Lance on Oprah

[Adventure Girl]

I know I’m a couple of days late on this, but I just watched the show (Gotta love TIVO!!). I liked this little exchange between the three of them (paraphrasing):

Oprah (to Sheryl): I hear that you rode a big hill in Spain somewhere…

Lance (very proudly): She did L’Alpe d’Huez! That’s not a hill, it’s a mountain!

Sheryl: Yeah, but it took me an hour and a half. The record is 37 minutes, and I did it in an hour and 37 minutes.

Lance: But a lot of people do it in 2 hours and 37 minutes.

Oprah: And some people can’t do it at all…. So, Mr. Livestrong, how long did it take you?

Lance (with a big smile): 37 minutes!!

But here’s the question I have for all you research hounds. Has Lance ever climbed it in 37 minutes? I thought Marco Pantani’s record was 37 minutes 35 seconds. The best time I could find for Lance was 38 minutes 1 second…

Anyone know? Maybe he’s done it in 37 minutes in training. Does that count?

[massbikebabe]

I thought the record belonged to Richard???, the climber...
Anywhoo, I did hear on local news today he IS going to do the Tour

[nuthatch]

YAY!! Now I'll have something to look forward to on those Sunday trainer rides until the weather breaks! It sure beats watching the tapes of last year's Tour over and over again!

[CorsairMac]

Sorry I'm late - been visiting with family. It was my understanding from the Tour of 2004 according to some verbal exchanges between the commentators: Lance broke Marcos record based on the distance that Marco was timed - which was not the same distance as the time trail. (either the start gate was farther back or the finish line was farther up - I don't remember which) I never heard anymore from anyone else about it tho - only that day and only from the "boys" Phil and Paul.

[MightyMitre]

That's right CorsairMac - Lance might have broken Marco's time but it wasn't over the same distance. The start line was in a slightly different place.

Also, as a MASSIVE Pantani fan, the year Marco did it in 37 mins was also at the end of a stage which finished on top of the mountain - so not only did he fly up L'Alpe, but he'd already ridden a full stage that day.

Would eat my polka dot jersey to see Mr Armstrong achieve that!

[mtbstarr]

I have been away from the 'puter. This is late but.....Lance is doing the Tour de Georgia this year. The hubby has found on the Lance website that MAJOR MAJOR Tour de France teams/contenders are going to be at this race. Could be worth a cross country travel to see. Starts the third week of April. Already have my hotel room

[skibum]

Yep, you're right. Once Lance announced that he was doing the Tour de Georgia, several other big name teams said they would be there too. Phonak, CSC, a couple of others. I imagine we'll see a few more announcements in the coming weeks.

I went last year to the stages on Fri & Sun. I plan to do Fri/Sat/Sun this year. I am very lucky that much of this race is "local" for me. Last year, we were able to just drive to a good parking spot and ride our bikes from there to a spot along the stage route.

I'm glad you're coming to join in on the fun and to see a great race!

[jobob]

Once Lance announced that he was doing the Tour de Georgia, several other big name teams said they would be there too. Phonak, CSC, a couple of others.

Don't know about Phonak or any of the other teams, but CSC had Tour of Georgia on their schedule all along, their participation wasn't contingent on whether or not Lance would be there.

- Jobob, CSC fan.

[skibum]

Don't know about Phonak or any of the other teams, but CSC had Tour of Georgia on their schedule all along, their participation wasn't contingent on whether or not Lance would be there.

- Jobob, CSC fan.

I think CSC, Phonak, and even Discovery had the TdG on their schedule prior to Lance's big announcement about coming. And maybe they even planned on sending some big-named riders. I guess what I should have said was that just after Lance's press release, there was a flurry of press releases from other teams confirming their attendance and naming some well-known riders that would be there. Could just be coincidence. Could be part of some planned hype to generate some excitement for the race. Who knows?

[CorsairMac]

I'm just excited the USA has a "tour" that is generating interest in some of the big name teams. Actually, I'm overjoyed that there is a Cycling event in the US that is generating international interest period! OK OK...I know about the T-Mobile Crit......but thats sponsered by T-Mobile. Its nice to know theres another race that has sparked interest!

[BikeMomma]

One of the things that got me interested in riding and racing bikes was the Coors Classic, back in the 80's. I saw a couple stages of that - one was the finish of a road race into Sacramento in 1986 (Greg LeMond had just won his first Tour), with a couple laps around the historic "Old Sacramento" part of town (cobblestones!!). I got within about 20 feet to Greg - awesome! He escaped the crowd (aka, me) by jumping a curb and riding away on the sidewalk.... The other stage was in San Francisco, around the Presidio (old army base, I believe). For that one, I was about two fans short of getting an autograph from Davis Phinney. He excused himself just before I got to him, saying that Connie was probably looking for him... I made up for it later, however, when I got Jeff Pierce's autograph at the bike expo. He had won that day's stage. What a cutie! Whew!

I was only 16 years old for the Coors' Sacramento stage, but it got the love and excitement of cycling into my blood and helped me to make that first step into the bike shop. Let's hope the Tour of Georgia can do the same for the next generation of bikees! Lance has already done so much for the sport already. There's much more awareness now.