Thursday, October 30, 2008

That time I won Lance Armstrong's Ride for the Roses

Several years ago, Lance Armstrong and his buddies would have a friendly bike race in the Austin area with the winner being awarded a dozen roses. They called it the Ride for the Roses. Later, it became a charity race to support those fighting cancer, and since then it has been expanded into the LIVESTRONG Challenge. Back in the late 90's when it was still the Ride for the Roses charity race, I was actually the first to cross the finish line.

One Saturday, my friend Henry and I went on a short 100 mile bike ride. In fact, it was so short it was closer to 30 miles. On one part of the ride, the right lane of the road had been blocked off with pylons and motorcycle cops were spaced along the route. At a stoplight we asked one of the cops why the lane was blocked off. He said that it was part of the route for the Ride for the Roses, and that the cyclists should be riding through soon. We thanked him and continued on our ride.

We came over a hill and saw that the banner for the finish line was a few hundred yards away with a small crowd awaiting the riders. We decided to race to the line and took off. As we got closer, the crowd noticed us and started cheering because they believed we were actual participants in the race.

As I crossed the finish line first, the crowd roared, flashbulbs popped, and I raised my arm triumphantly!

And we just kept on riding.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If anyone else told it to me, I would not have believed it, but you………………………….

Anonymous said...

What kind of roses did you get? If you pressed and saved them- they are probably worth a fortune on ebay – and Happy Belated Birthday by the way!!!

Anonymous said...

You're funny...

Anonymous said...

That's hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to you and Ron! And happy Halloween!

Anonymous said...

hahaha! This made me laugh out loud. I even got a dirty look from my husband who is trying to watch TV. ;-)

SCORE!