I got a few comments about racing the Tour de Trump and had I met the guy. The answer is yes and yes. His organization only sponsored the race one year, then it was taken over by Dupont, but the year they did sponsor it, Mr. Trump came to the start in Albany and then to the NYC start too. I don’t remember seeing him at the banquet, but he might have bet there too.
I was riding for the Wheaties Schwinn Team. Riding to the start of the prologue time trial in Albany, we came upon a traffic stop. A Lamborghini SUV was pulled over. I’d never seen one, so I went over to look at it. There was a guy standing there and I asked him if it was his. He said no, it was Mike Tyson’s. I look over and Mike Tyson is sitting in the driver’s seat with his window rolled down. I ride over and say hi and introduce myself. He stuck his hand out and I shook it.
I tell him that we are riding over to the start of his buddy, Donald Trump’s bike race. He says something like Donald is a character. Turns out the first guy I talked to and Mike were having a little race on the streets of Albany and were getting tickets.
So I get to the start of the time trial and they are doing some introduction stuff and they had me come over. And there is Donald getting introduced. When they introduce me, Donald came over and shook my hand and we talked a little. He didn’t come across like the sharpest tool in the shed.
He had a couple big body guards,with little small machine guns, kind of surrounding him. As soon as he moved past me, a bodyguard sort of pushed me out of the way. I was straddling my bike, so wasn’t prepared for the encounter. I wasn’t happy getting shoved around with a guy with an Uzi.
I was riding away to prepare for the start and was thinking how weird it was to meet Mike Tyson and Donald Trump the same day. I probably have pictures of myself and both of them, but I am too tired to go look for them.
Thinking back upon it now, it seems weirder, considering Mike’ and Donald’s life paths. Guess bike racing was a little more popular back then here in the US?
If you want to watch a little cyclocross, Trek is streaming the race right now. The women’s race just started and the men’s race is at 8 am CST. The course is a mess.
My friend John Pierce took this photo and got me thinking about posting this. He wished me good luck in recovery, which is super nice. I’ve known John for years. He is a great guy and super bike race photographer.I’m on the left in the Wheaties/Schwinn jersey. My friend and old team mate, Andy Hampsten is a couple guys over in the 7-11 jersey. Two riders over from him, in the blue, is Viatcheslav Ekimov. He was an amatuer pursuit rider back then.
Recall your teammate Thomas Craven won the prologue.
There is a good picture of him with the President elect.
If you are not interested in reading Steve’s post about Donald Trump, check out this “Flashback Friday” entry from Criterium Nationals in 2007.
Bonus points if you already know who the “VMG kid” is that Steve mentions:
https://stevetilford.com/2007/08/21/criterium-nationals-weekend/
I saw Trump at the Atlantic City stage time trial where they presented him with a bike. I worked for Shimano that day as a neutral mechanic on the back of a motorcycle. Back then was a newbie and didn’t notice they gave me the wrong size wheels as spares for some of the riders we were supporting (some riders had special TT bikes with 650 front wheels). Thank God never had to change a wheel during that stage.
Why do you honor and promote known dopers and promoters of doping in your blog?
Ekimov is so toxic the UCI singled him out in one of their reasoned decisions.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/12/news/uci-cites-ethical-reasons-for-katusha-worldtour-snub_269470”
Choppy – You think I “honor and promote” known dopers here? Hardly. If you are saying that by saying Ekimov is in a photo I was in is honoring him, I’d have to disagree. Most of my career, nearly all the photos I’m in has a known doper in the picture. I can’t do anything about that. I hardly honor them. Quite the opposite.
Go away Choppy
I met Trump once, too – quite by accident.
A friend of mine and I were in NYC and he suggested that for a country bumpkin like me, I might enjoy going to the Oak Bar at the Plaza Hotel for a drink, followed by dinner at the Oak Room. After dinner when we were leaving we noticed a sign advertising a George Foreman fight that was to be shown on closed circuit TV upstairs in the Plaza’s Grand Ballroom. It looked too expensive to consider given that we had just blown our meager budget; but what the hell, we decided to go see what the scene was like upstairs.
