Lance Armstrong Goes Off-road in Texas
By C.J. Haas
What will Lance Armstrong do when he retires from cycling? He provided a pretty big hint last December when he kicked some tail in an off-road duathlon not far from his hometown of Austin, Texas.
Although the 31-year-old endurance fiend is shooting for two more Tour de France wins — which would give him a record six straight — there is already a buzz that he’ll shift his focus, possibly to the Ironman Triathlon World Championship or Xterra World Championships in Hawaii. Armstrong was a strong junior-level triathlete before turning pro as a cyclist, but he’s apparently never lost the itch for multi-sport racing Armstrong set a new course record at the Dirty Duathlon on December 8, finishing the technical course (3-mile trail run/12.3-mile mountain bike/3-mile trail run) in 1 hour, 36 minute and 5 seconds. Surprisingly, he had to come from behind to win after Jason Sager out-pedaled him by 2:24 on the biking leg.
But it turned out to be a runaway win for Armstrong, who outdistanced Sager by nearly three minutes in the final run section to seal the victory. His U.S. Postal Service cycling teammates, in town for a week of training, also competed, but primarily in the relay division.
“These guys think I’m crazy for taking them out here to do this in the off-season, but this is stuff I’ll do for the rest of my life,” Armstrong said afterwards. “I’ll only do the Tour for another couple years and then after that I’ll never do it. But these kinds of things I suspect I’ll do, hopefully, until I’m an old man.”
To his credit, Sager (1:38:33) is an elite mountain biker and hasn’t lost a race in Texas in more than four years.
“It’s kind of like being stalked by a shark,” Sager told TV reporter Jen Ohlsen after the race. “You know it’s coming, so you don’t want to look back. But there’s nothing wrong with being passed by Lance.” Armstrong considered entering the second Dirty Duathlon in early January, but opted not to race.
