InTown Westchester magazine recently published personal comments from breast cancer survivors. Jill Frey of Larchmont was one who shared her experiences for the article. I will meet Jill and 150 other cyclists who are riding to raise funds to benefit the breast cancer survivors network, Young Survival Coalition. Thursday is the start of the 220 mile Hershey’s Tour de Pink, a ride from Hershey Pennsylvania to New York City. I’ll be driving one of the sag wagons and helping with the logistics during the ride. Two former professional and Olympic cyclists will join the other 150 riders this year. Frankie Andreu will ride for the first time and Mari Holden will be on her third Tour de Pink.
Here are Jill’s published comments on getting cancer before 40 and what a life changing event she’s has gone through.

“Keep moving and grooving,” I always tell myself, [and have] since I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Even at 31 years old and recently married, I was determined that I wouldn’t let cancer stop me from living my life.

I’m not alone. Shortly after diagnosis, I was lucky to meet 11 other women—all under age 40—who were fighting the same battle. We received excellent medical care, but we found a void: Young women with cancer had nowhere to turn for relevant support, information, and resources. In 1998, we launched the Young Survival Coalition (youngsurvival.org). Today, it is the only international, nonprofit network dedicated to the unique concerns of young women and breast cancer.

More than a decade later, true to my mantra, I’m still moving. For the past four years, I’ve ridden with 150 others in Hershey’s Tour de Pink, the YSC’s biggest fundraiser. The four-day bicycle ride spans more than 200 miles, from Hershey, Pennsylvania, to New York City. The ride requires intense training and constant fundraising, but, by staying in motion, I became the top fundraiser in 2007 and have never failed to cross the finish line. I’m pushed forward by my burning desire to find the cure. I am a voice and force for all women—my grandmother, mother, sister, and fellow breast-cancer “thrivers.” I do it to remind them to, no matter what, keep moving and grooving.
Jill Frey

Dennis Simmons of Chappaque will be riding his first Tour de Pink. He is a professional indoor cycling instructor and has been teaching and riding for over nine years. He has ridden in a number or local and national fundraising rides. He day job is Chief Operation Officer of Wayne Surgical and Elite Surgical Centers in Wayne, NJ.Dennis is riding for members of his family and a very close friend who are survivors of breast cancer.

I’ll blog about the ride from the road and keep you updated on Jill and Dennis and the moving and grooving of this year’s Hershey’s Tour de Pink. Click here if you would like to support Jill or Dennis.

Sunday was the 11th annual Tappan Zee Bike Tour for MS and my first on this beautiful loop of the Lower Hudson Valley. This ride was not only an excuse to enjoy the roads with a large group but to support a photo editor friend who has MS. While they make fundraising easy with their personalized website, I promise to increase my donations next year, I’d like to get enough for a jersey.

The ride starts early and the call for rain leading up to the event was a little ominous. I think this kept riders away this year and they missed a wonderful event. When I pulled into Kraft Food’s parking lot at 6:55am it was nearly full of riders reading their bikes. Sign in went off quickly and without a hitch with a large amount of volunteers, they even pinned your number on your jersey for you. What service!

One of the highlights of this ride is to travel across the Tappan Zee Bridge and that comes quickly in the first mile. Safety is key as you make your way across with 650 of riders of varying speeds and skills. But this is part of what makes a ride like this special. There’s a wonderful energy of all the riders to just be out their on their bikes for a great cause.

I knew it would be a push for the long ride since I have not been able to ride for over two weeks, but it felt great across the bridge and heading North through Rockland. The first stop at Rockland Lake State Park I met a the mechanics for New City’s Cycling World. They helped with a few minor adjusts while I was there, sure is nice to have this support along the way. This was also the spot to turn back across the bridge for the 40% of riders who choose the 20 mile ride while the other 60% headed North for the hills.

