Lance "Plannning. . .I'm always planning"
10-08-04, 09:57 AM
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Lance "Plannning. . .I'm always planning"
I was sent this article, pretty good too.
I like his mention of those other grand tours and one day classics. . .
Armstrong at a crossroad: 'Planning. I'm always planning'
By JIM LITKE, AP Sports Columnist
October 7, 2004
CHICAGO (AP) --
Days like this are what Lance Armstrong calls the ``obligation of the
cured.''
They involve very little riding and too much talking, and his
schedule is already overcooked. But this debt is personal. Almost
eight years after his own bout with cancer, Armstrong remains
convinced he survived to accomplish something besides stringing six
straight Tour de France titles together.
``You used to have a sort of a bike show here in town a long time
ago,'' he begins, telling a story from the stage set up in a downtown
plaza. ``Just after I was diagnosed, I came to the bike show and
decided I was going to go out for a bike ride one day.''
Armstrong's tale meanders through a nearby park, which he planned to
cut through on his way to the lakefront. Instead, he reached the
other side and was stopped by a sign that read, ``The Cancer
Survivors Garden.''
``It was such an emotional time for me,'' he recalled. ``I sat in
that garden a long, long time.''
Late-afternoon shadows divide the crowd almost neatly in half, but
all of them know where the story proceeds from there. What no one
knows -- including, perhaps, even Armstrong himself -- is where it
veers next.
The only thing that seems clear at the moment, barely two months
after he zoomed down the wide boulevard of the Champs-Elys?es and
onto the pages of cycling history, is that the man doesn't want to be
rushed.
Armstrong says he'll ride in at least one more Tour de France, but he
still won't say whether it's next year or 2006. His heart tells him
to race in the Grand Tours of Italy and Spain and some of the one-day
classic spring races, to display the versatility that was the
hallmark of his mentor, Belgian racing great Eddy Merckx. His head
tells him that winning all of them in a single season might be
impossible, even for him.
Yet Armstrong still seems too competitive to sit still for long and
too devoted to advocating on behalf of fellow cancer survivors to
give up the platform. On the other hand, he conceded his conditioning
was ``pretty much at rock bottom.'' And on days when he speaks to
crowds, instead of the dozens of miles his maniacal training regimen
was composed of, his rides typically total a few hundred yards to a
stage. And so Armstrong is biding his time.
These days, that means threading himself in and out of a 3,500-mile,
eight-day relay race across America by 20 cyclists dubbed the ``Tour
of Hope'' and sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Each rider's life,
like Armstrong's, has been touched by cancer. The ride began at
midnight in Los Angeles on Sept. 30 with a few hundred people lining
the street in darkness. It will end in Saturday in Washington, D.C.
The message he delivered in Chicago and other places in between is a
simple one. Right now, only about 5 percent of adult cancer patients
take part in the clinical trials that test the efficacy of drugs
being developed to combat the disease.
``If you compare it to childhood cancers, where 60 percent of
childhood cancer patients go in a clinical trial and almost all of
them are cured, I think that puts things into perspective. And
that,'' Armstrong added, ``is what has to change in this country.''
Ranking his favorite moment along the way so far was easy. It was
when Las Vegas officials closed off The Strip to make way for him and
the pack of ``Tour of Hope'' cyclists.
``I've ridden down streets all over the world and they close down the
streets and there's a lot of people there cheering,'' he said. ``But
these people would never have that opportunity. So, to see their
faces, to turn around and look at them as they realize, 'Oh my God,
this is happening to me,' is really powerful.''
``If I was training for the Tour, I couldn't do this,'' he continued.
``I'd be based in Europe, I'd be training full-time, and really
there's no other activity outside of training, eating and sleeping.
It's a pretty boring life. But that's the way it has to be.''
Either way, it's a decision Armstrong will have to make in a hurry.
The closest thing he gave to a hint came as Armstrong stood on the
stage Wednesday and one of the other ``Tour of Hope'' participants
asked what he thinks about to cope with the mental fatigue that sets
in on a long ride.
Someone in the crowd yelled out ``Sheryl Crow,'' and Armstrong
blushed at the memory. Friends have described him as happier than
he's been in years, now that a much-publicized divorce is behind him
and his even-more public relationship with the rock star is
blossoming.
But a moment later, Armstrong considered the question and replied,
``Planning.''
``I'm always planning,'' he added.
