My favorite professional cyclists: Legend, Smiley and the Gal 1/13/12
For a while I thought about I should no longer submit proposals for foreign languages/Japanese teaching conferences because if I run out of things to say, I might just start talking about fitness. Now I am happiest when I talk about cycling non-stop. Today I am happily talking about my three favorite professional cyclists: Legend, Smiley and the Gal.
First, Legend. If you recall, this is only my fourth season riding. In fact, 2011 was the first full year season I spent cycling. I am a very beginning rider and I still can’t ride with my hands off. But I am old enough and act like I have been following cycling all my life. This summer, I was waking up early to fit European time, watching Versus (now NBC sports) on TV screen while watching no commercial feed on iPad and check Tickers, Twitters and Facebook all at the same time, watching with… Legend Greg LeMond! I heard his name first as Lance Armstrong was trying to represent himself as the new version of, to promote his Foundation. When LeMond retired, I was just finishing out my graduate school and I made it to the US for graduate school. So there was no way of witnessing his career for me (let alone my English language proficiency would allow to understand anything). Then his name came through his g-force UT. Lifetime Fitness uses this machine for metabolic testing on bike. The whole gym only has ONE machine, just for testing, not for public use. However, I must say when metabolic specialists forget to hide it and lock it up, I did sneak in and used it for my own workout a couple of times. (hehehe) Then one time I was doing some research on VO2 max, I came across the article that says Greg LeMond’s was 92.5 while my excellent number was 48.7! As you can tell from my Tour de France experience, he is quite active in Facebook through his LeMond Fitness page. So I learned about LeMond RevMaster that Coach Troy always talks about as well. Then when last year’s Tour came close to an end, he shared his famous Time Trial footage in 1989, yellow jersey battle with Laurent Fignon. Now I felt like I was a life-time cycling fanatic.
When Coach had trivia question about 23.0 - Time Saver and revealed who was the invited guest to appear on the shoot, I quickly dug out the disc that I never used and watched the interview and his appearance and clapped on bike. Of course, any American with foreign language skills impresses me.
Next, Smiley. Nobody can be as charming as Coach Troy, but he is not qualified to appear in this entry because he is not a professional cyclist (awww). Nobody is an angel and especially if you are into suffering business, it is hard to maintain upbeat attitude. But Chris Horner must be a delight to ride with in the peloton. I picked up cycling in my 40’s and I am no way competitive, but I am grateful this sport can be enjoyed for a long time. So when somebody whose age is so close to mine professional competing at the top level, is a delightful feeling, especially when he is feeling FANTASTIC! I watched his Mt. Baldy stage finish with gentleman rider and teammate Levi Leipheimer in Amgen Tour of California win, I could not clap hard enough for Chris and his teammates. So when I heard he crashed and had concussion on stage 7, I was heart-broken. I was happy to hear that he was granted a contract for the next season regardless. I hope he recovers well and rides another fantastic year in 2012. But the Mt. Baldy finish is in DVD forever with "Amgen Tour of California 2011: The Workout", I can rest easy and get on with my life.
Last, but not least, the Gal. Her name is Evelyn Stevens, Evie, my hero! Of course, she is going to be least famous because women’s professional cycling is much, much smaller than men’s equivalent. And she is still young. I first learned about her in an article in Bicycle magazine. If you don’t know about her and if you have limited patience reading online, maybe you can read Wall Street version of the story.
In both articles, you will find out why she is my hero. She started out her adult career, not as an athlete, but turned to pro after leaving her job in Wall Street. What makes her my hero is because she started out with lots of riding inside. Having long hours at work and being in New York City, she had limited time she could use riding outside. And people could not believe how strong she rode. She signed up with now disbanded HTC Highroad women’s team in 2010. She had rather quite riding seasons, but is hopeful to have a better year this year. The team because Specialized-lululemon and she is training with Connie Carpenter (in this article), the mother of Taylor Phinney. You know who his father is? Davis Phinney! :-0 Tony kept the couple’s book, "Training for Cycling" from 1992 like Bible and showed it to me when I first got into cycling. Of course, there is no way that *I* am going to turn pro at this age, but I am just enjoying a little fantasy overwrapping myself to this lady who rode a lot inside turned pro leaving a successful career.
