Go Lance, Go !

One of the interesting things to me is how fully one single person can change the perception of millions of people. Take Lance Armstrong. He single-handedly reminded a nation who apparently had largely forgotten since the days of Greg Lemond that cycling was actually a professional sport.

So it's no surprise to me that once every two weeks or so someone yells out 'Go Lance !' to me from a car as I'm peddling along.

Sort of.

I'm not exactly a cycling geek. How much does my Elite T-Class with dura-ace parts and one 303 and one 404 wheel weigh ? Ask Dave Greenfield. I wouldn't know.

However, as a longtime CSC fan, I have all the gear. Socks, cycling jerseys, gloves. I had an easy ride today in iffy, cool weather- 2 hours spin. I often end up literally spinning on days like this, in the basement, doing an aero basebuilder. Despite the murk, I headed out and before you know it, bright sun was everywhere, the sky was blue- and I was tooling along at 18mph, easy, so easy.

I was about 45 minutes into the ride in Madison, when a silver convertible went by and a 20-something in the passenger seat leaned out and yelled 'Go Lance, Go !'

Which was kind of ironic. In the first place, while I'd been racing a car at 30 mph the other day in the same spot, I was really, really tooling along. Lance ? More like Bobke... Second, I was wearing CSC kit.

To me, when you see a guy in CSC kit and you yell 'Go Lance, Go !' it's kind of like seeing a kid in a Bret Favre jersey throwing a football and yelling 'Go Brady ! On one hand, obviously no one with even one working eye is going to mistake me- on or off a bike- for Lance Armstrong. On the other, I'm out for an easy ride and I kind of feel like I'm embarrassing the collective memory of Lance Armstrong out there just riding in my A zone, not even wearing my TT helmet, in an easy gear just keeping the cadence up.

I keep my effort down, but I couldn't help but laugh ? Lance ?

Maybe it was the yellow bike...

ps-After reading this interview with Eric Hodska, I wonder how my own picks: Sin (NIN), Spybreak (Propellerheads), and Rebel Yell (Live) stack up against the coach's expectations...