FW: Inspiration for Sunday AM

-----Original Message-----
From: Croasdale, Duncan
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 5:02 PM
To: Zufferli, John; Sangwine, Howard
Subject: Inspiration for Sunday AM

Lance Armstrong
<
<
<
<
< Throughout the Tour de France, a Colombian rider on the Kelme - Costa
< Blanca Team, Santiago Botero,had been keeping a diary for the newspaper.
< Each day the newspaper published his diary from the previous day.
< Unfortunately, this is the only diary entry I have seen. It is worth the
< read.
< "There I am all alone with my bike. I know of only two riders ahead of me
< as I near the end of the second climb on what most riders consider the
< third worst mountain stage in the Tour. I say 'most riders' because I do
< not fear mountains. After all, our country is nothing but mountains. I
< train year-round in the mountains. I am the national champion from a
< country that is nothing but mountains. I trail only my teammate, Fernando
< Escartin, and a Swiss rider. Pantani, one of my rival climbers, and the
< Gringo Armstrong are in the Peleton about five minutes behind me. I am
< climbing on such a such a steep portion of the mountain that if I were to
< stop pedaling, I would fall backward. Even for a world class climber,
this
< is a painful and slow process. I am in my upright position pedaling at a
< steady pace willing myself to finish this climb so I can conserve my
energy
<
< for the final climb of the day. The Kelme team leader radios to me that
the
<
< Gringo has left the Peleton by himself and that they can no longer see
him.
<
< I recall thinking 'the Gringo cannot catch me by himself'.
< A short while later, I hear the gears on another bicycle. Within seconds,
< the Gringo is next to me - riding in the seated position, smiling at me.
< He was only next to me for a few seconds and he said nothing - he only
< smiled and then proceeded up the mountain as if he were pedaling
downhill.
< For the next several minutes, I could only think of one thing - his
smile.
< His smile told me everything. I kept thinking that surely he is in as
much
< agony as me, perhaps he was standing and struggling up the mountain as I
< was and he only sat down to pass me and discourage me. He has to be
playing
<
< games with me. Not possible. The truth is that his smile said everything
< that his lips did not. His smile said to me, 'I was training while you
were
<
< sleeping, Santiago'. It also said, 'I won this tour four months ago,
while
< you were deciding what bike frame to use in the Tour.
< I
< trained harder than you did, Santiago. I don't know if I am better than
< you, but I have outworked you and right now, you cannot do anything about
< it. Enjoy your ride, Santiago. See you in Paris.'
< Obviously, the Gringo did not state any of this. But his smile did dispel
a
<
< bad rumor among the riders on the tour. The rumor that surfaced as we
began
<
< the Prologue several days ago told us that the Gringo had gotten soft.
His
< wife had given birth to his first child and he had won the most difficult
< race in the world - He had no desire to race, to win. I imagine that his
< smile turned to laughter once he was far enough not to embarrass me. The
< Gringo has class, but he heard the rumors - he probably laughed all the
way
<
< to Paris. He is a great champion and I must train harder. I am not
content
< to be a great climber, I want to be the best.
< I learned much from the Gringo in the mountains. I will never forget the
< helpless feeling I had yesterday. If I ever become an international
< champion, I will always remember the lesson the Gringo taught me.