If I was a horse; they’d have sent me to the glue factory a long time ago. However…
This week I’m getting both knees replaced and I’m a little unsettled about it. Naturally I am buoyed by those close to me like David and Jan who’ve recently had the procedure (albeit only one at a time). I have some other advantages too. For example I’ll be recovering at my sister Sheila’s home in Park City, UT having promised (over a few years) to visit. Well she has her wish… Also the procedure will be conducted by a friend whom I’ve known since he was 10 and I was 15. His name’s Eric Heiden.
Eric’s originally from Madison Wisconsin and trained for speed skating on the same rink in Milwaukee where my sister and I skated. Of course Sheila went on to win an Olympic Gold medal (and I faded into a frosty obscurity to arise later as a bike rider). Sheila was one of the older generation that inspired Eric to drop hockey and focus on the sheer speed discipline. Eric’s performance is history itself:
He won ALL the gold medals offered by the sport in 1980. It was like a track and field runner winning everything from the 100 to the 10,000 meter events and he broke the World record for the 10k on the last day of competition, after a grueling week facing off against specialists at each distance - and it was snowing, a well known detriment to speed on ice.
I was there as he got off the ice, giving him a shoulder to balance on while he put his leather scabbards over his blades saying to me: “boy that was hard”. “yeah I’ll bet” was my response.
After the 1980 Games Eric took a two week family vacation then joined me in San Diego and began a cycling career. Eric and my brother in-law, Och got a sponsor and started The 7 ELEVEN cycling team the next year. During his bike racing years Eric won the U.S. Professional Road Championships and rode the Tour de France.
Eric joined myself and Noel Dejonckheere after the Tour one year as we raced the “post Tour” criteriums in Holland and Belgium in preparation for the World Track Championships.
Back-track to when we were in San Diego, Eric began his undergrad degree then and eventually took himself to Palo Alto where he studied medicine and became an orthopedic surgeon like his dad.
Naturally like all of his friends who love to take advantage him Och had Eric act as Motorola and later BMC and CCC pro team doctor.
So if this is all so unbelievable of one person consider this:
One day up at his home above the hills overlooking Palo Alto, Eric was in his drive way on Upnuff road when a couple of riders seemed to be having some trouble. One of them threw his rear deraileur into his wheel and bent it to shit. Eric asked if they needed help and happened to have a spare rear changer in his garage. After replacing the part the rider, Steve Jobs, promised to return with a replacement or payment for the borrowed component. Jobs never returned and to this day Eric Heiden does not own one Apple product…
Such is my surgeon's dedication and appreciation for loyalty. I just assume we’re still friends after all these years.
I will be doing little except healing the next weeks but I will use the time to follow the training and will spend much time planning and perfecting your ultimate suffering that will make you all better bike riders.
Ride hard, have fun, and take care!
Roger
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