Ridin’ With The Big Dog

A year ago, if someone told me that I’d be going for a ride with the reigning Tour champion, while the next edition of the Tour was happening, I’d have told that person they were nuts.

On two counts: One, why wouldn’t the champ be defending his title? And two, why on earth would I be riding with the big dog? Not that I’d mind, but it’s never happened in my umpteen years of racing or following the Tour. Never rode with LeMond, or with Lance. So what could possibly be different, right?

Well, if you’ve been following the various doping scandals in cycling over the last year, you know why the champ — Floyd Landis — isn’t in this year’s race. And in the last year, I’ve been pretty outspoken in my commentary about his case.

Today I had the chance to ride with Floyd Landis. And there was no way I was going to turn an opportunity like that down. Ninety-one degree heat? No problem. Bit of a drive down from home? No sweat. Work? Time off. Had to do a conference call while I was driving to the ride’s starting point, and when my boss asked what I’d be doing, I casually said, “I’m going on a ride with Floyd Landis.”

“What?”

“You know, the Tour de France champion…”

“That’s what I thought you said. How did you …?”

And then I explained. Landis was in Chicago last night for a book signing in one of the suburbs, and he was doing another book signing tonight at the Borders downtown location. In between, a fund-raising ride occurred.

I first heard of the ride when one of the organizers, Marco Colbert, contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in participating. That was a tough sell. The only thing that could have stopped me, realistically, would have been — well, nothing.

Colbert was instrumental in setting up the Floyd Landis Foundation (no, not the Floyd Fairness Fund, that came later), almost exactly one year ago today. The foundation was set up to promote awareness and treatment options for people who suffer from hip problems like Floyd used to, before he had a Birmingham Hip resurfacing procedure last autumn. Unfortunately, the foundation has been on hold due to a certain problem that cropped up a few days after the tour.

Colbert told me after the ride that once the current situation resolves itself, the foundation should be able to build some momentum. But anyway, back to the ride.

Except for the heat and a bit of humidity (OK, a lot of humidity), it was a perfect day for a ride. Sunny, a bit of a breeze to keep things cool. And a nice route through the northern suburbs of Chicago. The ride started from Dan Rudrud’s house in Wilmette, traversing cobblestone streets before we made our way to the lake and rode north.

While we were traveling the initial miles, a professional photographer shot photos of each of us riding side-by-side with Floyd. And then throughout the ride, people took longer turns riding at the front of the group with Floyd.

As we rode through Wilmette, a couple of motorists stopped and let our whole group pass by. I saw one driver mouthing the words, “Isn’t that Floyd Landis?” Yes. Yes, it was. We continued on to a park, where a photo of our entire group was taken with Lake Michigan as the backdrop. Pretty park. Beautiful beach. Might have been fun to go dunk myself in Lake Michigan, but there was some riding to do.

I’m not sure exactly what pace we were going (my cycle computer conveniently went dead over night with no time to replace the battery before the ride), but one thing I’m pretty certain of is that the pace was a bit quicker than what had been initially expected (16 mph). My guess is that there were many times that we were cruising along at 20 or 22.

And if you’re pretty fit, that’s a comfortable, easy pace. On the way out, we had mostly a tailwind, so my guess is that it was pretty easy for everyone to keep up. After winding through Kenilworth and other places, we wound up at an entrance to Ravinia. Strains of classical music pored through the speakers. Not sure if that was an orchestra rehearsing, or just someone doing a sound check. The area around the Ravinia grounds is quite pretty.

Worth the ride just to see that. But there was more.

I’d been hanging around near the front of the peloton the whole ride (old habits die hard), trying to stay out of trouble. While the scenery was beautiful, there were spots where the road was a bit bumpy. And in those situations, I’m not a huge fan of being at the back.

A bit past half-way through the ride, I got my chance to have a more extended conversation with Floyd. But by then we were heading back going into a bit of a headwind. Which meant I had to work a bit harder to maintain the pace. Not impossible, but it made talking and riding a bit more challenging. Still, got to talk with Floyd about some off road trails near Aspen.

Before I’d moved to the front, I thought I heard someone saying something about taking off at a certain point. Since I don’t know the area, it didn’t register where they were talking about. I found out, soon enough.

While I was talking with Floyd, a couple of riders took a flyer, coming up on the outside and blasting away from us. “What’s going on?” Floyd asked. My reply, “I think someone wants to say they beat you in a sprint.”

“Well, it looks like they just might,” he replied. And then we kicked it up a notch trying to chase the riders down. Floyd took off like a bullet. Me, well, I’m not in the greatest shape anymore, and the afterburners just don’t kick in as strong as they used to. I was more like a bullet with an anchor attached. Still, I managed to stay within eyesight of Floyd and the “breakway” until things came back together a short while later. Maybe six of our group of 20 riders were ahead of me the whole time.

Boy, was that ever a fitness check. Someone said the speeds were hitting in the mid-30s. I was hanging on, almost for dear life, at a couple of points. But I sure as heck wasn’t going to give up and let the escapees get too much time on me. Got some pride, and just a bit of speed left in these old legs. I think I need to do more high-speed interval work, however.

In short, the ride that Marco Colbert and Dan Rudrud put together was one of the most fun rides I’ve had in a long, long time. Hanging out at Dan’s house afterward, relaxing and getting a chance to talk with some of the riders in attendance was very enjoyable, too. It’s certainly interesting to see who was there and why.

Unfortunately, I had to hightail it back to Milwaukee sooner than I would have liked. I would have liked to stay and talk more with Floyd, and Brooke Emerson and everyone who attended. Great bunch of people. And it would have been fun to go to the downtown book signing and see whether anyone from the Sun Times or the Trib showed up to cover the event.

I’d go riding with this group again, even with (or perhaps especially because of) a few chases set up like the one today. Dan and Marco did a great job of organizing the event, and Dan’s family were excellent hosts. Thanks to one and all.

Didn’t get too many pictures today, but here’s one of Floyd and Bill Hue relaxing after the ride.

 

I’d write more, but I have to get up early tomorrow and head out on a business trip. I’ll update this post tomorrow or the next day if I can, as time permits.