Rolling North along the Hudson and through the river towns is nice, with views of marinas and the coming highlands off in a distance. The biggest climb of the day takes the edge of Dunderberg Mountain on 9W. This long steady climb keeps you working but never nails you with a super steep section. Before the climb a ran into two friends from past rides, Bill and Ave, both WCC members and riding as road marshals to keep an eye out for trouble. Ave who is 55, has only been riding for the past year and half and faces a challenge due to Vitiligo, an auto immune disease which makes his skin hyper sensitive to sunlight. This has not stopped him from riding, while as he describes, “So I look like some kind of Arabian clown and other riders must be wondering how comfortable I am in the heat.” Riders who have been riding for years are envious of his high cadence.

The reward is the super fast and fun descent into Bear Mountain State Park. There’s another short climb to the second rest stop at the Bear Mountain Bridge.

This stop was busy with riders fueling up at the halfway point. The many volunteers made hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Stacks of drinks and cases of fruit made for a terrific break. But it’s not the food that makes these stops such a pleasure but the people you meet. Two volunteers running this stop were Vera and Gerry DiMeglio. Vera was one of the people making the hundreds of sandwiches, while Gerry was moving the heavier water and Gatoraid to the tables. They started to volunteer at the event in 1999, a year after their oldest daughter Valeria was diagnosed with MS. Vera and Gerry were two helpers at a rest stop, with a friendly welcome and smile to make our day more enjoyable. But a special thanks needs to go out to Gerry and Vera, Gerry volunteers all year long as a member of Executive Board of the Southern NY Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Back on the road I meet Rick Pollak, (Blue Jersey) of Eastchester and Michael Darviche, (Red Jersey ) of Edgemont as we road across the Bear Mountain bridge and made our way up the southern side of the rim of Anthony’s nose on our way South. We could really enjoy this climb as the road was fully shut of to car traffic and only the chug of a tug pushing a barge on the river and a freight train interrupted the peaceful Hudson Highlands.

At the pull-off for the overlook a team photo was being taken. I jumped off my bike to grab a photo. This team lead the group to start the ride in the morning in honor of their team captain Al Poggiogalle who worked at Kraft Foods and brought co-workers and friends together for many fund-raising rides as Team Balance. Poggiogalle loved cycling and skiing and was instrumental in coordination Kraft’s participation as host site for the ride. He was killed this past June in Dutchess County while riding. I wish I’d have had the opportunity to have ridden with him, he clearly was a goodwill ambassador for cycling as his many team members and friends attest.

Down the sweeping hairpin filled descent of route 6 into Peekskill was a thrill and a salute to the two Balance team riders who dropped me!

The ride South brought many ups and downs through the river towns back to Tarrytown. The route took us through a beautiful section of Oscawana Park and past mansions in Briar Cliff.

Many of us struggled up the last real hill on Bedford road with cramps and tired legs. But the long descent into Sleepy Hollow and the easy rollers back to Kraft Foods made for an easy finish.

What a finish they planned with the New Rochelle cheerleading squads cheering us home and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs waiting for the tired and hungry riders.

The ride reached $350,000 so far in the fundraisning to fight MS and you can still help them reach the $400,000 goal by contributing. Here’s a link to the TZ Ride for MS.

I know I’ll be back next year and will be organizing Team Cycling Central.

To see a photo gallery from the ride, please click here.

What is it? It’s a time trial bike (or TT bike), also sometimes called a Triathlon bike, depending on who is using it.

What’s a time trial? A Time trial is a specialized racing event in which (generally speaking) individual cyclists ride a fixed length course one rider at a time (separated by intervals) competing for best-time across the course. In some races a team will do a time trial as well, with a minimum number of riders that must cross the finish line. Time is counted when the last of this minimum crosses the line. Triathlon, arguably the fastest growing sport, is essentially three time trials combined (swimming, running, cycling) and so as the popularity of triathlons grows these bikes are increasingly marketed for this sport.

