The Old Guy Rules

Every summer, one of my traditions is to watch the Tour de France.  I've been doing it since the days of Greg Lemond, and the superhuman efforts of one Lance Armstrong have taken my cycling fervor to a completely new level.  Now that Lance is 37 and has been out of cycling for almost 4 years, he's attempting a comeback.  On Sunday, I watched a stage that showed that Lance may not still be King of the Tour, losing time on a climb to a younger, seemingly stronger man, Alberto Contador of Spain.  Many of us (including me) want to believe that Lance is just lying in wait and will make an attack that will leave young Contador in his wake, but something tells me that Contador is the strongest man in the tour.  And there's no shame in that.

Lance sits second right now as they go back into the Alps (I'm watching Stage 16 as I write this), and I'm still sorting out what all this means.  It's like watching Superman being unbelievably strong, but finding someone stronger.  It's like watching the lion who was the ruler of the pride meeting his match in a young lion who is what he used to be.  But Lance is the lion who refuses to quit fighting, though he knows his skills and stamina aren't what they once were.  I've caught a lot of flak from people because I wrote a book called THE OLD GUY RULES when I was 43.  However, the gist of the book is that age is relative.  For an elite cyclist, 37 is ancient.  For a writer, it can be infancy.  Still, what Lance is doing is heroic.  The effort it takes to prepare for a race like the Tour is something most of us cannot comprehend.  I heard it once said that riding the Tour is like running a marathon for 21 straight days.  It's a race of suffering, even by the truly elite riders like Contador and  Lance.  Why would a man who has won 7 straight Tours and has more money than he  will ever be able to spend subject himself this torture?  It's simple:  Lance Armstrong is a true OLD GUY.  He refuses to give up, and he pushes himself even after he has succeeded to the nth degree.  He's also doing it to promote his cancer foundation.  Regardless of where he finishes, Lance Armstrong is a hero.  He's a hero in every sense of the  word, not just because of his Tour success, but because he's overcome so much to get there, he refuses to give up, and he lives his life to help others with his foundation.  That's what I call being a true OLD GUY.

See you all tomorrow, and thanks for checking in,

Jim Rodgers

Author:  THE OLD GUY RULES

www.theoldguyrules.com