the only reason anyone has ever cared about cycling! He pisses off the French! What's not to like? And then he started dating Kate Hudson and jogging with Matthew McConaughey, and we started to see it a little bit: Lance Armstrong might be a hero, but he also might be a dick.

More evidence: He drove a cycling rival to a life of crack addiction.

In a former teammate's words: "Lance Armstrong was already a big star at that point. I think a lot of the young riders that were there were in awe of somebody like that. Chad wasn't necessarily somebody in awe of anything."

Other guy: "Chad walked up to Lance and called him a 'doughboy' and pushed his belly in and Lance got really upset."

Chad: "Needless to say, the next morning I was asked to leave the Olympic Training Center."

Next thing you know ... crack addiction! But you know what? We'd take crack addiction over jogging with Matthew McConaughey. We really would.

Don't Mess With Lance Armstrong [FanIQ]