Friday, April 07, 2006

Lance Armstrong isn't going anywhere

For those of you who thought Lance Armstrong may fade into the woodwork after retiring, nothing could be farther from the truth. He popped up on my radar twice yesterday.

The first was in Sal Ruibal's USA Today article, Hincapie cycles toward cycling fame. It's an article in advance of this weekend's Paris-Roubaix race about how George Hincapie is poised to win some races (including this weekend as a possibility) and seems to be the most recognizable name in US cycling right now. Who was the expert Sal talked to about this? Yup. Lance. Sure, he's a cycling expert, but me thinks he's a little biased when talking about racers. Unless I'm wrong (and I have been before), he's still connected to his old team so I wouldn't expect him to say anything else. However, what about Mr. Landis? He's pretty darn recognizable, too.

Although I've never met Lance, I do have to think that truer words have never been spoken in his quote here:
"George is a nice guy, no doubt," Armstrong says. "He's learned that he can be a gentleman and still have a killer instinct. Me, I'm the opposite. I'm a jerk who has to work at being a gentleman. I've always loved to put the hurt on people."

Then I read something that really got my attention. Cyclingnew.com is reporting that Lance is going to drive the pace car at the Indanapolis 500 this year. That's just way cool.

"All I can say is that when we got a phone call to ask if I was interested in driving the Pace Car at Indy, it was a very short conversation," Lance said. "It was like, 'Are you kidding? Of course.'"

Who wouldn't say 'YES'? Lucky duck. Good for him.

By the way, you can catch Paris-Roubaix this weekend on OLN. It's on this Sunday late afternoon. Check your local listings. I'm sure Bob Roll will be doing commentary, too, which always makes the show interesting.

Just a little cycling tidbit for today. Thanks for stopping by.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Floyd! And Saul Raisin is definitely in our thoughts for more than just cycling right now. Tom Danielson. Just off the top of my lame brained head, I come up with these. A bit bias, but that is to be expected.

Just eleven days until the Tour de Georgia!!!

Donna Tocci said...

Reva - thanks for stopping by. I just read about Saul Raisin today. He is certainly in my thoughts, too.