As we exited one of the elevators the last door into the ballroom was being closed by a hotel employee. He asked us if we were there for the fight. We asked how much, but said we would pass when he quoted a crazy price. He then surprised us by offering to let us in for free if we would just stand inside the doors. He even arranged for us to have a drink.
I looked out into the majestic ballroom to see celebrity after celebrity seated at round tables watching a huge screen. But George knocked the challenger out in the first round and almost as soon as the fight had begun it was over. Everyone seemed to get up from their tables at once, so I decided I would beat the stampede for the elevators. I went to the first one and stepped inside to the right, expecting others would soon follow. They did: Trump, his then-wife Ivana, and a single bodyguard.
It wasn’t hard to notice the look of surprise on the bodyguard’s face – or the very obvious look of upset on Trump’s. It seemed to me that he was ticked that his bodyguard hadn’t checked first to see that the elevator was clear. I was an unknown and they were now in a confined space with me. Trump remained stone-faced the entire ride, but Ivana was lovely. “Did you enjoy the fight?” she asked. “Oh, is that what that was?”
Those bodyguards of Trumps, were they by any chance dressed in brown or khaki? Also, Tyson is one of the few celebs in support of Trumpie. Him and Dirty Harry. Great team, btw.
Whoppy! I FUCKIN LOVE YOU!!!
U just made my day. Again.
The fact that Tyson is alive, healthy, relatively sane and has people close by who love him is one of the most encouraging things I can think of over the last twenty years or so. Even Joe Frazier ended up dying alone in a tiny bedroom up above his own gym, I think?
Choppy,
In case you haven’t figured it out, the UCI likes some athletes more than others. Throw Ekimov under the bus is no problem. Meanwhile other dopers are still quite visible and involved in the sport.
From the outside, there is no rhyme or reason. USAC is exactly the same way. So, there’s no way to be an current/former elite in the sport and NOT have some associations that don’t look good.
Hillary’s worse, unless you have at least $10 million in liquid assets and can spring for at least $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Ray didn’t have the bucks so he got the bum’s rush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSiBpqk_93U
I don’t care if Trump kicks puppies, and I know people who currently know him (and don’t really like him), but he’s not warmongering with Russia (http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/730949/US-election-Russia-Donald-Trump-presidency-prevented-World-War-Three). Nuclear war would be a lot worse for climate change than putting a denialist in charge of EPA. And TPP is now dead, dead, dead (http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/27/julian_assange_on_the_trans_pacific) because Trump has announced that he’ll kill it in his first 100 days.
When you shook his hand was it like The Dead Zone?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CuTeRM_8egk
Should have killed the fucker when you had the chance & saved humanity!
Dream turns to hope. Hope turns to prayer. You’ll be there soon enough.
Interesting post, Steve!
…except for the fact that Tyson is also a noted domestic batterer and has dealt with significant mental health issues.
oh, and convicted rapist.
So it works like this:
Me: “Oh, here’s a picture of Karl Marx.”
Choppy: “You’re a communist!”
Me: “I saw a movie called ‘The Godfather.”
Choppy: “You promote organized crime!”
Me: “I once was in an elevator with Mike Tyson.”
“You endorse rape!”
Got it, Choppy.
If you want to avoid all after the fact political bickering, there is a great excerpt from the new LeMond book at VN. Mostly Jeff Bradley talking about him when they were both starting out. Including the awesome quote below about a junior worlds they were at:
“…He broke a couple of spokes in his rear wheel but still came back to finish second. That would have knocked most people out of the race, but Greg wouldn’t give in. I think that’s the one quality of his that really stands out: he would never back down. Ever.”
“Try to kill it”
She went into his hotel room voluntarily at three in the morning. This episode is among the things that most people in Tyson’s position would have never survived into middle age after having experienced, IMO.
And also over at Pez Cycling News there’s a nice interview with Roy Knickman.
Its just a bit beyond bickering don’t ya think?
Like maybe the dude has the soul of a dictator & democracy is on the line?
First goes the free press. Next up are the ‘good’ Republicans who think they can reign him in. Used & spit out the back.
Create some foriegn policy crisis to united the country against a common enemy.
Things go south.
Ta da!
C_Z,
Ekimov got thrown under the bus?
Which rider “retired” near the end of 2001, only to unretire exactly 6 months later?