Gym Cracks By Jim July 29, 2004 LANCE & FRANCE Lance Armstrong victory inspires new biking hobby, trip to France By Jim (Babe) Berryman MissingNebraska.com Webster defines athlete as "One who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina." After watching Lance Armstrong over the last three weeks, the world would have to concede Lance Armstrong is an athlete--a world-class athlete. In the last couple weeks I have mounted my Trek 7600 on a few occasions. I hadn't ridden the bike since last summer. Lance I am not. I attempted to maintain speeds of 12-14 mph for an 11-mile jaunt on Friday. The 11 miles was my longest trip to date. On Friday after pedaling short distances, the sartorius and other front-leg muscles, would inform my brain they were experiencing discomfort. I would drop back to 9-10 mph by coasting a short distance and then zip the speed back up to 12 or better. The muscles again would signal the brain to slow down or discontinue the effort. I did finish the 11 miles in a couple minutes over one hour. By this time my gluteus maximus muscle was also petitioning the brain to end this day's ride on the bicycle. I hope to improve my effort on the bicycle--both in distance and time. I'll never average 30 mph over a four-five hour period. I'll never climb a mountain with an eight percent incline on my Trek. I will never be defined as an athlete, but I will receive some good cardiovascular workouts from riding the bike. The participants this year rode over eighty-three hours at top speeds. Lance Armstrong, his teammates and the other Tour participants are truly athletes in any sense of the word. I watched a lot of the 2004 Tour de France. Hopefully Lance Armstrong will attempt his seventh straight Tour de France win in 2005. Living vicariously, I could be a part of this race next year. With an Eurailpass, a person could watch most, if not all segments of this race. A person could travel from location to location on a train. When a segment of the race has concluded for the day, a person could catch the train to the next location sleeping on the train. So next year there is a possibility an old-timer from Grand Island will be displaying an American flag on the Champs-Elysees next year while the Americans continue their dominance of this race. Post/Read Feedback PREVIOUS GYM CRACKS: Click Here