Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Friday, July 19, 2002

Lance
What a guy. Unless you've been under a rock for the last few days you have probably heard that Lance Armstrong is leading the world's most grueling athletic endeavor, the mythical Tour de France. He took the yellow jersey yesterday on the climb up La Mongie. But to say it that way to to completely hide the magnitude of his accomplishment. To win at La Mongie Lance had to climb more than a mile into the Pyrrenian skies in a mere 10 miles. The average grade was 7%. How steep is 7%? The average interstate on-ramp is about 4%. At 6% they tell trucks to gear way down going up hill and to make sure they've checked their brakes before going downhill. I climb 7% grades occasionally. One hill like that I call "The Hill of Death". I take people I want to make suffer there. If you're one of my students and you want to earn my respect you ride the Hill of Death with me and you suffer...badly. Going down the Hill of Death I usually hit 40 mph. The Hill of Death is 0.75 miles long and I feel really good if I can ride it at over 12 mph. Lance rode the length of 12 Hills of Death and he did it at over 15 mph. If you've never ridden a bike up a hill like that, you have no idea how amazing what Lance did was.

Guess what? He did it again today. He won his second mountain stage in a row. When I do HoD intervals I have to recover the next day and ride easy. Lance goes out and decimates the competition. By the way, did you know that to get to the mountains Lance rode 1000 miles in 10 days? It's unbelievable. Today I did something I've never done before, I rode 1000 miles in 20 days. If you read my last blog post, you'll see how hard it was for me.

To top it all off Lance is a total sportsman. He credits his team at every turn. He lauds and praises the accomplishments of other riders in the race. He's generous and humble while not belittling himself. Not bad for a guy that 6 years ago had less than 10% chance of living though testicular cancer much less ever riding a bike for a living. He's an inspiration for me, a hero. He may crack on the Ventoux in two days or he may bury his competitors. Either way his courage calls me to greater heights in how I live. It challenges my fear and mocks the limitations I place on myself.

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