ACC Blog

Looks like all the rumors surrounding Lance Armstrong this past week were true. The greatest Tour de France rider and most accomplished American road cyclist of all time is returning to professional cycling for the coming season. A few days after proving this rumor true, Lance showed up for an Aspen Cycling Club event, which rumor had it might take place. (Apparently the rumor had leaked too as many of the local media, who we hadn’t seen almost all summer, were positioning themselves to catch Lance just in case he did show up). Thanks to this rescheduled race on our rain date of 9/10, the new Aspen homeowner was back in town and able to make it, looking fit and ready to race up Smuggler, Four Corners and down through Van Horn Park on this great mountain bike cross country course on a beautiful late summer’s eve.

An electric energy was in the air as the large field of buzzing local racers staged for the Start, taking up the entire uphill traffic lane at the base of Smuggler Road. Lance took his rightful place on the front line. It was very exciting and an honor for me to give the pre-race instructions, including a special presentation to Armstrong making him an honorary ACC member for the coming season. A club jersey and invitation to our annual banquet on Wednesday evening 9/17 (the eve of Armstong’s 37th birthday) was also extended in appreciation of Lance’s accomplishments and support of the Aspen Cycling Club. This was truly a historic night, especially since it was on the heels of his announcement to return to the pro peloton.

As expected, the pace was fast and furious after the mass start from the base of Smuggler Mountain. Armstrong led the way, flanked closely by his local team; The Hub of Aspen, several riders from Basalt Bike and Ski, endurance racer and 12 Hours of Snowmass organizer Natt Ross and Honey Stinger’s Len Zanni, who actually led Lance up Smuggler, “riding his own race” till he was passed towards the top of the climb by the LIVESTRONG man in black. By the time the climb to Four Corners began, the Texan had opened up about a 30 second lead over Zanni, who was also in a tight series points race with several other top local contenders, thus needed maximum points. But Lance was not to be seen again till Zanni popped out of the Sunnyside Plunge and onto the Hunter Creek Valley floor singletrack, where he spotted Armstrong off in the distance, with a little too much of a gap to close.

>At the Finish it was the seven time Tour Champion by a mere 14 seconds over local hero Len. As in Leadville, Lance showed he has mountain biking skills, high altitude fitness and his trademark mental toughness, enough to take on some of the strongest mountain bike racers in Colorado and perhaps the world next season.

Winners in their respective divisions for the final mountain bike and club race for the season include

Len Zanni 59:24, Cindy Morse 48:40 (5.5 mile course) Erik Skarvan 1:07:35, Alena Gauba 48:35, John Phillips 46:37, Keith Berglund 45:24, Ed Cross 52:55 and Rob Russell 1:10:06 (long course-fast on a singlespeed!).

There’s still time to “train” for the annual ACC Banquet to be held next Wednesday evening, Sept. 17th at Bumps restaurant at the base of Buttermilk. Details for this festive gathering to come. And if we’re lucky again Lance might show up, this time to celebrate another racing season with his newly adopted local bike club.

Erik Skarvanp>

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.