There is no doubt that Lance Armstrong’s seventh straight victory in the Tour de France, which has prompted sportswriters to rename the whole race the Tour de Lance, makes him one of the greatest U.S. athletes of all time.
What I find most impressive about Armstrong, besides his sheer willpower to triumph over cancer, is the strategic focus he brings to his work, from his prerace training regimen to the meticulous way he and his cycling team plot out every leg of the race. It is a sight to behold.
I have been thinking about them lately because their abilities to meld strength and strategy — to thoughtfully plan ahead and to sacrifice today for a big gain tomorrow — seem to be such fading virtues in American life.
The Kansas City Star ran this column by John Epperheimer in the business section today:
Like everyone else, I marveled at Lance Armstrong's seventh consecutive Tour de France bicycle race victory.
The athleticism displayed by Armstrong and the other riders was impressive enough, but I compared his accomplishment with everyday business situations because I kept considering what his success required in the way of planning and teamwork.
I wasn't the only one. Reader Peter Spielvogel, director of product marketing at Ipedo, offered these "Lessons from Lance:'"
• Focus on the immediate task.
• Keep the goal in sight -- always.
• Work harder than everyone else.
• Surround yourself with the best possible people.
• Lead by example.
• Share the rewards.
• Use technology to your advantage.
• Experiment when you have time to learn from the results and when the downside risks are small.
There is a rule in cycling that the shorter an event, the longer the warmup. For long road stages, riders barely warm up at all. Lance warms up for about 50 minutes before long individual time trials, and he'll arrive at the race site about 90 minutes before his start time to get ready and start warming up.
While Lance changes clothes in the team bus, his time trial bike will be put on a stationary trainer outside. Some of his teammates will be there warming up for their own time trials, and the others will already be on the course. Lance's 50-minute warmup is not just a simple spin to loosen up. To win a time trial, you have to be ready to ride at maximum speed from the moment you leave the start house. You have to prepare your body, otherwise the shock of going from rest to maximum effort will significantly harm your performance.
Lance's warmup is designed to wake a sleeping giant.
Question: Is bicycle racing a team or an individual sport?
Answer: It is often referred to as an individual sport practiced by teams. This means that a team, usually nine men in a race, will work for a leader by shielding him from the wind, allowing him to save about 20 percent of his energy by riding in a teammate's slipstream, and by chasing down opponents who have attacked. Most riders are hampered psychologically, and thus physically, when a rival suddenly shows up in a counterattack.
Occasionally, a teammate will give the wheel off his bicycle, or even the bicycle itself, to his leader if he has a flat tire and the team car is not there to change it. If the leader has fallen behind the pack for mechanical or physical reasons, teammates will wait for him and pace him back in their slipstream.
A strong team like U.S. Postal Service, which surrounds Lance Armstrong at the front of the pack, often demoralizes his opponents with its show of support since the opponents tend not to have similar support. In addition, a strong team will keep the race's speed so high that opponents are unable to launch an attack. Riding at this high speed is called "riding tempo.''
If a team has a strong sprinter, it will chase down breakaways near the finish and ride "a train,'' which is a line of riders who carry their sprinter in a slipstream, peeling off one after another until the sprinter launches himself toward the finish line.
A few teams have neither leaders nor sprinters and then it is truly an individual sport: Every man for himself. These teams are not often successful.
Since getting an ultimatum from his physician at the age of 40, the St. Joseph man has scaled the mountains — literally — in the quest for physical fitness.
In so doing, he has racked up some incredible numbers.
“I was having quite a bit of problem with blood pressure,” Bailey recalled. “I was in to see the doctor for a cold, and he said you’d better do something with the blood pressure or it’s going to get you.
“It was kind of a rude awakening.”
With a blood pressure reading of 195/40, the 6-foot-5, 285-pound man already found himself out of breath while trying to officiate youth hockey games, and seriously considered giving up that passion. . . .
“I started out real slow, and one thing led to another,” said Bailey, who last week surpassed 7,700 miles on his bicycle for 2005. . . .
The 43-year-old has achieved plenty since first taking his bicycle for his first arduous 41/2-mile spin around town.
Now at a trim 171 pounds, Bailey’s blood pressure has been recorded as low as 103/51, and he tossed out his blood pressure medication more than a year ago. His resting pulse, recorded about three months ago, was at just 39.
A peloton of Slate readers have e-mailed to ask: How do cycling teams work?
One member of the team serves as its leader, and the others do everything they can to help him win. In the major races, each team leader works with eight other riders, called "domestiques," who don't have much chance of winning the race themselves. . . .
What do the domestiques do? For the most part, they ride in front of the team leader. Cycling team strategy revolves around the notion that it's easier to pedal when there's someone in front of you to cut the wind. Cycling experts say that "drafting" like this can save you between 20 and 40 percent of your energy in a long event. . . .
The various teams in a road race tend to ride in one tight clump, called a peloton, so each competitor gets the benefit of drafting. Except for the guy in the lead, of course—he's said to be "pulling" the pack. The puller tires more quickly, even as he sets the pace for everyone else; after a short stint in front, he'll move back and let another rider take over. Team leaders like Armstrong tend to hang back in these clusters to conserve energy, while their teammates take turns out in front.
You may remember that MU grad student Amahia has ridden a cross-country route, and written about it on CyclExtreme's web site, each of the past two summers. Amahia's next adventure is a bike ride across China:
This trip combines three features of north China: the Great Wall, the Silk Road and the Yellow River. They are braided through the region's history and across its landscape.
