Riding With a Legend

jjr071160 said:

(Before I start I went back and read the many posts that would disagree with
me on this, no flaming necessary)

Last Friday I had the an opportunity to ride with Greg LeMond, 3 time Tour
de France Champion at the kickoff event for the 2004 Trek 100 which raises
money for children's cancer research. In a nutshell, what a treat; not so
much as having the guy 3 feet to my left talking to me being Greg, not
watching his technique (I need all the help I can get), but seeing what a
regular guy he is. In these days of athletes being me-me and really
self-absorbed (including that guy that's going for his 6th TDF victory this
year), Greg was as interested in listening to someone talk about their bike
or their best ride as he was about telling of how we won de Tour in by 8
seconds. Matter of fact, he didn't bring anything up about himself. He
kidded us that we could all drop him and take it easy on him. I asked him
if he would be kind enough to sign a poster I had laminated of him when be
was SI's Sportsman of the Year in '89 and he said no problem at all. I
brought it to the dinner that evening and he got a real charge out of it;
"That's when I was skinny, had poofy hair, and went fast." They broke out a
huge box of posters of him winning the Worlds in '89 and he was signing them
for everyone writing things like, "You could have beat me that day." My
camera was on low battery so it took a few seconds to cycle up and he was
very patient with it, just had a great time. My buddy, who is just getting
started with cycling but very enthusiastic, asked Greg about training and he
spent 10 minutes with him going over what works and how to do it
properly.The best thing of the entire weekend is the riders raised over
$500,000 for research but for the 82 of us in the Century Club it was extra
special. It was very cool to not only meet someone I look up to for his
biking ability but that he didn't feel any better than I am. If other
professional athletes were like him we could actually have them as role
models.

Check out the next Lemond generation.......

http://www.sdbc.org/photos/displayimage.php?pid=322&fullsize=1

"jjr071160" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(Before I start I went back and read the many posts that would disagree with
me on this, no flaming necessary)

Last Friday I had the an opportunity to ride with Greg LeMond, 3 time Tour
de France Champion at the kickoff event for the 2004 Trek 100 which raises
money for children's cancer research. In a nutshell, what a treat; not so
much as having the guy 3 feet to my left talking to me being Greg, not
watching his technique (I need all the help I can get), but seeing what a
regular guy he is. In these days of athletes being me-me and really
self-absorbed (including that guy that's going for his 6th TDF victory this
year), Greg was as interested in listening to someone talk about their bike

Yeah, you're right. Lance should be told he needs to help raise money
for cancer research and awareness. Imagine the short-sightedness
of Lance -- ignoring all and sundry and going for his 6th.

Sheesh!

I am a huge fan of Lemond, but was there any mention of his
2 or 3 virtual Tour wins?

Quoted message said:

or their best ride as he was about telling of how we won de Tour in by 8
seconds. Matter of fact, he didn't bring anything up about himself. He
kidded us that we could all drop him and take it easy on him. I asked him
if he would be kind enough to sign a poster I had laminated of him when be
was SI's Sportsman of the Year in '89 and he said no problem at all. I
brought it to the dinner that evening and he got a real charge out of it;
"That's when I was skinny, had poofy hair, and went fast." They broke out a
huge box of posters of him winning the Worlds in '89 and he was signing them
for everyone writing things like, "You could have beat me that day." My
camera was on low battery so it took a few seconds to cycle up and he was
very patient with it, just had a great time. My buddy, who is just getting
started with cycling but very enthusiastic, asked Greg about training and he
spent 10 minutes with him going over what works and how to do it
properly.The best thing of the entire weekend is the riders raised over
$500,000 for research but for the 82 of us in the Century Club it was extra
special. It was very cool to not only meet someone I look up to for his
biking ability but that he didn't feel any better than I am. If other
professional athletes were like him we could actually have them as role
models.

"jjr071160" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(Before I start I went back and read the many posts that would disagree with
me on this, no flaming necessary)

Last Friday I had the an opportunity to ride with Greg LeMond, 3 time Tour
de France Champion at the kickoff event for the 2004 Trek 100 which raises
money for children's cancer research. In a nutshell, what a treat; not so
much as having the guy 3 feet to my left talking to me being Greg, not
watching his technique (I need all the help I can get), but seeing what a
regular guy he is. In these days of athletes being me-me and really
self-absorbed (including that guy that's going for his 6th TDF victory this
year),

(snip)

Greg is also responsible for the huge contracts cyclists now sign. He
wanted a lot of money when he left La Vie Claire (I believe) and got
it. Isn't collecting millions of dollars in salary one of the criteria
for being a "me-me" guy?

My point is that Greg is probably everything you said he was. Was it
necessary to bash Armstrong to laud Lemond? Even a legend like Lemond
has done things that might clash with that "regular guy" image he has.

Does anyone remember Greg's Taco Bell commercial? I only saw it once,
but its image is burned into my brain. Laugh-out-loud funny.

Roland

(Roland2k) said:

"jjr071160" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(Before I start I went back and read the many posts that would disagree with
me on this, no flaming necessary)

Last Friday I had the an opportunity to ride with Greg LeMond, 3 time Tour
de France Champion at the kickoff event for the 2004 Trek 100 which raises
money for children's cancer research. In a nutshell, what a treat; not so
much as having the guy 3 feet to my left talking to me being Greg, not
watching his technique (I need all the help I can get), but seeing what a
regular guy he is. In these days of athletes being me-me and really
self-absorbed (including that guy that's going for his 6th TDF victory this
year),

(snip)

Greg is also responsible for the huge contracts cyclists now sign. He
wanted a lot of money when he left La Vie Claire (I believe) and got
it. Isn't collecting millions of dollars in salary one of the criteria
for being a "me-me" guy?

My point is that Greg is probably everything you said he was. Was it
necessary to bash Armstrong to laud Lemond? Even a legend like Lemond
has done things that might clash with that "regular guy" image he has.

I think it should also be pointed out that this was a fund raiser.
Lance also does a fund raiser for a cancer cause and I've been told
he's also very easy to approach on it, actually taking the time to
thank every person on the ride for coming out.

You get what you donate for...

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Roland

MT

Michael Thomas said:

I think it should also be pointed out that this was a fund raiser.
Lance also does a fund raiser for a cancer cause and I've been told
he's also very easy to approach on it, actually taking the time to
thank every person on the ride for coming out.

Lance has also appeared at two fund raisers in the Annapolis area for
cancer treatment centers (the Pat Sajak Buuilding, for one - Pat Sajak
and his wife contributed a good chunk of the money for no other reason
than they live in the area and wanted to contribute.) It wasn't just a
drop in and leave - he spent some time with the people.

Just because my wife is an oncology nurse, SHE gets to meet Lance. I'm
almost as jealous about that as the time when the Army Humvee picked
her up in the snow storm to get her to work. My wife told the kid
driving the Humvee that there was a snowdrift at the entrance and his
reply was, "No ma'am, not anymore."

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...