Why does it look like this? Cyclists create significant drag when they’re riding and sitting upright. By sitting forward with one’s hands on the “aero bars” (the parts of the handlebars sticking forward) it’s possible to significantly reduce drag, and increase one’s speed.

If it’s so much faster, why doesn’t everyone ride with aero bars? There are a few reasons. The first is that not everyone needs to go as fast as possible, and that the aero position isn’t terribly comfortable. Even professional cyclists who compete in time trials will keep different bikes for normal stage races and for time trials. They also tend to be expensive, as weight also is a significant factor in cycling speed. The lighter the bike, the faster it’ll go with the same effort. Light, cheap, durable—pick any two.

Possibly more important, time trial bikes are notoriously lousy when going uphill. The position is all wrong for extended climbs, so they tend to not be too popular in hilly areas.

The wheels look different, why? The wheels have what’s called a “deep dish” a section on the outer rim that’s designed to reduce drag. Think of it sort of like the spoiler on a sports car. These aren’t such great all-around performers, so that’s another reason that time trial bikes are usually their own breed. (Even with the many bikes in my stable, I don’t have a TT bike since I don’t race.)

How much do they cost? Top end TT bikes can cost upwards of $10,000, though honestly top-end models of just about any type of bike cost that much. However, time trials and triathletes tend to spend more on these rigs than they do on other types of bikes, because every ounce shaved off the bike and every bit of wind reduced means faster times. When you’re racing for a cash purse, every second counts.

Due to the predicted rain tomorrow, we’ve rescheduled the Route 100 Rumble Strip Protest Rally to Sunday, Oct. 5. The delay has been beneficial. It gave me and Kevan Full the time to dream up a multi-level ride as part of the Route 100 Rumble Strip Protest. I figure we might as well have one of those friendly Westchester Cycle Club get- togethers to precede the rally to bring us all together.
And here’s an important update on our struggle with the state DOT. Regional Director Joan Dupont in June promised to review the state’s action and have a decision by Sept. 1. Here we are 26 days later and still no word. I called two days ago and still no word back from Ms. Dupont. The optimistic in me interprets this to mean that the state is taking us seriously and is still trying to figure out how to make the road safe again. The pessimist in me says that the DOT, which has a reputation for doing what it pleases, wherever it pleases, has simply blown us off. And that’s despite the fact that more than 50 WCC members wrote letters asking that the road be repaved; two WCC members who are attorneys put the state on notice that they have created a dangerous situation on Route 100 and now have increased liability because they’ve been so notified; Westchester County Legislator Mike Kaplowitz of Somers has asked the state to consider repaving the road; and at least three cyclists have been injured on the road , including two who hit the pavement so hard that they were taken by ambulance to local hospitals for treatment.
Here’s how it will work, and as it’s all developing on the fly, please check the ride board to get the latest. We’ll meet at 9 a.m. at the corner of Routes 118 and 100. We’ll have all level rides, and they will get back by 11.30. At 11.45, we’ll do our protest ride, all together, along the 8-mile loop. We’ll be back to the corner lot by 12.30 for speeches about the DOT actions as well as how cycling is a part of the Lower Hudson Valley’s sustainable future.
By the way, the t-shirts we have printed up for the event are striking. They were designed by Robert Olsson, who joined WCC last month and was one of the organizers of the successful Croton Bike Week. Robert designs book covers for Random House, and his design is eye-catching and direct, and very New York – the shirt is black and the print is in white.
“Un-Rumble Route 100!” the shirt declares. “Rumble Ruts = Accidents – Restore the road for safe cycling.”
We did a small run of 40 shirts for the rally so be sure to get their early to get one to wear.

David Wilson asks you to join the protest to unrumble the rumble strips on Route 100 in Yorktown. Meet at route 100 and 118 in Yorktown rescheduled to Saturday, October 4th at Noon.

Below is David’s email to Westchester Cycling Club Members.

