Famous Training Partners

[Alex Simmons]

Just for fun, which famous cyclists have you trained/ridden with?

Not being blessed with a Pro's genes, I didn't get to ride with 'em much but had a couple of funny instances.

Not long after I got back on a road bike in the 90's and wasn't that fit, I was visiting another town and turned up for the local weekend training run. It was a longish run but fortunately not too hilly. I was struggling somewhat towards the end but we hit a long flat section and I recovered OK.

At that stage I was 2nd wheel in the bunch when suddenly the guy in front of me attacks, HARD! Now I didn't know the group's protocol so I figured the best thing to do was go after him, lest I get in the way. So I put the smack down, got his wheel and man he was hammering. Then he looked over his shoulder to see who was there. No one else had joined the attack - it was just him and me. Righto then, let's go. That's when I realised I was in trouble. It was Neil Stephens!

I had another funny riding experience with Daniel Nardello one day but won't bore you with the details.

And have raced with plenty of Aussie elite riders on the track - that happens in our track carnivals, especially with wheelraces where multiple graded riders are racing in same race. Guys like Ryan Bayley, Ben Kersten, Danny Ellis, Shane Kelly come to mind last season.

I was so ****** off when the photographer didn't get a shot of me beating Danny Ellis on the finish line in a WR heat! That would've "gone straight to the billiard room".

 

[BullGod]

I once got into a 4 man breakaway with Danny Stam and Robert Slippens.....the Dutch trackies of the 6 day scene.

That hurt.

 

[YMCA]

Lots of Euro pros when I spent time in Belgium.

Few rides with Musseuw on 53x16-17 for hours. Very calm dude and steady as a rock. I had a chance to ride with him every day for two weeks as he was doing some summer base stuff with a few local pros, but declined, so I could get to the races. What a dumbass, now that I look back on the experience that would have given me. Talking for hours with him would have accelerated my sporting career, instead I floundered and am now regretful.

Sitting at a bakery one day I see Roger Hammond ride by, so I yell to him. He comes back and I introduce myself as an American that has raced with him a few times back in his amateur days. He then invites me back to his place for some tea and we talk shop for a bit. That guy gets the most out of his talent for sure. Good chap.

Probably the coolest story I have was my first year over there in 1995. My racing friend Steve Van Vreckem (who has since passed of a heart attack), grew up with Axel Merckx as juniors and used to spend the night at the Merckx compound. One day, he calls to tell me that his bike is cracked and needs to take it by the factory for a replacement and do I want to come along. So, we show up, and sure enough walk in the front door to a show room with Eddy's offices right there. Eddy is working on some papers and comes to greet us when he sees Steve. Holy ****, it's Eddy! Then Axel walks out, just back from the Championship of Zurich! Then his mom. So, Eddy knows that I'm from America and since he is supporting Motorola at the time, has all kinds of Motorola memorabilia. He is running around the offices trying to give me stuff to take home. Lance postcards, hats, widgets and gadgets. Whatever, it's all incredible to me as the greatest cyclist of all time is trying to turn on the Belgie charm for this lowly humbleboy.

Got to meet him again later in the year at a post-tour criterium, but that first experience was like Jordan walking into the ghetto to play some pick-up.

 

[tmctguer]

the Chairman of the company I work for is Jim Kennedy who at one time held the record for the Race Across America competition. as a matter of fact, he was in my neck of the woods just this morning for a meeting, and we chatted a lot about the RAA and cycling in general. he is a great fan of the sport.

 

[Piotr]

I occasionally see Saul Raisin, or Dave Z training around these parts. I sat on Saul's wheel for a while at his unofficial comeback race this year, the Porcupine Hillclimb in Salt Lake City. HealthNet's Jeff Louder won that one. Zabriskie occasionally does some training races when he's in town. Ex-Postie Marty Jemison used to do them too when he was the amateur U.S. national champ. I also met Levi Leipheimer at a New Year's party once (1994?), when he was just starting out as our local amateur phenom. Believe it or not I raced against Graeme Albon back in 1991.

No famous training partners though.

 

[YMCA]

I occasionally see Saul Raisin, or Dave Z training around these parts. I sat on Saul's wheel for a while at his unofficial comeback race this year, the Porcupine Hillclimb in Salt Lake City. HealthNet's Jeff Louder won that one. Zabriskie occasionally does some training races when he's in town. Ex-Postie Marty Jemison used to do them too when he was the amateur U.S. national champ. I also met Levi Leipheimer at a New Year's party once (1994?), when he was just starting out as our local amateur phenom. Believe it or not I raced against Graeme Albon back in 1991.