I've always wanted to go to China and I chose the north because it resembles landscapes I know and love in North America. Like the American West, there are big deserts and mountains. Generally, the area is sparsely populated, contains the majority of China's minorities and is a resource extractive economy. The Great Plains and the steppes of north China and Mongolia have similarities--places good for grazing animals and fertile if irrigated. . . .
I begin my six week trip in Shanghai--on the sea and the largest city in China--then head northwest to Urumqi by train. I will return to the east by bike. I like this plan for a number of reasons, not least of which is that the prevailing winds will be at my back and it is downhill! As time and access permits, I will post journal entries.
Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article and velomobile rider (and MoBikeFed member) Jeff Kline:
Jeff Kline, a data analyst at Biomedical Systems in Maryland Heights, just received what's believed to be one of only a few dozen velomobiles in the country. . . .
The velomobile has inside fans, turn signals, a windshield wiper and a horn that could go head-to-head with any economy car. . . .
Ethan Davis, 35, operates the Web site www.velomobiles.net from southern Maine. He said there are about 45 manufactured velomobiles in the United States and thousands in Europe.
Because they're not mass-produced in this country, Davis wonders whether they'll get popular here. But they're practical, he said, because they have cargo room, are easy on the environment and save money. . . .
"I want to get a bumper sticker that says, 'My commute cost me a penny. What did yours cost you?'"
"Good bike fit promotes good posture with muscles and joints working in harmony. If this doesn't exist, riders will likely experience pain and be predisposed to injury." Moen, an "Elite Level" coach through the United States Cycling Federation and director of physical therapy at PRO Sports Club Seattle, says, "The first thing I ask any patient complaining of bicycling-related pain is to bring the bicycle in to check for a proper fit. In most instances, a poor bike fit is at the root of the problem."
Only 1 percent of America's cyclists are elite racers, Moen notes, so the majority of his patients are recreational cyclists. But he says that the same advice holds true for everyone. "It doesn't matter if you're Lance Armstrong preparing for an unprecedented seventh Tour de France victory or a leisure cyclist, bicycle fit is an individual matter that reflects a person's coordination, flexibility, strength, and skeletal parameters." He adds, "A properly fitted bicycle should allow the rider to maintain common riding positions with an acceptable level of comfort and the greatest pedaling economy."
We don't have many cattle guards in Missouri, so it was a little exciting when I ran across several of them on a recent trip to the western U.S. (Most exciting of all was spotting one just ahead on a mountain descent when we were hitting about 45 MPH . . . ).
1. ALWAYS cross cattle guards straight, not at an angle!
2. Hold the handlebar firmly and coast if crossing a cattleguard that is wet. Consider dismounting and walking across if in doubt as to your ability to cross safely.
3. Do not slow down too much! Slow speed can cause you to lose control if your front tire slips on the metal rail(s).
4. Rise off the saddle as you cross a cattle guard, using your knees and elbows as shock absorbers.
5. Be alert as you approach the cattle guard, in case there is a problem with the cattle guard. These could include: (1) Gaps between the grates parallel to your direction of travel; (2) Gaps between the grates and the pavement, perpendicular (at a right angle) to your direction of travel, on both the near and far sides; and (3) Differences in the height of adjacent grates, parallel to your direction of travel. AVOID these if they are present!
A former National Geographic photographer from Florida, Burden is now one of the nation’s top pedestrian consultants. He walks more than 1,500 miles and spends 300 days a year on the road advising communities and business leaders across the country on how to design for people, not cars.
His latest stop: Columbia. The city hired Burden to look at the stretch of Stadium Boulevard from Interstate 70 south to Broadway. The city is paying him about $3,500 per day and he will be in Columbia for one and a half days.
“The cool thing is people are figuring out we have to build real towns. And these are the perfect locations,” Burden said as he surveyed the area around what used to be the Biscayne Mall.
“It’s no better and no worse than any place I’ve looked at in America,” Burden said. “It’s ready for change.”
Last week the St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview David Fisher, Executive Director of Great Rivers Greenway.
Great Rivers Greenway is administering the new parks and greenways sales tax in St. Charles county, St. Louis county, and St. Louis city. Great Rivers has an ambitious greenways plan for the St. Louis region.
Why is the greenway plan important?
It's job attraction; it's the quality of life. What the new studies are showing is that in my age, we used to move where the jobs were. In today's age, (workers) move to where the quality of life is. Companies recognize that and move to where the people are.
So, if we make a quality of life significant enough, where people want to move here and live here, (we'll get) jobs of quality.
In Minneapolis, you developed parks along the rivers, and it created economic opportunities: bike rental shops, restaurants. Will that happen here?
I think so. Even with something as simple as the River Des Peres greenway ... people are using that now and they want to be close to something like that. We don't do ugly. People don't deserve it. It's got to be pretty, it's got to be inviting, it's got to be part of their psyche. It's about walking and talking and meeting and greeting your neighbors. It's about health and fitness, and it's about being connected.
Having difficulty getting your child to heed safety rules this summer?
Daphne Greenlee is here to help.
As coordinator of the Springfield Safe Kids Coalition, it's a busy time: She gets many calls asking her to make presentations to various youth groups or parent groups on safety topics.
"Bike safety is the biggest topic we are called to talk about in the summer, but we'll get a lot of requests on sports safety and avoiding dehydration."
The weekend warriors and the ultramarathoners, the racers and the recreation group riders, the trick riders and the tricyclists, the couriers and the cruisers and the commuters wheel through the door of Karl Becker's bicycle shop at 4282 Arsenal Street.
It's spring - May is National Bike Month - when riders wipe away the winter's cobwebs from suspended spokes. Tires need to be pumped up. Brakes adjusted. Chains oiled.
