Having grown up in Los Angeles, I tend to be unfazed by celebrity sightings. One exception: Paul McCartney, whom I spotted in Franklin Canyon, while I was on a bike ride in the Santa Monica Mountains a few years ago. He's one of my cultural heroes.


The other exception is Lance Armstrong, whom I rode with today. A couple of years ago, I also rode with him – and 500 other cyclists – for a couple of miles, when he put in an appearance in Hollywood. That ride, up famed Sunset Blvd., was in the dark, and getting close to Lance with hundreds of crazed cyclists, weaving in and out around each other, meant risking life and limb.


This morning, Armstrong was in town again, for the semi-annual CicLAvia, when several miles of city streets in the heart of Los Angeles are closed to motorized traffic. I knew Lance was going to be on the official's stand at 9:30 a.m.


Telling myself that I'd had my fun riding with Lance, I decided to join several regular Sunday morning cycling friends from the Los Angeles Wheelmen, to pedal a few miles to the western edge of CicLAvia. At 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning, when we started off, all the streets in L.A. were fairy empty of traffic.


Joining the wonderful CicLAvia route proper, we made our way a few miles towards downtown. As we reached City Hall, we saw a significant number of cyclists heading towards us. It was Lance and perhaps 40 other cyclists who surrounded him. My friend, photographer Ted Soqui, and I found ourselves instantly fazed by seeing Lance, and we turned around to join the parade.


Although we passed thousands of riders pedaling the opposite direction, and overtook a few hundred heading our way, virtually no one recognized who was leading our pack.


Above: the western start/finish of CicLAvia, on Melrose Ave.


Above, my friend, photographer Ted Soqui, is interviewed by the weekend sports anchor, Andy Adler, for a local t.v. station.


With so few riders around Lance – several others seemed to have fallen off the pace – it was easy this time for anyone to ride next to him, and even exchange pleasantries. Drafting Lance was a treat. When I rode next to him, I said, "I had a heart attack about a month ago and my heart rate is 50 beats above what my doctor told me to keep it at. It's worth it to ride with you. Thanks, Lance."

Armstrong didn't seem to have any retainers around him. It was just Lance Armstrong, out for a group ride in Los Angeles. No camera crew filming from a truck, as it was on the Hollywood Ride, no retinue of riders keeping the rest of us at bay. He was just a friendly bike rider who accelerated a lot faster than the rest of us; thank goodness there were some stoplights along the route to slow him down a little.




Thanks for joining me – and Lance – on the ride.

I would have enjoyed that.

Cool!

Very cool post, thank you for sharing.

Awesome pic man!

I gotta ask, it looks like you're in pretty good shape. What caused the heart attack?

damn i would've had to change my chamois if i got to ride with lance.

Awesome man!

Very nice report. Thanks for sharing.

Good question, and there's a couple of lessons to be learned here.

The first lesson is that being in shape doesn't offer iron-clad protection from a heart attack, although it certainly helps recover from one.

This was my second heart attack. The first heart attack was probably due to family history (my dad had heart disease), and some serious stress. I was in great shape, had prompt treatment, and I was back on my bike in five days (I rode slowly for a couple of weeks).

Lesson two: I was in a sort of darkly and periodically contrarian mood, a left-over of my stress from a few years ago. For whatever reason, I stopped taking aspirin for a couple of weeks. That aspirin had been keeping my blood thin enough to keep a clot from potentially forming in the little stent sitting inside a coronary artery from my first heart attack. A clot did form inside the stent, and I had my second heart attack thirty minutes after finishing a great bike ride. That clot – or rather my idiocy – came very close to killing me. What is the lesson? Take your medicine (as I now am).

Sorry for the hijack!

Is there anything you can do to repair clogged arteries?

The reason I ask is because I've always known that good health doesn't mean healthy heart - but I've never personally known anyone that had a heart attack that was in good shape.

Hope you stay on track for a great recovery

I had a lot of wiseass remarks about Lance being in Hollywood and not at the other race today.
But it's got to be cool to ride with, and meet an icon.
Paul McCartney is still a bigger icon though..... Beatles were the best, Wings were good too.

Thanks for sharing. It was really cool for Lance to accommodate everyone like that.

how exciting for you!!

Mad cool.

great pics!

Nice!! Thanks for sharing.

People in good shape have heart attacks. Think of people like basket ball star Pete Maravich and runner Jim Fixx, or cyclist Massimiliano Mantovani, who just retired due to a heart condition - they were/are all in great shape. Being in shape does not guarantee plaque won't build up in arteries. My arteries (a very small section of them) probably became clogged because my dad's arteries were clogged; all the exercise in the world wouldn't have helped.

If arteries are clogged, there's evidence that certain medications will at least slow it down, and maybe reverse it. There's a little – very little – good evidence that a vegetarian diet might reduce plaque.

Staying fit (not becoming overweight), reducing stress, and eating well – i.e. cutting down on refined foods – these are probably the best defenses against clogged arteries.

Awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Great story...great experience. Thanks for sharing.

very cool indeed.

whats up with the kid(?) holding the bike with the zipps without a rear brake?

Great story!!

Awesome story - thanks for sharing! I was out there at CicLAvia later on in the afternoon around 1pm starting in Little Tokyo. Great event, and will definitely aim to go to the next one on 6/5.

Best of luck to you and your health - take care of yourself!

Awesome. Thanks for sharing your story.

excellent!!

Very nice post with lots of great pictures.