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.......

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"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...