GB: Aside from cancer research and raising awareness, why do you think Lance wants to come back?
CC: He wants to win. He thinks he can win. Also, his Livestrong initiative. Then, I think he has kind of gotten a bum rap. Three years after his retirement, a lot of people were taking potshots at him saying there was this "black" generation of athletes that were dopers and Lance got lumped into that although he was never found positive or ever had a positive drug control or anything that would establish that. Even all the way up to the television network Versus airing these commercials about taking back the Tour de France. They didn’t include Lance, but it could have easily been perceived that way. Lance’s victories were clean and they were legitimate, but he felt slighted. If he comes back and wins the Tour after three years retired and 37 years old, having a very aggressive independent drug control program in place that’s transparent with all his blood and urine tests on the web for everyone to see, that sends a pretty strong message.
GB: With Lance having been out of the sport now for several years, how much of a disadvantage do you think he’s at?
CC: It’s not really his age that I’m concerned about as much as he’s been three years removed from elite competition. That’s the aspect that will be his challenge.
GB: Many people have said it’d be great to see Lance finish in the top five at the Tour de France. Something tells me he doesn’t feel the same. If he does not win, how much do you think that will bother him?
CC: Well, let me tell you. Lance is not going back to the Tour de France to finish second. It’s obviously a very big challenge and he recognizes that, but his standard is winning.
GB: Since Lance has decided to come back, what do you recall from that first day of serious training?
CC: It wasn’t like there was a first day. He just kept going from Leadville. In his training from Leadville, I recall how quickly he adapts to training. He basically had a good, solid three weeks of training for Leadville and he improved dramatically from the start of training to right before the race. I’ve always noticed how quickly he responds to training and what huge improvements can be seen.
GB: You’ve said what really separates Lance from the other professional cyclists is that there are a lot of cyclists that will train as hard as Lance for a single day, but Lance is at it 24/7 365 days a year. That’s the type of athlete he is. Explain that.
CC: The relentless consistency that I’ve seen in Lance. It’s his ability day-in-and-day-out to just drive and look for success and asking the very most of himself. It’s eating right so much so that he weighs the food that he eats to make sure that he’s not taking in more than he expended. It’s his dedication to technology and getting in the wind tunnel two to three times per year. He looks at all the different aspects: pedal cadence, specific heart rate, climbing. Not just during the cycling season, it’s during the offseason, too. I have yet to see somebody else who can carry that intensity 24/7 365 days a year.
I’ll give you a good story. One time, we’re doing a reconnaissance of all the Tour de France stages. Lance would go out and ride every stage of the Tour de France. One day, he was riding over four mountain passes in the Pyrenees, a very brutal stage. It was the end of April, it was cold, and there was snow on the top of these passes. It was going to be about 130 miles in the saddle. It had amounted to about seven-and-a-half hours of riding that day. We finished on the top of this big mountain. After seven-and-a-half hours of riding, we finished the 10-mile climb to the top. I thought Lance was done. He said, “Look, Chris, I didn’t get this. I didn’t get the last climb. After seven-and-a-half hours and 130 miles in the saddle, he turned around and descended down and rode that last climb again up to the finish. It ended up being close to nine hours in the saddle. I’ve never seen anything like that and that’s what I mean. That level of intensity I haven’t seen repeated by anybody.
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