Lance at National Press Club

Am I the only one here who stumbled across Lance's appearance at the
National Press Club yesterday, televised live on CSPAN-2?

He appeared with Hamilton Jordon, Jimmy Carter's chief of staff, who
is a three time cancer survivor. Naturally their presentations were
mostly about cancer research and the role government and private
foundations play in the effort to eradicate cancer.

Only when they got to the Q&A session did the subject of cycling come
up. In answer to questions from the audience he said he intends to do
two more TdFs, and has no firm plans for his post cycling life.

He was asked how the departure of Roberto Heras would affect the team
and he said that while Heras has had a good career, especially in the
Vuelta including winning in 2000, he's never had a really good TdF. He
said the addition of Jose Azevedo, who placed sixth in the Tour last
year, would strengthen the team.

He said Heras had received a really good offer from Liberty Seguros
and had departed USPS with their best wishes. Since he and Heras live
in the same town they see each other often and remain close.

He was asked about the problems inherent in a multi-national team,
especially potential language problems. He said that is a problem
since on USPS there are only three Americans, with a smattering of
Spanish, Portuguese and one Russian. Further complicating matters is
that the support team is almost all Flemish speaking Belgians. He said
that in spite of this they seem to be able to communicate. He also
said that most of the professional cycling world speaks at least some
English. He didn't say anything about the extent of his acquisition of
proficiency in other languages.

Lastly, he was asked how the pressures of his career has affected his
personal life. His first response, "That question is for Hamilton,
right?" The moderator said he could take a pass on that one, but he
did say he had three terrific kids and that was really important to
him.


jeverett3ATearthlinkDOTnet http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

Thanks for that report. It was covered briefly in the paper here (DC), but not
in that detail.

He
said the addition of Jose Azevedo, who placed sixth in the Tour last
year, would strengthen the team.

I *wish* that had been the case, since Azevedo was on my fantasy team.
Actually, he came in twenty-sixth. I do think he was top-10 in one recent
year, though, I forget which.

Archive available at http://npc.press.org/programs/luncheonspeakersprev.cfm



"John Everett" wrote in message
...
Am I the only one here who stumbled across Lance's appearance at the
National Press Club yesterday, televised live on CSPAN-2?

He appeared with Hamilton Jordon, Jimmy Carter's chief of staff, who
is a three time cancer survivor. Naturally their presentations were
mostly about cancer research and the role government and private
foundations play in the effort to eradicate cancer.

Only when they got to the Q&A session did the subject of cycling come
up. In answer to questions from the audience he said he intends to do
two more TdFs, and has no firm plans for his post cycling life.

He was asked how the departure of Roberto Heras would affect the team
and he said that while Heras has had a good career, especially in the
Vuelta including winning in 2000, he's never had a really good TdF. He
said the addition of Jose Azevedo, who placed sixth in the Tour last
year, would strengthen the team.

He said Heras had received a really good offer from Liberty Seguros
and had departed USPS with their best wishes. Since he and Heras live
in the same town they see each other often and remain close.

He was asked about the problems inherent in a multi-national team,
especially potential language problems. He said that is a problem
since on USPS there are only three Americans, with a smattering of
Spanish, Portuguese and one Russian. Further complicating matters is
that the support team is almost all Flemish speaking Belgians. He said
that in spite of this they seem to be able to communicate. He also
said that most of the professional cycling world speaks at least some
English. He didn't say anything about the extent of his acquisition of
proficiency in other languages.

Lastly, he was asked how the pressures of his career has affected his
personal life. His first response, "That question is for Hamilton,
right?" The moderator said he could take a pass on that one, but he
did say he had three terrific kids and that was really important to
him.


jeverett3ATearthlinkDOTnet http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

On 19 Dec 2003 19:48:48 GMT, (Mapei81) wrote:

Thanks for that report. It was covered briefly in the paper here (DC), but not
in that detail.

He
said the addition of Jose Azevedo, who placed sixth in the Tour last
year, would strengthen the team.

I *wish* that had been the case, since Azevedo was on my fantasy team.
Actually, he came in twenty-sixth. I do think he was top-10 in one recent
year, though, I forget which.

Not to nit-pick too much; Azevedo was indeed sixth in the Tour last
year. He placed 26th this year.


jeverett3ATearthlinkDOTnet http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

For those with RealPlaya' you can watch a video of the Lance/NPC event
at rtsp://video.c-span.org/15days/e121703_lance.rm

The video is about an hour long.



J. Spaceman