Au Revoir Lance

The Tour de France ended Sunday with a third victory by Alberto Contador and a 23th place finish for Lance Armstrong. The most publicity he received Sunday was for wearing the wrong colored kit (that's cyclist speak for uniform). Radio Shack did win the best team prize but no one cares about that except maybe the corporate executives at Radio Shack. Lance went out as a seven time winner in 2005 and his legacy wasn't seriously damaged by his return but it doesn't add any additional luster. The current Federal investigation into doping by the Postal team will impact his image more than his last two Tour attempts. From now on his lawyers are more important than what jersey he's wearing.

The best placed American was Chris Horner, a career domestique (that means worker bee in French) who is 39 years old. He finished 10th will riding for his team leaders but ended up higher than either Armstrong or Levi Leipheimer. Horner seems to be a great guy and deserves the accolades. My guess is he'll be on a another team next year making better money.

Chris Horner—Buried by TT, Rode for Team

The Downfall of Champions

Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, crashed and burned on Stage 8 of the 2010 edition of the TdF. LA had incredibly good luck during those seven years and has suffered payback in the two years of his return. He suffered his first broken bones last year prior to the tour and this year fell and withdrew from the Tour of California. He also suffered an illness earlier this year that kept him out of another race. He did ride to second in the Tour de Swisse fueling hope for a TdF win by LA fans.

The odds of an Armstrong victory in this years tour were slim and none. The third place finish in 2009 after three years from the sport was a hell of an achievement. Apparently he truly felt he had a chance to win this year driven by his hatred of Alberto Contador. A second place finish in the Tour de Suisse fueled that drive for victory. He may have the strongest team in this year’s race (although Astana and Saxo Bank may argue the point) but they could not prevent him from suffering the ignominy of three separate crashes on Sunday.

The Floyd Landis charges may have fueled the Lance haters but they also drove his desire to prove them wrong. Desire and past glory mean nothing in any current competition especially one as strenuous and demanding as the three week long Tour de France. Whether his ill-fated return diminishes his legacy no one can take back those seven jerseys. Even the Federal government can’t take those although the final stage of that competition is yet to be decided.

I long ago decided LA doped because every competitor he defeated in those years was doing the same thing. Ullrich, Basso, Pantani (who died of an overdose), Hamilton, Landis, etc. were all using performance enhancing drugs. Anyone that reads David Walsh’s book From Lance to Landis will have a hard time disagreeing with my conclusion. He’s a great athlete but not seven years in a row great. I don’t think that EPO or steroids improve your luck in avoiding injury but they sure improve your ability to climb mountains. LA drive to win brought him those seven wins and also put him on the ground three times in Stage 8.

Michael Schumaker has equal claim to greatness in Formula 1 racing and is also a seven time champion, just as amazing a feat as Armstrong’s seven wins. Schumaker “retired” when his Ferrari team decided to move on with Kimi Raikkonen as their number one driver. Schumaker’s streak ended in 2005 as the championship was taken by Fernando Alonso in a Renault (yes those ubiquitous small French cars also go racing). He was competitive in his last years of 2006 and 2007 but retired and served as a well paid consultant to Ferrari in 2008 and 2009. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was injured in 2009 and Schumaker was tipped to be his replacement for the remainder of the season. Schumaker is an avid motorcyclist (he has ridden the Dragon) and could not drive due to any injury from a motorcycle accident earlier in the year. However this apparently fueled his desire to return to the sport.

While he was retired Lance Armstrong raced in mountain bike race called the Leadville 100 in 2008. He finished second to mountain bike pro Dave Wiens even though he wasn’t in proper condition. A few months later he announced his return to pro cycling and credits the race with igniting his desire to return. He finished third in the TdF in 2009 and then returned to Leadville to win the race which was memorialized in an excellent documentary Race Across the Sky. Wiens commented that he never raced against anyone that used the Tour de France as training for the Leadville 100.

Schumaker’s return this year for the Mercedes Racing Team is a disaster. He has yet to finish on the podium (first three places) and is usually in the middle of the pack. His best placed finish is fourth. He currently sits in ninth place in points with 36 compared to Lewis Hamilton’s first place total of 145. Needless to say Michael will not be winning his eighth championship just as Lance won’t find that eighth maillot jaune. I don’t think PEDs will help a race driver but driving the best car in the field, Ferrari, for most of those years certainly gives an advantage to any racer.

Why is it that past champions cannot sit on the sidelines and enjoy life after their victories? Is it because their entire existence and reason for being is wrapped in the single minded pursuit of one goal? Apparently the focus required to win championships isn’t turned off and on with a switch. But the toll of aging takes Lance Armstrong farther away from Alberto Contador and Michael Schumaker from Lewis Hamilton. Time waits for no one.

Ride to Work, Work to Ride

Some friends I used to ride with had the slogan "Ride to Eat, Eat to Ride" so I'll rip off their catch phrase for the title of this piece. Last year one of my resolutions was to ride to work at least once a week. It turned out to be more like once a month. This year I made the same promise to myself and have met the goal….for the last two weeks. I can blame my earlier failure on the horrible weather in middle Tennessee. Before and after the Great Flood of 2010 it has been unusually wet. Now July promises to be particularly dry. Go figure.

The United States has one of the unhealthiest populations of any major developed country. Tennessee was just ranked as the second fattest state in the nation (thank God for Mississippi). Michelle Obama is leading an effort to get our children off their fat butts and the Republicans are probably in opposition. I've been involved in an effort to start a statewide advocacy group to grow walking and biking in Tennessee so I thought I should do a little myself.

I rode on Bike to Work Day this year but since I had the day off I just turned around and went home. That makes it much easier but a couple of days in the last week I actually got out of bed an hour earlier, ate my healthy breakfast, mounted by bike and started my ten mile ride.

I ride around east Nashville on a regular basis so I've got a pretty good idea of the best route to take. I stay on residential streets as much as possible and the traffic is pretty light. I usually cruise by Lockeland Springs School and during the school year I'm greeted by the crossing guards. I sometimes ride down Holly Street past the historic Fire Hall on my way to the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge across the same river that was a swollen maelstrom just a few weeks ago. There are some hills in east Nashville but most streets have a canopy of trees to keep it cool.

After maneuvering through downtown past the courthouse I can ride the Greenway out to Metro Center where I work. Nashville has quite a few miles of greenway and bike lanes (when there are no cars parked there) but we can do better. It tends to heat up this time of year and the downtown asphalt is already warm at 7:30 a.m. Although I arrive at work a little sweaty once I cool off and wipe down I can change into more appropriate clothing. I once read a primer on how to ride to work and it pointed out that body order is caused by bacteria and not sweat. The recommendation was to shower before leaving home and BO would not cause a problem. So far no one has complained but maybe they're just polite.

When I show up with a bike helmet in the elevator some of my colleagues are fascinated that an old geezer like myself would ride a bicycle at all, much less to work. Isn't it dangerous? How far do you ride (10 miles), it's great you do this, etc. etc. I don't think I've yet to inspire anyone to follow my example even though the workforce in my office is pretty representative of Tennessee's obesity ranking. This is a health care agency and some folks here are an example of how to be unhealthy.

The ride home takes longer to complete and is much hotter with more traffic. If those people would just get out of their cars and join the two wheeled brigade we would all be better off and I could get home quicker. But I can cruise along with the knowledge that my small effort to reduce my carbon footprint, maintain a healthier lifestyle and use less oil to prevent another Gulf disaster aren't very heroic but set an example for other fat Tennesseans. I doubt they're paying attention.