First, Legend. If you recall, this is only my fourth season riding. In fact, 2011 was the first full year season I spent cycling. I am a very beginning rider and I still can’t ride with my hands off. But I am old enough and act like I have been following cycling all my life. This summer, I was waking up early to fit European time, watching Versus (now NBC sports) on TV screen while watching no commercial feed on iPad and check Tickers, Twitters and Facebook all at the same time, watching with… Legend Greg LeMond! I heard his name first as Lance Armstrong was trying to represent himself as the new version of, to promote his Foundation. When LeMond retired, I was just finishing out my graduate school and I made it to the US for graduate school. So there was no way of witnessing his career for me (let alone my English language proficiency would allow to understand anything). Then his name came through his g-force UT. Lifetime Fitness uses this machine for metabolic testing on bike. The whole gym only has ONE machine, just for testing, not for public use. However, I must say when metabolic specialists forget to hide it and lock it up, I did sneak in and used it for my own workout a couple of times. (hehehe) Then one time I was doing some research on VO2 max, I came across the article that says Greg LeMond’s was 92.5 while my excellent number was 48.7! As you can tell from my Tour de France experience, he is quite active in Facebook through his LeMond Fitness page. So I learned about LeMond RevMaster that Coach Troy always talks about as well. Then when last year’s Tour came close to an end, he shared his famous Time Trial footage in 1989, yellow jersey battle with Laurent Fignon. Now I felt like I was a life-time cycling fanatic.
When Coach had trivia question about 23.0 - Time Saver and revealed who was the invited guest to appear on the shoot, I quickly dug out the disc that I never used and watched the interview and his appearance and clapped on bike. Of course, any American with foreign language skills impresses me.
Next, Smiley. Nobody can be as charming as Coach Troy, but he is not qualified to appear in this entry because he is not a professional cyclist (awww). Nobody is an angel and especially if you are into suffering business, it is hard to maintain upbeat attitude. But Chris Horner must be a delight to ride with in the peloton. I picked up cycling in my 40’s and I am no way competitive, but I am grateful this sport can be enjoyed for a long time. So when somebody whose age is so close to mine professional competing at the top level, is a delightful feeling, especially when he is feeling FANTASTIC! I watched his Mt. Baldy stage finish with gentleman rider and teammate Levi Leipheimer in Amgen Tour of California win, I could not clap hard enough for Chris and his teammates. So when I heard he crashed and had concussion on stage 7, I was heart-broken. I was happy to hear that he was granted a contract for the next season regardless. I hope he recovers well and rides another fantastic year in 2012. But the Mt. Baldy finish is in DVD forever with "Amgen Tour of California 2011: The Workout", I can rest easy and get on with my life.
Last, but not least, the Gal. Her name is Evelyn Stevens, Evie, my hero! Of course, she is going to be least famous because women’s professional cycling is much, much smaller than men’s equivalent. And she is still young. I first learned about her in an article in Bicycle magazine. If you don’t know about her and if you have limited patience reading online, maybe you can read Wall Street version of the story.
In both articles, you will find out why she is my hero. She started out her adult career, not as an athlete, but turned to pro after leaving her job in Wall Street. What makes her my hero is because she started out with lots of riding inside. Having long hours at work and being in New York City, she had limited time she could use riding outside. And people could not believe how strong she rode. She signed up with now disbanded HTC Highroad women’s team in 2010. She had rather quite riding seasons, but is hopeful to have a better year this year. The team because Specialized-lululemon and she is training with Connie Carpenter (in this article), the mother of Taylor Phinney. You know who his father is? Davis Phinney! :-0 Tony kept the couple’s book, "Training for Cycling" from 1992 like Bible and showed it to me when I first got into cycling. Of course, there is no way that *I* am going to turn pro at this age, but I am just enjoying a little fantasy overwrapping myself to this lady who rode a lot inside turned pro leaving a successful career.
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