It’s time to show the state Department of Transportation that the cycling community wants the DOT to pave over the rumble strips on Route 100 to prevent serious injury to cyclists. We know of at least two cyclists who have been taken to the hospital by ambulance after losing control on the rumble strips. This stretch is a destination for cyclists in the region, and it used to be one of the safest roads for cycling in Westchester. At the rally, we will have speakers to talk about the misguided state highway project, bike safety and how best to ride along Route 100 now that the rumble strips are in place, and how cycling is a component of a more sustainable Lower Hudson Valley. We will do an eight-mile ride along Route 100. It’s terrain that’s quite mellow and doable for all levels of riders, on any kind of bike.
The first 40 riders at the rally we get t-shirts, designed by Robert Olsson, stating:
UN-RUMBLE ROUTE 100! Rumble Ruts = Accidents RESTORE THE ROAD FOR SAFER CYCLING

For more information, call Westchester Cycle Club President David Wilson at 914-217-5600 for information or email him at president@westchestercycleclub.org

CyclingNews.com reports that Greg LeMond started off the questioning of Lance Armstrong at the press conference in Las Vegas.
Here’s part of their report.

In the first seat of the front row was former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, who led off the questioning with some pointed ones, all surrounding the theme of questioning the reason-ability of the planned special testing of Armstrong by Don Catlin of the UCLA lab.

“I see Mr. Greg LeMond is here,” Armstrong said somewhat wryly, but allowed him to have the first question.

LeMond pressed Armstrong and Catlin about the type of testing they had planned. He levied some reasonable critiques, essentially calling into question the proposed testing, arguing that it is not comprehensible enough, such as using T/E ratios and tests for specific EPO drugs as opposed to measuring physiological variables such as power output changes over time. LeMond inferred that a spike in power output would better indicate the use of something compared to trying to test for particular substances.

“That is not my area,” responded Catlin. “He will be subject to testing by everyone under the sun. I think that will be all sorted out.”Catlin said that the actual program is still taking shape. ”[Lance] has agreed to a couple of a few very fundamental points. One is his data, like T/E ratio and all that kind of stuff that a doping control is allowed to do will be on the web, so you can see it. ‘Ah, your T/E ration changed today, what happened?’ Like to see if he is taking EPO – all the actors to make it a very public campaign.”

“That is all irrelevant,” LeMond responded. “It doesn’t matter about T/E ratio but watts and power output…”

“I don’t think it is irrelevant,” said Catlin. “I dare say you know this business pretty well! Come with your ideas of what we should do!”

At that point Armstrong stepped in tried to move things along. “You’ve done your job,” Armstrong said to LeMond. “We are here to talk about a couple of things, like the Global Clinton campaign and my comeback to cycling. It’s time for us, everybody in this room, to move on. We are not going to go there, I appreciate you being here – next question.”

By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press Writer – all photos by the Associated Press

PARIS (AP) _ Lance Armstrong can try for an eighth Tour de France title — if his team is clean in the run-up to cycling’s premier race.

A day after Armstrong confirmed his comeback with the Astana squad, Tour director Christian Prudhomme cleared up any doubts over whether the team would be allowed to race next year. Astana was barred from the 2008 Tour because of past doping violations.

“They should be there if there are no ethical problems,” Prudhomme told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. “They weren’t at any of our races in 2008. If nothing happens in the coming months, they should be at our races in 2009.”

To help persuade any doubters that he is clean, Armstrong said Thursday in he’s hired Anti-doping expert Don Catlin to test him anytime, anywhere — and to post the results online for the world to see.

Prudhomme said he isn’t sure whether Armstrong can still win after three years away from the sport or how next year’s race will play out with the Texan — so dominant in winning seven straight from 1999-2005 — back in the cycling pack.

But this much Prudhomme is certain of: Almost everyone is talking about the cancer survivor’s surprise comeback, even in remote regions of France, a country where Armstrong has long stirred mixed emotions.

Prudhomme said he spent Wednesday at a race in western France, the Tour of Poitou-Charentes, and that “practically the whole day, people spoke to me about the return of Lance Armstrong.”

