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  Home Page » News » Armstrong Takes On Local Trails

Armstrong takes on local trails

by Aaron Unterreiner
Herald Sports Editor

That double-take was not misguided.

If you thought you saw Lance Armstrong riding his mountain bike through Durango Mountain Park and Horse Gulch on Wednesday morning, you probably did.

In case you missed it, and about 15,000 locals did because of an imposed 500-person limit for Tuesday’s benefit dinner, the seven-time Tour de France cycling champ was in town this week.

The event, which premiered the “Race Across the Sky” documentary about this year’s historic Leadville 100 mountain bike race, “sold out in about 12 minutes,” Armstrong said Wednesday in a telephone interview with The Durango Herald.

“I think they did a great job with it,” Armstrong said of the film en route to the Durango-La Plata County Airport after a tour of the Mercy Regional Medical Center’s new Breast Care Center facility. “I think it will be well-received, too – a lot of people were clapping and cheering for certain scenes, so that’s a good sign.”

Tickets to the movie – $20 and $25 apiece – and the dinner – $500 each – sold out within 13 minutes Sept. 21. Proceeds from both events will benefit Trails 2000 and the Fort Lewis College cycling program, per Armstrong’s request.

Mary Monroe, the architect behind Armstrong’s visit, estimates the two organizations’ equal split will be about $10,000 to $12,000 each. Those figures, Monroe said, are just the tip of Armstrong’s impact, and he was in town for only about 24 hours.

“He created so much good will in the community,” said Monroe, the executive director of Trails 2000, the organization that spearheaded Armstrong’s visit. “He was so gracious.”

Armstrong, a cancer survivor,  originally had planned to visit the Breast Care Center on Tuesday before the benefit, but time ran short, so Monroe instead brought the cancer survivors and in-treatment patients to Armstrong.

“He sat down and talked to each one of them,” Monroe said. “It was so moving, so heart-warming to see that.”

Armstrong’s cancer crusade started years ago; his Livestrong foundation fight grew local ties just a few months ago, via an old friend and teammate.

Travis Brown, two years Armstrong’s elder, shared a Trek sponsorship with Armstrong, 38, while the two were racing mountain bikes in the late ’90s. Armstrong helped Brown claim a National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) championship in 1999.

“He’s one of the main innovators of mountain biking and mountain biking design,” Armstrong said of Brown, who makes his home in Durango with his wife, Mary Monroe. “Really, if I ever have any questions about a course or its setup, the first person I call is Travis.

“Travis knows everything.”

Armstrong had questions about this year’s Leadville 100 course redesign, so, true to his word, he called Brown for help. He ended up recruiting Brown as his de facto race organizer, in charge of finding one more rider to support his assault on the Leadville record books.

Brown found Matt Shriver.

“(Armstrong) brought up this concept of a six-hour Leadville,” Brown said of their initial exchange on the subject. “My first reaction was, ‘That’s not possible.’ Then I got to thinking about it a little bit, and thinking about his career, and how he is always able to create opportunities with whatever he’s given; I mean, he did find a way to win seven Tours in a row.

“I got interested in the race, and then I started seeing how we could take big, big time off of that record. I’m glad I was able to contribute to that.”

“My time wouldn’t have been nearly as fast” if it weren’t for Brown and Shriver,” said Armstrong, who successfully achieved his goal by racing the 100 miles in August with more than 14,000 vertical feet of climbing in a record 6 hours, 28 minutes and 50 seconds.

“Matt was driving it the first 40, 45 miles. That made a huge difference in time.”

Armstrong told Shriver in August he’d return the favor for his efforts by paying the Skyhawks’ cyclists a visit. Less than three months later, Armstrong arrived in Durango.

“He’s just a normal guy,” Shriver said. “He’s been doing this for a long time, and he’s really good at it. He was very gracious to come here. He’s been gracious to cycling, been gracious toward his fight against cancer. For him to take a timeout to come to Fort Lewis, that was really nice of him; he’s a man of his word.”

The who’s who in cycling – Ned Overend, Dave Wiens, Susan DeMattei, Brown, Shriver – took Armstrong on a mountain bike ride this morning through the test tracks and the Telegraph trail system. Despite the inclement weather, Armstrong called the ride a “little wet, little sticky” – but “beautiful” nonetheless.

“Those are some of the best trails we have,” Shriver said. “That’s the stuff Durango is known for, and what Trails 2000 has worked so hard to establish. We wanted to show Lance that right outside your back door you can find world-class mountain bike trails.”

And world-class talent, too.

“We were really grateful to have Lance here,” said Brown, a 1988 alumnus of Durango High School. “It just shows how much gravity is here for cycling, the history that we do have.

“For the movie production company, and for Lance himself, to want to do this here … we need to fortify that; we need to grow that.”

aaron@durangoherald.com