No famous training partners though.

I was beaten in a 2-up sprint at the end of a 125 mile races by Saul when he was 19. Ouch, that still burns. At least he went on to ProTour stuff for a while.

I shared a house with Jeff Louder in '98 in Belgium. It was his first year over there and we stayed with the proprieters of what now is Cycling Center. Funny thing is, out of the 6 guys that were there, he was my last pick to make it further in the sport. What the hell did I know? Say Hi when you see him.

-- Mike

ps - Gardie Jackson (out your way) and I were best of friends when he lived here in Orlando. That guy can rock when motivated, but never seemed to want to chase the dream.

 

[Piotr]

ps - Gardie Jackson (out your way) and I were best of friends when he lived here in Orlando. That guy can rock when motivated, but never seemed to want to chase the dream.

Are you implying that cycling's premier male model, race annoucer, and motivator extraordinaire Gardie is ever unmotivated? That's a first! Check out his new dream here: Parkcityelevation.com.

 

[dkrenik]

One January day in the mid-to-late 1980's while riding north of Boulder, I was joined by another guy riding alone. We struck up some conversation (What do you for a living? Family? etc...). He was involved in the US stock market (broker at the time) and I asked if he had raced bicycles before and he said "yes". I asked his name and he said "Wayne". This guy was obviously significantly stronger than me and I mentioned that there were some posters (Coors Classic) at the health club I worked out at that were signed by the winner Wayne Stetina. "That's me".

On another occasion, my first 35+ race (which was a while ago... ), I had the good fortune of racing in the Colorado State Crit championships with Alexi Grewal. That's when I found out that the masters races in this part of the country are dominated by former 1/2/Pro. Got spit out the back rather quickly...

 

[grahamspringett]

I went on a training camp in Lanzarote back in 94 when I had a brief stint as a bike journalist, and we had Graeme Obree and Tony Doyle with us. I was paired up with Obree for a pool tournament and at a dinner he came dressed as his 'twin' sister complete with fake boobs and a wig. He was a good laugh, and a complete animal on a bike.

Not really a training partner, but I spent a fair while trying to sit on Roger Hammond's wheel in the early 90s on the old Hillingdon bypass hot-dog crit circuit, which was hard going. The race routine was 'go fast, brakes, U turn, accelerate hard, go fast, brakes, U-turn' and so on. And he was a regular winner against the big boys even in his late junior years.

Course, I taught him all he knows...

 

[jeff828]

Back in the 90s I rode with on a regualar basis & was good friends with Jeff Corbett, now he is the director of the top team in the U.S., HealthNet, great guy.
I raced in a P12 crit with Hincapie once for 25 laps, I also rode with him once, we live in the same state so I see him alot, his brother Rich puts on alot of our races who I talk to most.

I rode twice, in a group with John Murphy, Nathan O’neil, Kirk O'Bee (Healthnet), Jusin England (Toyota-United) Emile Abraham, Tina Pic(Colavita), Nick Reistad (Jellybelly) Todd Henriksen(AEG-TOSHIBA-JetNetwork), Tim Johnson, Tim Henry (Jittery Joes). I could ride with these guys every weekend if I wanted to drive 2-1/2hrs each way for their 5hr training rides, its a long day, would like to do 2-3 of them this winter.

 

[RelevantAaron]

I used to race tri's in the '80's, semi-pro on the Nike team. I trained all the time with Scott Tinley, Mark Allen etc. Then there was this 16 year old kid that came to La Jolla to race tri's. Kicked his ass on our weekly runs, but he was an all american swimmer and excellent on the bike. Name was Lance something and I hear he went on to do okay as a pro cyclist
.

I also had the chance to ride with Greg Lemond and Andy Hampsten - both really, really nice guys. We did an easy 60 miler, with a 2 mile climb to the finish (Torrey Pines Road, for those in the San Diego area). I vividly remember it being a non-hammerfest till the final climb. Greg and Andy had just been hanging out in the pack being social. On the last hill they got into a conversation with each other and kinda lost track of the group - chatting away and riding off into the distance. As the entire pack took it to the redline and one by one was blown off the back.