“The fact that he is a star … means that this touches everyone,” he said.

But before Armstrong goes for an eighth Tour de France title, he says he must prove to his teammates that he’s the best rider to lead them.

Armstrong told reporters Thursday in Las Vegas that he doesn’t expect to be the Astana team leader if he’s not the best rider. He says his close friend and Astana team director Johan Bruyneel will make the decision.

Prudhomme said it was too early to say whether the extra attention generated by Armstrong will prove good or bad for the Tour, which has been beset by doping scandals in recent years. He said he wants to ensure the race retains its “humanity” — meaning that riders appear to be making a real effort and not just flying up tough mountain passes as they seemingly did when doping was more widespread.

“If you have that humanity with Lance Armstrong, then we will have a very beautiful Tour de France,” Prudhomme said.

The 2009 Tour sets off July 4 from the rich principality of Monaco on the Mediterranean coast. The rest of the three-week route will be unveiled next month. Prudhomme refused to reveal details now but said this year’s itinerary “will allow for suspense right until the end.”

Armstrong will ride five races for the Astana team, including the Tour and the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, Australia, in January. His first road race in America will be the 2009 Amgen Tour of California in February.

But he didn’t rule out competing in the Giro d’Italia for the first time. The 2009 Giro is scheduled for May 9-31, and the Tour begins July 4.

“I only told you the races I will enter, therefore I don’t exclude it,” Armstrong said in Thursday’s sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport. “If I’m able to involve your prime minister (Silvio) Berlusconi in the fight against cancer and some other things line up, who knows, it could be the right year to come your way.”

Just a comment on who will lead Astana in the Tour. It reminds me of the debacle between in 1985 and 86 between the egos of teammates Frenchman Bernard Hinault and upstart American Greg LeMond. In 85 Hinault crashed and 24-year-old LeMond was ordered to ride in support as Hinault sought to join the great Tour champions with five wins. LeMond says now that his team management lied to him about Hinault’s time gaps on a critical stage causing him to loose the overall.

The next year Hinault promised to ride in support of his protégé LeMond, but win the opportunity came in stage 12 Hinault attacked and built a five minute lead. Hinault later cracked in the mountains the next day putting Lemond in yellow and feeling betrayed once again by his teammate.

Will history repeat itself in 2009? Sure will be fun to watch!

By ERIC SYLVERS
Associated Press Writer – All Photos by the Associated Press

VARESE, Italy (AP) _ Germany’s Bert Grabsch won the time trial world championship on Thursday with a strong finish to beat Canada’s Svein Tuft.

David Zabriskie of the United States took bronze, while teammate and pre-race favorite Levi Leipheimer was fourth.

The 33-year-old Grabsch finished fourth in the time trial last year and had a disappointing Olympics, where he took only 14th place. But in perfect sunny conditions on the course near Lake Varese, Grabsch finished the 27.16-mile ride in 52 minutes, 1.60 seconds to beat Tuft by 42.79 seconds.

“It was a perfect day for me, the course was perfect, the weather was perfect,” Grabsch said. “What can I say, I’m world champion.”

Double world champion Fabian Cancellara did not compete after winning Olympic gold in Beijing saying earlier this week that he was too tired.

“Without Cancellara it was a wide open race that could have been won by six to 10 riders,” said Grabsch, the first German to take the time trial gold medal since Jan Ullrich in 2001.

Tuft led the first half of the race but was already behind Grabsch when his front tire went flat with four miles to go. Still, he finished nearly 10 seconds ahead of Zabriskie to become the first Canadian to medal at the world championship in more than two decades.

Zabriskie, who crashed in the second stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia and had to abandon the race with a fractured vertebrae, said he was happy with the bronze.

“It’s always nice to do better, but with me having a tough season it’s nice to have something,” he said. “It has been a difficult year so I’m happy.”