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.
Write to him at jlitke@ap.org<
I like his mention of those other grand tours and one day classics. . .
Armstrong at a crossroad: 'Planning. I'm always planning'
By JIM LITKE, AP Sports Columnist
October 7, 2004
CHICAGO (AP) --
Days like this are what Lance Armstrong calls the ``obligation of the
cured.''
They involve very little riding and too much talking, and his
schedule is already overcooked. But this debt is personal. Almost
eight years after his own bout with cancer, Armstrong remains
convinced he survived to accomplish something besides stringing six
straight Tour de France titles together.
``You used to have a sort of a bike show here in town a long time
ago,'' he begins, telling a story from the stage set up in a downtown
plaza. ``Just after I was diagnosed, I came to the bike show and
decided I was going to go out for a bike ride one day.''
Armstrong's tale meanders through a nearby park, which he planned to
cut through on his way to the lakefront. Instead, he reached the
other side and was stopped by a sign that read, ``The Cancer
Survivors Garden.''
``It was such an emotional time for me,'' he recalled. ``I sat in
that garden a long, long time.''
Late-afternoon shadows divide the crowd almost neatly in half, but
all of them know where the story proceeds from there. What no one
knows -- including, perhaps, even Armstrong himself -- is where it
veers next.
The only thing that seems clear at the moment, barely two months
after he zoomed down the wide boulevard of the Champs-Elys?es and
onto the pages of cycling history, is that the man doesn't want to be
rushed.
Armstrong says he'll ride in at least one more Tour de France, but he
still won't say whether it's next year or 2006. His heart tells him
to race in the Grand Tours of Italy and Spain and some of the one-day
classic spring races, to display the versatility that was the
hallmark of his mentor, Belgian racing great Eddy Merckx. His head
tells him that winning all of them in a single season might be
impossible, even for him.
Yet Armstrong still seems too competitive to sit still for long and
too devoted to advocating on behalf of fellow cancer survivors to
give up the platform. On the other hand, he conceded his conditioning
was ``pretty much at rock bottom.'' And on days when he speaks to
crowds, instead of the dozens of miles his maniacal training regimen
was composed of, his rides typically total a few hundred yards to a
stage. And so Armstrong is biding his time.
These days, that means threading himself in and out of a 3,500-mile,
eight-day relay race across America by 20 cyclists dubbed the ``Tour
of Hope'' and sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Each rider's life,
like Armstrong's, has been touched by cancer. The ride began at
midnight in Los Angeles on Sept. 30 with a few hundred people lining
the street in darkness. It will end in Saturday in Washington, D.C.
The message he delivered in Chicago and other places in between is a
simple one. Right now, only about 5 percent of adult cancer patients
take part in the clinical trials that test the efficacy of drugs
being developed to combat the disease.
``If you compare it to childhood cancers, where 60 percent of
childhood cancer patients go in a clinical trial and almost all of
them are cured, I think that puts things into perspective. And
that,'' Armstrong added, ``is what has to change in this country.''
Ranking his favorite moment along the way so far was easy. It was
when Las Vegas officials closed off The Strip to make way for him and
the pack of ``Tour of Hope'' cyclists.
``I've ridden down streets all over the world and they close down the
streets and there's a lot of people there cheering,'' he said. ``But
these people would never have that opportunity. So, to see their
faces, to turn around and look at them as they realize, 'Oh my God,
this is happening to me,' is really powerful.''
``If I was training for the Tour, I couldn't do this,'' he continued.
``I'd be based in Europe, I'd be training full-time, and really
there's no other activity outside of training, eating and sleeping.
It's a pretty boring life. But that's the way it has to be.''
Either way, it's a decision Armstrong will have to make in a hurry.
The closest thing he gave to a hint came as Armstrong stood on the
stage Wednesday and one of the other ``Tour of Hope'' participants
asked what he thinks about to cope with the mental fatigue that sets
in on a long ride.
Someone in the crowd yelled out ``Sheryl Crow,'' and Armstrong
blushed at the memory. Friends have described him as happier than
he's been in years, now that a much-publicized divorce is behind him
and his even-more public relationship with the rock star is
blossoming.
But a moment later, Armstrong considered the question and replied,
``Planning.''
``I'm always planning,'' he added.
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.
Write to him at jlitke@ap.org<
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Odio la gente, tutti.
Want to upgrade your membership? Click Here.
