[CR]Lance Armstrong on bikes and cycling at 50

This could be a bit off topic, however I believe it sums up how many of us feel about the bicycle and has kept our spirit young. For those of you that have read Lance Armstrong’s second book “Every Second Counts” may remember his words. For those that haven’t picked the book up yet you owe yourself the reading pleasure of his words, wisdom and insight on what makes him an extraordinary human being. Pardon, but I just picked this book up the other day at our local library and was taken back by it. A friend and co-worker that I thought had left the area is back and she has been away receiving treatment for her cancer.

Page 210

“On a bicycle, you never know what’s around the next bend, when a view may open up, or the Alps may shear off to the sea. Even when I’m 50, I’ll probably own and ride for the pleasure of the bike, sightseeing.

A bicycle is the long-sought means of transportation for all of us who have runaway hearts. Our first bike is a matter of curb-jumping, puddle-splashing liberation; it’s freedom from supervision, from carpools and curfews. It’s a merciful release from reliance on parents, one’s own way to the movies or a friend’s house. More plainly, it’s the first chance we have to choose our own direction.

It’s the first wheeled machine we ever steer solely by ourselves, and perhaps for that reason we have intense affection, and strangely specific memories, of the bikes we’ve owned. I myself have had hundreds of them by now, but they stay with me, like old friends. The physical familiarity you gain with a bike is something you don’t feel for any other vehicle, no matter how sweet the ride. There are times when I swear a bike is merely an extension of my arms and legs. All these years later, I still have a faint sensation of my first bike, a Schwinn, how the rubber handgrips molded to my palms, and how the soles of my sneakers grabbed the teeth of the pedals.”

He goes on a bit more about the bicycle, but I thought, man…..this is how I feel about the bicycle and believe many of you out there in CR land do as well. I can remember like it was yesterday riding my black with gold pinstripe 3 speed English racer all around town and beyond.

Maybe one day Lance will find his way to the CR list or even the Cirque on a bike he rode in the Tour. Hopefully it will be on one with lugs, but none the less I am sure he would be welcomed with opened arms as he thinks like many of us about the bicycle.

Mark Poore Slatyfork, WV USA

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