The 34-year-old Leipheimer failed to medal despite finishing second at the Spanish Vuelta, where he won two time trials. He also finished third at the Olympic time trial in Beijing.

The world championships continue Friday with the under-23 road race. The women’s road race is Saturday with the men’s event rounding out the championships Sunday.

1. Bert Grabsch, Germany, 52 minutes, 1.60 seconds.

2. Svein Tuft, Canada, 52:44.39.

3. David Zabriskie, United States, 52:53.87.

4. Levi Leipheimer, United States, 53:07.02.

5. Gustav Larsson, Sweden, 53:07.44.

6. Stijn Devolder, Belgium, 53:17.01.

7. Tony Martin, Germany, 53:17.86.

8. Janez Brajkovic, Slovenia, 53:26.76.

9. David Millar, Britain, 53:26.86.

10. Sylvain Chavanel, France, 53:27.42.

By RACHEL COHEN
AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK (AP) _ Lance Armstrong won his first seven Tour de France titles with Johan Bruyneel as his team director. No way would he try for No. 8 without him.

Armstrong said Wednesday he will ride for Bruyneel’s Astana team as he seeks to win the 2009 Tour and will compete in the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, Australia, in January.

Kazakh Cycling Federation deputy chief Nikolai Proskurin told The Associated Press that Armstrong agreed to ride for the Kazakhstan-based team for free the first year and has signed up to take part in five races, including the Tour de France.

The smile in the AP Photo says it all.

The comeback offers the 37-year-old Armstrong an opportunity to try to prove that he is clean to skeptics who doubted that he could have achieved his feats without using performance-enhancing drugs. And anti-doping expert Don Catlin will run an independent program to test the rider.

“Ultimately you have one of the world’s leading experts to validate the performance,” Armstrong said.

Catlin oversaw testing for anabolic agents at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and ran the country’s first anti-doping lab at UCLA for 25 years. He now runs Anti-Doping Research, a nonprofit organization he founded to research performance-enhancing drugs, uncover new drugs being used illegally and develop tests to detect them.

Armstrong also is starting an under-23 team that will include 18-year-old Taylor Phinney. Phinney, the son of 1984 medalists Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Davis Phinney, finished seventh at the Beijing Olympics in the individual pursuit.

What Armstrong’s Astana team will look like is unclear. Alberto Contador, the 2007 Tour de France champ, might already be looking for a new team.

“I think I’ve earned the right to be the leader of a team without having to fight for my place,” the Spanish rider said Tuesday in AS newspaper. “And with Armstrong some difficult situations could arise in which the team would put him first and that would hurt me.”

In a statement released by Astana on Wednesday, Contador was conciliatory, but didn’t commit to remaining on the team.

“Right now people are looking to make up controversy, but honestly I have no ill will towards Lance,” he said. “I identify with his passion for the sport. He has certainly been a role model for me and others throughout the world and I imagine having him on Team Astana will only motivate me further.”

Contador, signed with Astana through 2010, won the Spanish Vuelta on Sunday. Combined with his 2008 Giro d’Italia title, he became just the fifth cyclist to win the three highest-regarded Tours.

The 37-year-old Armstrong said he’d like to have Contador on the team.

Another Astana rider, American Levi Leipheimer, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Armstrong’s return was good for the sport and good for the team. Leipheimer said he believes he will be his best on the best team, even if he isn’t the leader.

“We have spent some time together, and we get along well,” Leipheimer said of his relationship with Armstrong, his former teammate with U.S. Postal Service.

There are no guarantees Astana will race the 2009 Tour. Race officials kept the team from competing this year because of a series of previous doping violations, and Contador was unable to defend his championship.

“I can’t force myself on the event,” Armstrong said. “It’s their event, and I respect that. (Tour director) Christian Prudhomme has promised that as long as we abide by the rules that everybody else abides by — which we will, plus some — that we’re welcome to come.”

Prudhomme didn’t immediately respond to messages requesting comment.

