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Text by Christian Camerota Bionic human pin cushion Lance Armstrong is no stranger to needles. The 37-year-old's seen his fair share during cancerous trials, doping probes, and post-crash repair jobs (to busted limbs and bikes, alike). Apparently the only scars left from having his body and mettle tested as if he were a military prototype, though, are the ones he's seered and continues to scald into the French countryside. There's no getting around it: You put this man on a bicycle and he makes just about anything else in the world seem possible. Rick Reilly's got a poignant, succinct look into Armstrong's chase for his 8th Tour title here and his clever turns of phrase (he refers to Armstrong as "cycling's Dorian Gray") coupled with a tale of impending triumph that's hard to muck up make for a great read. ADVENTURE will continue to post updates on the Armstrong Comeback...

Most riders are either off the course or will be finishing the 2009 Tour Divide race soon. Despite the phantasmagorical weather this year, most records fell—an interesting portent for the evolution of self-supported Continental Divide racing. Alaskan Jill Homer broke the female record with a time of 24 days, 7 hours and 24 minutes. Jay and Tracey “T-Race” Petervary set a tandem (that’s right) record of 18:13:44. And 27-year-old engineer-turned-teacher Chris Plesko blew the asterisks off the single speed record in the 2009 Tour Divide with a time of nineteen days and sixteen minutes. He spun his Vassago 29er through unprecedented bad weather. I caught up with him just after he returned home to Colorado.

JB: How the hell did you keep up with the chase group for most of the race? They had gears (in case you didn't notice).

CP: The first part of the race course is quite singlespeed friendly. It's got loads of climbing and not too many long, gradual downhills which are my nemesis from the perspective of racing with the geared guys heads up. I geared really big (for me) at 32x17 but I knew from training in the mountains above Boulder with a 32x16 that I could push
that gear up almost all of the climbs without walking. Additionally I just tried to save time where ever I could, eating and drinking on the fly, changing clothes while riding, etc.

JB: You not only ride a single speed, but a rigid one. Are you a hippie?

CP: Haha nah I'm as far from a hippie as you can get probably. I love technology most of the time. I'll have to blame Dave Nice for riding rigid. I actually love the Rock Shox Reba forks but Dave gave me a rigid fork for my old Monocog one winter and I soon fell in love with the handling and simplicity of the rigid. No stanchions to freeze up in the winter slush, no pressure settings to fiddle with, just get out and ride. Plus I'm a decent expert XC racer but a terrible pro class competitor, even with gears and suspension, so the rigid singlespeed keeps things interesting in the expert class.

JB: You started last year and pulled the plug--what was different this year, considering the weather was epic?

CP: Experience, plain and simple. Like I mentioned before, I tend to jump right into these things whether I'm totally "ready" or not. Last year I still hadn't successfully completed a multi day endurance race but I wanted to give this a try anyway. Plus I didn't want to choose sides between the TD and GDR since I have good friends firmly on both sides
so I did an individual time trial. Between my lack of experience and the loneliness of the ITT, all the little problems that cropped up (achillies pain, lost GPS) made me pretty unhappy and I felt like I wasn't really racing as hard as I should be. Luckily Marni planted the Colorado Trail race seed in my head as soon as she picked me up from
Lima and I had really good success there finally. Of course in hindsight I should have kept going last year on the Divide because the weather was bomber compared to this year!

JB: From your call-ins you sound like the most positive person on the planet. Are you?

CP: In general I think I'm pretty positive. I feel extremely lucky to have a great wife, wonderful family and supportive friends. The off road ultra racing community is just incredible. We are all out there racing each other, pushing hard and yet we still are so crazy psyched when our buddies succeed. It's hard not to be positive when you've got that
kind of support. When we were dealing with the snow I thought of the epic AZT 300 this year and when the mud was horrendous I thought of all my Grand Loop buddies who battled truely epic mud this year. I do get down and have low moments like everyone does but generally I was having a ton of fun out there and that's the overriding goal.

JB: Were you ever tempted to get to a town, call Marni, and go home?

CP: This year, no. I am amazed myself that I never felt like pulling out this go around after how I felt last year. I did really miss Marni and wanted to see her, which I was able to do in Colorado, but I had no desire to go home until I got to Mexico.

JB: When I did the GDR in 2007, while I was riding I fantasized about baking. I went home and made muffins every day for a month. What did you think about when you were riding all those lonely hours?

