- Provided
by Greenville cyclists, Ben Leinster and Brad Franseen
Two Upstate cyclists won an Internet drawing---and a chance
to ride with they cycling megastar.
We were supposed to meet Lance at Mellow
Johnny’s at 9am.Our alarm set for 6:30am, but we were up by 5am. The
anticipation was killing us. We went down to the Starbucks in the lobby, but we
were in no mood to eat. We picked up some fruit anyway and watched the time
tick by. Finally, 8:15am arrived, and we made our way over to Mellow Johnny’s.
The first order of business was to get fitted for the Trek
Madones that they provided for our ride. As we were waiting, Karly, who works
with Lance’s promotion team, came in to greet us and tell us the plans for our
ride. Lance had flown in the night before from New Mexico, where he rode and
helped his Mellow Johnny’s teammate, Levi Leipheimer, win the general
classification in the Tour of the Gila. Later in the morning, Lance would be
leaving for Colorado, so we would be riding with him to his plane. As we were
talking with Karly, another rider came in the shop and introduced himself as
College. His real name is John, and he’s a very accomplished rider who has
ridden with Lance for many years. We had just read about him in one of Lance’s
books on our flight over, and he would be accompanying us on our ride. We
talked for a few minutes, then Karly informed us that Lance was on his way. The
butterflies started to swirl. About 15 minutes later, we saw a biker ride by
the window and into the parking lot. It was Lance. He talked on his cell phone
for a few minutes and then came in. I couldn’t believe it. We were actually
going for a ride with 7-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong!
After introductions, we took a few pictures and walked
outside. I couldn’t help but stare at his bike. What an incredible ride. We
told him that we were from Greenville, SC, and he told us that he was just
talking to George Hincapie on his cell and asked us if we knew him. We told him
that we knew of him, but that he was slightly out of our league in terms of
cycling. Lance told us that he had ridden with George in Greenville several
times and that Greenville was a great cycling town.
We headed out of the parking lot and rode down the streets
of downtown Austin. It was pretty cool to have Lance Armstrong as our personal
tour guide. We rode by the Congress Avenue Bridge, which is home to the largest
urban bat colony in North America. Over a million bats come out each night at
dusk to feed. Lance said it’s an incredible sight, but that we wouldn’t catch
him anywhere near the bridge at dusk because of an encounter with a bat at his
home in Colorado. Somehow a bat got inside the house last year, and he said
that he hid in the bathroom until they could get it out of the house. Shortly
after, he had screens installed on all the windows. I couldn’t help but laugh
at the image of Lance Armstrong hiding in a bathroom from a bat.
We road by Town Lake and then stopped by the Lance Armstrong
Foundation, where Lance told us about all the wonderful things that the
foundation is doing in the fight against cancer. As we sat and talked in the
parking lot, two ladies walked out of the building. One was a young college
student who had just finished interviewing for a job and the other was a
foundation employee. I’m sure they weren’t expecting to run into Lance
Armstrong in the parking lot.
We talked for a few more minutes and then got back onto our
bikes. For the rest of the ride, Lance was extremely friendly. He talked to us
like we had known each other for years. We talked about family, work and – of
course – bikes. A couple of times I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t
a dream.
As we pulled into the airport, I realized that our ride was
quickly coming to an end. We went inside the hangar and Lance happily signed
some items for us. He even asked if we wanted to see his plane. He grabbed a
quick shower and then we boarded his Gulfstream IV. After a few more pictures,
he was off and our ride with Lance was over.
A special thanks to Clear2Go for making everything possible.
This truly was the ride of a lifetime, and hard to put into words.
