Another Favorite Book Passage
The book is "Downhill: The Life Story Of A Gravity Goddess" by Marla Streb. (Another re-read for me. I'm also re-reading Lance Armstrong's War."
She's a Masters degree research scientist who quits her job at 30 to become a pro MTB racer. In this segment, she's at Interbike, having just found out she's been released from her contract with Marin, and is scouting out a new company to work for.
"Across the aisle in the Oakley booth I spotted Lance Armstrong talking with a few product reps. Everybody in a few years would admire his story, but for now, all we knew was that this world champion road racer had gotten cancer, and then had been dumped by his team, Cofidis. He had lost a lot of weight. His swimmer's shoulders had disappeared. Of all the sponsors he had had at Interbikes in the past, only Oakley was sticking by him now. And here he was with his chin up, lining up to look for work like the rest of us. Seeing Lance like that put things in perspective for me. If he could do it, so could I. I wasn't even sick! I had only broken my wrist, that's all.
I always regretted not approaching Lance that afternoon, Just to give him a bit of encouragement. And get some in return. We were both Oakley athletes so had I wanted to, I could have marched right up to him, introduced myself, and asked him how things were going But I lacked the confidence. Lance Armstrong was just too much of a world champion, even then."
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I can't afford Oakley sunglasses, but whenever someone talks trash about them, I remind them about how they stuck by Lance, and they were the only sponsor who believed in him.