CP: Anything and everything. Lately I've been climbing more in the mountains and I did think a lot about that, especially riding by the Tetons and near all the obscure rock formations scattered about the route. Kurt (Refsnider) is a Phd geology wiz and I loved learning about all the science behind everything from him. In fact my theme for racing in
2009 is "commitment" in honor of all the self sufficient alpinists who go out there and commit to huge routes with no chance for bailing. The Divide is even a little tame by comparison, at least from that perspective. I also thought a lot about my life and how much my wife and I have grown together through biking and touring and how much I
can't wait to do more of that. Sharing bike touring routes with friends and family, whatever their ability level, has been really amazing the past few years.

JB: Thousands of spectators watched your record-breaking ride this year. What advice do you have for the two or three who are convinced they can challenge the Divide on a single speed?

CP: For those who want the record, come prepared to race heads up with the geared riders. You chose a singlespeed and that's awesome but it's a choice you made so don't treat it like a handicap. For those who want to finish the Divide on a singlespeed, just make sure it's geared appropriately. Make sure you can climb the majority of the climbs on the route with your gearing and train on the road with the same gear to learn to deal with long term high speed spinning. As far as I know the successful people have run somewhere between 32x17 on a 26er and 32x17 on a 29er.

JB: What's the one thing you wished you'd known before setting out this year?

CP: That the weather was going to be epicly wet? My clothing was sufficient but not awesome for extended wet weather riding. I was quite wet and cold at times and did eventually have Marni mail me a Smartwool long sleeve base layer and a warm hat. Those who aren't totally experienced with going really light in bad weather, make sure
you bring enough warm clothing.

JB: Kent Peterson told me he's happy you broke his record. How important was his 2005 ride to you?

CP: It was pretty important to me actually. I had quite a few people last year who really doubted I could ride the Divide on a rigid singlespeed without hurting myself permanently. I'm a long time reader of Kent's blog and I read his Mountain Turtle story over and over again to both learn about the route and also to realize it could be done on a rigid singlespeed. He is very inspiring to me and I'm really excited to hear he will be riding the full route in 2010. He will just love the Canadian section, it's so beautiful.

JB: What does Chris Plesko eat for breakfast in, say, Del Norte? What does he buy at the Piggly Wiggly to get him over Indiana Pass?

CP: Breakfast for me on the trail almost always includes coffee of some kind even though I don't regularly drink it at home other than on our weekly friday morning Starbucks date. A little canned Starbucks DoubleShot with a couple 600 calorie muffins or danishes was my usual breakfast. If I was lucky I got a couple microwave egg sandwiches or breakfast burritos and a couple times I actually got a real hot breakfast of pancakes, omelets, potatoes and even green chili in Rawlins! In the worst stretch I didn't get a single hot meal for over 300 miles. My trail food was heavily peanut based now that I think about it. I ate dozens of Reese's Peanut butter cups, pack upon pack of king size peanut M&Ms, peanut butter Twix when I could find them and just plain old salted and honey roasted peanuts. Anything new and novel and easy to eat, pizza, cheese bread, cheese sticks, ice cream, brownies, donuts and all kinds of other junk food found it's way into my frame
bag too. The key is just to keep eating whatever you can get down because there was no way I could get close to enough calories out down the hatch out there.

JB: What's next? You gonna be back in Banff next year?

CP: Next up is a lot of recovery but perhaps a 1200k randonee or TransUtah later this year. I do want to qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris in 2011 and I'd love to keep my options open with a RAAM qualifier at some point. I can't really afford RAAM right now but it is intriguing. Next year I won't be back to race from Banff but I do plan to go back to the Grand Loop and perhaps up to the Ultrasport in March if I can figure out how to get up there. I have some other plans for next summer but they're not ready for public announcement at this point.

JB: The Tour de France started Saturday. Will you be kicking back with a few Dale's Pale Ales and yelling "Pussies!" at the plasma screen?

CP: I'm more of a wine or stout drinker these days but I'll definitely be keeping tabs on the Tour. It's really fun to watch those guys duke it out, even if they do sleep, get fed and get massages every night. Besides I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see how Lance is going to do.

Despite the fact that today was another mostly flat stage that favored the sprinters at the Tour de France, it was still exciting none the less. Usually these stages consist of the main contenders sticking close to one another to make sure no one gets any advantages, while the sprinters jockey for position then blast for the finish line at the end. But the unusually high winds have played havoc with the Peloton this week, creating strange breaks and, as we saw on Monday, unique opportunities.

