First - my usual Lance Armstrong Live Strong Sirius Radio recap. Had to PVR it, since I was at McLane Pacific. They changed the show time a bit, so I don’t think I got the last part of it. It’s great that Sirius Radio can be so flexible about the start time, but it sucks if one is trying to record it. So Higgs was in Atlanta and Lance was in Paris for Paris-Nice. He said there was snow everywhere and freezing cold. Said Paris looked like the winter wonderland bit.
Prologue at Paris-Nice was “Not so good for me” - Lance said it’s been a while since he raced and it was 34 degrees with snow all over the place. Lance came in 140th - Higgs said he didn’t think he’d ever seen that number next to Lance’s name in the results before. Lance said that sometimes people along the way can be pretty fanatic about riders from their own country. But during the Prologue, Lance said he received such overwhelming support from cycling fans along the route that he wanted to thank everyone who cheered for him along the way, cause he was really suffering. He said people were just fantastic to him...
Johan was on the line for a while with Higgs - he was not happy at all about the team’s results in the Prologue. He said the Spring Classics group is fulfilling their responsibilities, but the Tour group gave him “reasons not to be happy” with their TT ride. Someone had asked Lance if he would ever consider becoming a directeur sportif - he said he had no plans to go that route. Higgs asked Johan if he would want Lance as a DS - Johan diplomatically said that he would rather have Lance as a consultant.
Just as I thought I’d heard a couple of shows ago, Lance said that he wanted to race the Philly Wachovia series this year but Johan said no to the idea. (Remember I told you that Lance said something about College taking the motorcoach to Philly?) Speaking of that, Higgs told a funny story about Tour of Georgia last year and Higgs’ brother, Dan, who is a police officer in Atlanta. Not long after College crashed into the stop sign and messed up the motorcoach, it seems that Dan came into the team dining room one evening, and pranked Johan. In full uniform, Dan asked to speak with Johan and gave Johan “the official investigation into hit-and-run, fugitive from the law” bit. Only Lance and Sheryl and Higgs were in on the prank, and I guess they really had Johan going.
Some gal called and asked Lance to motivate her to lose weight - she's training for a ride, etc. Long story from her, but Lance said it just comes down to Math - pure and simple math. Intake versus output, and that is what he does to stay at his riding weight. She finally got Lance to say hello to her kid and the call ended - finally.
One listener asked Lance about retirement plans and whether Lance will stay involved in the sport or walk away altogether. Lance said that “one prominent American” walked away totally, and that he (Lance) will not do that. Lance said he loves the sport and will always support cycling and stay involved as part of his responsibilities.
Lance talked about his commitment to cancer survivorship and to his kids. He said that these two commitments take priority to doing other races. Said people ask why he does not do the Vuelta and Giro, etc, but that his commitment and the responsibility that he feels to cancer research are more important - his real team are the millions of people who have joined the fight against cancer. So he rides the Tour of Hope and the Ride for the Roses for that team of millions - much more important than any other race. When asked by people, “Why don’t you race more?” Lance says his obligation to cycling is temporary, but fighting cancer and the Ride for the Roses is Lance’s life and his commitment to that will last forever.
OK - now a bit about the McLane Pacific road stage on Sunday. I got the media van to drop me off at the top of a third roller on Cox’s Ferry Road, just before the downhill left turn onto Keyes Road (a few miles from the finish). Dudes, that turned into Blood Alley - there were four crashes right after the top, where I was standing. There were two bad spots in the road in the same place, and the riders were flying off the top, hitting those spots and eating it bigtime. We had one guy on the right side, on gal in the middle and two gals on the left side waiting for ambulance and EMT.
I ended up course marshaling and directing the oncoming racers away from riders who were down. Good thing there were a couple of us photogs there to direct the riders - they had no way of knowing anything was wrong until they were coming over the top. Could have been really ugly. The race officials and sheriff’s finally coned and yellow taped that entire side of the road off to prevent any more crashes. So I missed the shot of Tony Cruz taking a long pull at the front because I was waving the riders to the side instead of taking shots...
An aside from the farmlands of Merced - one pissed-off rancher dumped a truck load of manure across the closed race road right before start time. The race guys had to drive like mad to get there and shovel it off. The start was delayed a half hour. A whole new version of road rage - this guy literally gave them shit... Some other unseen guy was out shooting gophers somewhere around the finish line - everyone was kinda wondering exactly who the target was.. Pow, pow, pow - he was blazing away and nobody could see where he was - sorta on the other side of the field somewhere. The cops came flying over, but the guy got away...