Earlier Wednesday, in a speech to an audience full of political and corporate leaders at the Clinton Global Initiative, Armstrong announced that his foundation was committing $8 million over five years to expand its fight against cancer from the U.S. to underserved parts of the world such as Africa and South America.

He said that his decision to come back was as much about spreading his message as it was his desire to compete.

There were no confident proclamations about winning an eighth Tour.

“I will try to be as prepared as possible,” he said. “I don’t know if that equals victory. In 2001, I could say that: ‘Yeah, I think I can win.’”

Olympian Heiden dispenses professional training tips
By Roxanna Scott, USA TODAY
Eric Heiden wants you to know that exercise doesn’t have to be hard work; it can be play.

That’s part of the message Heiden shares in his new book, Faster, Better Stronger, written with Dr. Massimo Testa. It’s a book that teaches everyday people how to get fit, using some of the training techniques of the pros.

I meet Dr. Testa when I travelled with a US based pro team to the 1985 Vuelta a Espana, Max was the team doctor and a blast to spend a day in the second team car. He worked with Team Motorola and Quick Step.

Heiden went on to a career in sports medicine after becoming the most successful U.S. speedskater in history, winning five gold medals at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.

After his speedskating career, Heiden turned to cycling. He rode the Tour de France in 1986, the year after he won the U.S. Professional Cycling Championships.

These days Heiden, 50, is an orthopedic surgeon and serves as sports medicine director at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Salt Lake City. He is also a team physician for U.S. Speedskating and USA Cycling.

On Tuesday, he addressed a group of medical professionals at the AdvaMed 2008 conference in Washington. He also took time to talk with USA TODAY:

Your book is easy to read and doesn’t get bogged down in the science. What do you hope readers take away from the book?

There’s a lot of good knowledge out there in the science community and in the medical community. It doesn’t filter down to the average person or it gets lost in translation. The goal was to put together the good information and write it in a way that the average person understands, so they have an understanding of what the physiology behind exercise is, what the benefits are.

You have several examples in the book of patients you have seen and advised. Did your work inspire you in writing the book?

I have a strong interest in preventative medicine because what it’s done for me personally.

A lot of things you read about in the book, I talk to my patients about. Sometimes you don’t need surgery, you need a little education about how to make yourself better. It’s certainly not what most of my peers do. I find it very rewarding.

After your Olympic career ended, did you know you wanted to pursue a career in medicine?

“I always wanted to go into medicine since I was a young kid. I still wanted to be involved in athletics, so orthopedics was the normal track to take. I feel very lucky, because of the success I had in sports, there have been a lot of doors open to me that may have not been open. I had a chance to get a great education. I had a chance to participate in one of the outstanding sports medical fellowships in Birmingham, Ala. And I hope I use that experience wisely.”

This week Lance Armstrong will talk more about his cycling comeback. What are your thoughts about older athletes being able to compete at the elite lever longer?

“It certainly gives me some hope that as we age that some of the things that we have taken for granted, such as loss of physical abilities, aren’t as profound as we expected. I think that Lance and Dara Torres are the result of smart training done in a proper way with a good foundation of physiology behind it.”

You know the demands of the Tour de France from personal experience. What did you think of hearing about a 37-year-old coming out of retirement for this?

“When you think of some of the demands in the sport, Lance is probably in his prime or maybe a little bit beyond his prime for his aerobic conditioning.

Personally I think he’s going to be very successful. I will be surprised if he doesn’t stick around a couple of years and doesn’t try to win 10 Tours.

Having been involved in other sports, I’ll tell you the hardest out there is cycling when it comes to three-week-long stage races. You’re out there by yourself. You’re working with a team, but it’s a lot of individual effort. It’s very hard to translate the demands of a three-week stage race to the average person — where you’re racing every day, hundreds of miles a week. Just trying to recover so the next day you can be competitive again. You don’t get a timeout if you fall off your bike. You’ve got to get back up and finish.”