Oh, the People You'll Meet!
Yes, we met 2006 Tour de France champion Floyd Landis at the 2nd Annual Colorado Cyclist Copper Triangle on Saturday, August 4th. No doubt he's training for the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race on August 11th.
Here's a picture of six members of Club Hypoxia with Floyd Landis. From L to R: Deadhead, Timmy, BikePrincess, SombraGato, Floyd, Howard, and BalticTiger.
The Story: We were at an aid station after climbing Tennessee Pass (elev. 10,424'), the second pass of the day. SombraGato saw someone shaking someone else's hand, recognized Floyd Landis, couldn't believe his eyes, then he told BikePrincess. BikePrincess ran to me, commanded, "follow me, and bring your camera!" I complied because I respect royalty. BikePrincess then shook his hand before I realized what was happening. Bad Howard! Informing BikePrincess that I didn't get the photo, I said she would just have to shake his hand again. Instead, she asked for a photo with our entire club. Floyd was very gracious, approachable, and friendly, and he said yes. Jambing my camera into the hands of a complete stranger, commanding her to "take our picture", we all crammed in around Floyd and smiled.
We were wearing our Club Hypoxia jerseys. Floyd asked about them. I told him we were a group of cyclists located up and down the Colorado front range who ride together a couple times a month in the high country.
Perhaps we should send him a jersey?
BalticTiger asked him if he was enjoying his ride. He said he was, except that it was a bit cold. He was right about that since we were around 10,000 feet altitude at the time!
Afterwards, Howard snapped another pic of Floyd as he was leaving...
The rest of the day we were floating... until we had to climb Vail Pass, at which time gravity returned.
Yes, bicycling in Colorado is the best!
posted by Howard at 11:42 PM
14 Comments:
What a wild experience, Howard! Looks like everyone really enjoyed the day too. Can't wait to get out there next month to meet & ride with you all.
Elitist home state comment aside, that is an awesome story! Glad you all got to get a photo with him!
J
Check BikeJournal.com for a much more in-depth description of our surprise meeting with "Floyd!" I posted it in the "Pictures From An Amazing Day" thread...
Way to go, Howard. I'm glad you had your camera. It's not everyone who stumbles across a Tour de France champion on a bike ride.
Definitely send him a jersey!!! What a cool experience. As soon as my back heals I'm takign up cycling!
C.O.: As soon as your back heals and you've had some time to train, I'll be headed down to Austin to ride with you and the X.O.
Is April 20th too soon? I have us hooked up with a great team already... :-)
Heh, heh.....dare I reveal that I had to look Floyd Landis up on wikipedia to see what Howard was talking about ?
Note to Self: Name-dropping and photo-dropping doesn't work if the audience doesn't know who the celebrity is!
Howard, I just did a post on Landis and the Leadville 100. I didn't see your contact info but I used one of your pictures and linked back. If that isn't Ok let me know.
Thanks for the link back... and for asking. Have at it.
Howard, Thanks! You really were in the right place at the right time. Good story.
What's amazing and coincidental for the six of us Hypoxians is that four of us took off like bats out of hell on the Fremont Pass climb, but then I stopped near the top and waited so I could ride with my best girl and a friend.
The remaining fast three then did an extra loop of 15 miles west of Leadville before rejoining the Copper Triangle route. All six of us arrived at the aid station together at about 9:20 a.m. -- only about five or six minutes before Floyd Landis showed up. That's how the six of us were all in the photo.
Afterwards, we split up into two groups again as the faster three took off after Floyd, while I finished the ride with my best girl and good friend.
BTW, they never did catch him. That's the nature of hubris. :-D
I think it would be "Hypoxemics" instead of "Hypoxians". :-)
Considering that I'm having a baby in December, April might be a bit early to ride 150 miles, but I think you might be able to talk the XO into it. I've been trying to talk him into buying a new bike.
Don't think of it as 150 miles -- think instead of a 75-mile jaunt... two days in a row! :-D
Post a Comment
<< Home