McLane Pacific was a great little race with great people, and for sure, I’ll be back there next year...
Prologue at Paris-Nice was “Not so good for me” - Lance said it’s been a while since he raced and it was 34 degrees with snow all over the place. Lance came in 140th - Higgs said he didn’t think he’d ever seen that number next to Lance’s name in the results before. Lance said that sometimes people along the way can be pretty fanatic about riders from their own country. But during the Prologue, Lance said he received such overwhelming support from cycling fans along the route that he wanted to thank everyone who cheered for him along the way, cause he was really suffering. He said people were just fantastic to him...
Johan was on the line for a while with Higgs - he was not happy at all about the team’s results in the Prologue. He said the Spring Classics group is fulfilling their responsibilities, but the Tour group gave him “reasons not to be happy” with their TT ride. Someone had asked Lance if he would ever consider becoming a directeur sportif - he said he had no plans to go that route. Higgs asked Johan if he would want Lance as a DS - Johan diplomatically said that he would rather have Lance as a consultant.
Just as I thought I’d heard a couple of shows ago, Lance said that he wanted to race the Philly Wachovia series this year but Johan said no to the idea. (Remember I told you that Lance said something about College taking the motorcoach to Philly?) Speaking of that, Higgs told a funny story about Tour of Georgia last year and Higgs’ brother, Dan, who is a police officer in Atlanta. Not long after College crashed into the stop sign and messed up the motorcoach, it seems that Dan came into the team dining room one evening, and pranked Johan. In full uniform, Dan asked to speak with Johan and gave Johan “the official investigation into hit-and-run, fugitive from the law” bit. Only Lance and Sheryl and Higgs were in on the prank, and I guess they really had Johan going.
Some gal called and asked Lance to motivate her to lose weight - she's training for a ride, etc. Long story from her, but Lance said it just comes down to Math - pure and simple math. Intake versus output, and that is what he does to stay at his riding weight. She finally got Lance to say hello to her kid and the call ended - finally.
One listener asked Lance about retirement plans and whether Lance will stay involved in the sport or walk away altogether. Lance said that “one prominent American” walked away totally, and that he (Lance) will not do that. Lance said he loves the sport and will always support cycling and stay involved as part of his responsibilities.
Lance talked about his commitment to cancer survivorship and to his kids. He said that these two commitments take priority to doing other races. Said people ask why he does not do the Vuelta and Giro, etc, but that his commitment and the responsibility that he feels to cancer research are more important - his real team are the millions of people who have joined the fight against cancer. So he rides the Tour of Hope and the Ride for the Roses for that team of millions - much more important than any other race. When asked by people, “Why don’t you race more?” Lance says his obligation to cycling is temporary, but fighting cancer and the Ride for the Roses is Lance’s life and his commitment to that will last forever.
OK - now a bit about the McLane Pacific road stage on Sunday. I got the media van to drop me off at the top of a third roller on Cox’s Ferry Road, just before the downhill left turn onto Keyes Road (a few miles from the finish). Dudes, that turned into Blood Alley - there were four crashes right after the top, where I was standing. There were two bad spots in the road in the same place, and the riders were flying off the top, hitting those spots and eating it bigtime. We had one guy on the right side, on gal in the middle and two gals on the left side waiting for ambulance and EMT.
I ended up course marshaling and directing the oncoming racers away from riders who were down. Good thing there were a couple of us photogs there to direct the riders - they had no way of knowing anything was wrong until they were coming over the top. Could have been really ugly. The race officials and sheriff’s finally coned and yellow taped that entire side of the road off to prevent any more crashes. So I missed the shot of Tony Cruz taking a long pull at the front because I was waving the riders to the side instead of taking shots...
An aside from the farmlands of Merced - one pissed-off rancher dumped a truck load of manure across the closed race road right before start time. The race guys had to drive like mad to get there and shovel it off. The start was delayed a half hour. A whole new version of road rage - this guy literally gave them shit... Some other unseen guy was out shooting gophers somewhere around the finish line - everyone was kinda wondering exactly who the target was.. Pow, pow, pow - he was blazing away and nobody could see where he was - sorta on the other side of the field somewhere. The cops came flying over, but the guy got away...
McLane Pacific was a great little race with great people, and for sure, I’ll be back there next year...
posted by velogal at
7:45 AM
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