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Chasing Lance Armstrong
The New American Pilgrimage
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This April, a group of local Portland guys began to train for a trip to the Tour de France, but they weren't racing, they were "chasing Lance." They biked along the Alps days before the Tour de France would get there, staking out the best sites and following the route as closely as possible. Among these was my friend Mark, a recently laid-off writer, who decided to take full advantage of his liberation to follow one of his heroes to a hopeful victory.

What struck me most about Mark's plan is that a number of Americans have been taking pilgrimages. Most of these are young people, recently out-of-work designers, writers, and other creative people who are faced with the post dot-com reality. There are the two web designers who decided to bowl across America, the man who decided to put one foot in every country of the world, and the two guys who walked from Chicago to San Francisco, although they might have just been looking for better weather. In this country, and now more than ever, our jobs define who we are. In America what's the first thing a new acquaintance will ask you at a party (other than if you need a drink)? "So, what do you do?" You are forced to explain that no, you are not an Accountant; you just play one on TV. So develops the alter ego to the delight of Psychotherapists everywhere- the only people who will be happy to tell you, yes, they are what they do. We are a culture of moonlighters, of Sam Spades and Wonder Women believing it's only a matter of time before we can dust off the old outfit and throw away our everyday costumes.

Talk about a fuck you to the establishment. Mark's pilgrimage to chase Lance seemed to me the epitome of taking a crappy situation and turning it around to your advantage. I am a firm believer that there is no revenge like success. There's also no success so gratifying as making a lifelong dream come true. Like pilgrimages of old, people always want to join in, gaining some courage and glory by association. Be it Chaucer or the Magic Bus, pilgrimages are rarely a solitary event. They are, in my opinion, personally challenging. But the experience of doing something great is often humbled by the experience of getting to the top of the mountain and finding a field of flags.

What affects me most is the attempt to do it in the first place. Mark put together a website www.chasinglance.net documenting his chase in almost real time. This allowed his friends to follow along and become part of the pilgrimage. We hoped to touch the bit of cloth that may be a Shroud of Turin, or in this case, a sweat-stained towel in which the face of Lance Armstrong has been said to appear. Other than the 30 pounds he proudly points out he lost, I was curious about how Mark felt after completing the chase. I wanted to see if the experience had changed him in any discernable way. The following is an excerpt from a truncated email interview conducted with Mark Radcliffe in August 2003. I say truncated because Mark is a writer. He wasn't exactly reticent to write more about his adventure. I won't even mention the five pages of rough entries that he didn't post on the website.

Montana Dove Wojczuk: Why did you go chasing Lance?

Mark Radcliffe: So this is quick.

I went over to chase down a life-long dream. It started when I was around 13 watching Greg Lemond in the Tour, threatening the Europeans for the first time in history. It grew as I became a serious cyclist. It went dormant for a few years while I began my adult/ professional life. But as I got older, it became about merging with another culture, immersing oneself with the traditions of France.

And unexpectedly, it became about witnessing a new modern-day hero, Lance

Armstrong. It was about seeing what could be accomplished by a man who not too long ago thought his life was over. Maybe it would help re-awaken some dreams for me.

And I went, in part, to be a kid again, to redefine for myself what a 33 yr old could do with his spare time.

That any help?

MW: Mark, this is great. If you don't mind I have a couple more questions.

Were there other people, besides your group, "chasing lance?" Is this a traditional thing to do?

MR: Tons of people do it, but more to just 'see the tour' than 'chase lance'. For the French, this is a common way to spend the month of July--rent an RV, pack up the family and circle the country for three weeks, relocating along the route each day. I'd guess that a few thousand Americans do what I did in some form or other, meaning cycling along, riding up the mountains to get a spot on the road, following for at least a week or so.

MW: What did the French say about this American who kept beating them on their own turf?

MR: The French have respect for Lance, but were licking their chops when he wasn't exactly dominating. They're sick of him winning, but they don't have anyone who can come close. Their best guy was 8th this year.

MW: How hard was it to train?

MR: I biked 2300 miles in three months (more miles than I put on my car), riding 2-5 hrs a day. It was pretty brutal.

MW: What kind of limitations did you and your group have to overcome?

MR: Two of us spoke French well, so we carried the group a lot. Logistics of driving around to a new city every few days was the toughest. Loading bikes in and out of vans, navigating maps, getting lost, accidentally putting normal gas in a diesel engine cost us seven hours waiting on the road.

MW: Was there ever a point where you thought, "I can't do this"?

MR: No, I knew it was do-able. The tough part was in early April being so fat and out of shape, then blowing out my knee. When I woke up in bed April 28th knowing I couldn't walk at all, I thought I'd completely sabotaged my own dream. That was a dark few days...just because I was horsing around in a game of Paintball.

MW: How did the experience meet or fail your expectations?

MR: The time of my life. I felt like I was gone for three months. Luckily we saw the closest Tour in 14 years. Lance barely won; he finally got bad luck this year, and he had to really earn it, whereas he's coasted a bit the last few years.

There were a few guys in my group I couldn't hang with. It would have been great to be even more competitive, because there was a lot of friendly racing amongst us.

MW: Would you do it again?

MR: I'll try to go again next year since Lance will be gunning for his 6th win (a record), but really this is a commitment that takes much more prep time than running a marathon, so it's tough. Being laid off was the only way to really do it.

MW: Congratulations again. I hope the article sends more people to your site. Beware, people wanting to come along next time might over load your email in-box, especially if the economy keeps getting worse.