The winds were crazy once again in today's 196.5km (122 mile) stage that ran from Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan. When the winds were at their backs, the riders were flying along at more than 60km/hr (37 mph), and when they were hit by crosswinds, it pulled the Peloton apart. But none of the top riders were going to get caught out of place today, and the pack that included Fabian Canellara, Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, and the rest of the Astana team, stuck close to one another, and the end result was no change in the General Classification and Cancellara keeping the Yellow Jersey for another day.

At the end of today's stage, at about the 180km mark, six riders made a break away in an attempt to gain the stage win and sprint points. With about 5km to go, Frenchman Thomas Voeckler attacked the other five riders, and left them behind, holding on for the solo stage win, as the main group surged back to over take the others. For Voeckler, despite having worn the Yellow Jersey for 10 days in 2004, it was his first ever stage win in the Tour and it came in front of thousands of his countrymen who were cheering him on to victory.

So the GC remains the same for now, and is unlikely to change tomorrow either, when the riders will face a 181.5km (113 mile) ride from Girona to Barcelona. The stage has five categorized climbs, but nothing more daunting than a Cat 4, and it will likely finish with the sprinters once again dashing for the line. Friday will be the day that it gets very interesting, when the riders face their first real test in the mountains, when they ride out of Spain and into the Pyrenees.

It’s a barn burner for third place in the men’s singlespeed category here in the Breck Epic. Jake Kirkpatrick (New Belgium Brewery) rode like a total badass today, taking out nearly all of my lead. He’s riding incredibly strong, descending like a madman on his fully rigid bike and its four bar Franken fork. Best of all, he’s a great sportsman. This is the essence of amateur bike racing; I nearly lost my marbles on the last few climbs, seeing stars, praying for downhill, a meteor shower, something to put an end to those excruciating climbs. But I didn’t give up- not with my first ever shot at standing on a podium.  I know carbon handlebars are pretty damn strong, but it felt like I was trying to pull it off my bike as I heaved and hoed trying to get that one-geared backbreaker up those hills.

 After the stage we joked that watching each other over our shoulders on the climbs was like the zombie-chasing-the-blonde in B horror flick. We’d glance back and see the other person moving so slowly, and then a few seconds later we’d look again and the other person would be closer. I didn’t let out a blood curdling scream, only because I couldn’t frickin’ breathe.

So today’s stage was awesome. We once again awoke to perfect blue skies, low humidity and cool temps. After a “neutral” start, we climbed Boreas Pass Road for a bit only to bomb down the Aspen Grove Trail. This is the kind of trail you see on granola bar ads on TV.  The field was tight and there was fast and fun wheel-to-wheel riding around me. And then the rolling climbing started, up and up through forested jeep roads and popping out into a beautiful alpine valley that defines Colorado’s beauty.  After a big descent down Boreas Pass Road, we hit the Banker’s Tank Trail. At one point, we passed the 8 foot deep hole that I fell into a few years ago in the Firecracker 50. (it was super cool- people watching, bloody leg, crawling out of the hole…  I felt like a first grader who peed his pants on recess). After bombing down French road, I thought I was pretty much done, but there were three brutal switchbacks before a loose descent to the finish.

So those of you who might have been encouraged to come try the Breck Epic next year after my first few blogs might be think this sounds discouraging. Au contraire is my reply. Who wants to plan a week around an easy stage race? A lot of people I guess, but then again most people think mountain bike stage racing as a vacation ranks above solitary confinement only because of the beer.  No, today’s fast and furious stage was a shit ton of fun, and a warm up for tomorrow’s circumnavigation of Mt Guyot, a fiftyish mile, ten-thousand-feet-of-climbing beatdown that will bring the field to its knees.

That’s all for now. Big pasta meal and birthday cake for my friend Brian. What a week so far. I’m so glad I’m here. Thanks for reading.

Text by Christian Camerota Surprise, surprise. It looks as if Lance Armstrong's charity ride has turned into something more: like, say, a legitimate run at his 8th Tour De France victory. Armstrong's Team Astana, favored to win today's 39-kilometer time trial in Montpellier, lived up to the hype, finishing the 4th stage in 46 minutes and 29 seconds. Their 40-second margin of victory over Team Saxo Bank means Lance Armstrong is now essentially tied for the race's lead, just milliseconds behind official leader Fabian Cancellara. Tomorrow's 196.5-kilometer stage 5 stretches from Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan and is dedicated to surrealist painter Salvador Dali, who penned the 1959 Tour's official postcard. Read previous Tour De France posts >>