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A conversation with Lucas
Euser answers your questions
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CommentAs promised in my last column, here is “A conversation with Lucas Euser.”
Thank you everyone for writing in. If you ever have any questions for me, feel free to write in at napasports@napanews.com:
Thank you everyone for writing in. If you ever have any questions for me, feel free to write in at napasports@napanews.com:
Q: What’s it like having new sponsors step in from your point of view?
Do you throw away the old uniforms or what? I’m having a little trouble keeping track of teams and all the changes and I actually follow the sport more than most.
Do you throw away the old uniforms or what? I’m having a little trouble keeping track of teams and all the changes and I actually follow the sport more than most.
Garmin was easy to understand, but other teams have lost their lineage in my mind, like Team Columbia, and having my previous favorite riders from the ’90s riding for Kazakstan is just nuts! Also, heal up fast.
Jeff Page
Jeff Page
Napa
Euser: Jeff, the sport has been a bit stale over the past few years.
The sponsors have become sedentary, as they have been worried what the future of the sport will bring. It’s been at least four years since a new sponsor has come into the sport and really created a stir.
As with everything, it takes a leader to truly make a change.
With my team, Garmin-Chipotle, and Team Columbia (sportswear that is, not the country) close behind, we have dedicated ourselves to making a change.
We’ve been poked and prodded and poked some more trying to make everyone believe we are racing clean.
With newfound sponsors willing to step up to the plate, it all of a sudden makes me realize that all of our hard work is paying off and it shows our sport is making the shift in the right direction.
The sponsors came on board because they want to use our teams as advertising means for the European and North American markets, not because they felt they wanted to waste a few million dollars on some fancy bicycle team.
Names are just that — they are names, and they can change over time, but what matters here is what we are doing as a sport will go down in history as the turnaround point where everyone realized that cheating just isn’t the way to go.
This time in the sport is monumental, a resurgence of that passion and glory that once was cycling. With big sponsors behind us we now have the power to continue the fight against the cheaters and we won’t stop until they are all gone.
It may be a bit of a sponsor plug, but as Garmin’s slogan goes, “Follow the leader.”
We are on the verge of the tipping point of a new, clean sport. We are showing the world we can do it and soon the rest will follow!
Q: I have known you from when you were very young and I have to say you have grown into this wonderful human being. I admire all your courage and tenacity to fight the good fight with your asthma and the strenuous circumstances of the sport.
How far do you intend to participate in the sport? Do you find the grueling demands worthy of the self-sacrificing efforts that are demanded of you while your own health is taxed?
I give you a big “high five” for all your efforts — the sweat, tears, and at the end, the exalted feeling of knowing you overcome all the obstacles and won your spot along with your goals and took part in something that is a part of the greater whole!
Keep going, Lucas, you’re the BEST!
Love, Jan and Jean Bianchi
Euser: I get asked this question a lot, in various forms of course — my favorite being, “When do you plan on getting a real job?”
I plan to take this sport as far as I possibly can, until my body says no more.
Whether that is five, 10, maybe even 15 years from now, I don’t know right now, but just like everything else in my life, I’m sure I will know that day when it comes.
This is a career I have chosen and I plan to see it through to the end. And on that day begins the next part of my life.
I have been fortunate enough to have this exciting life as a professional cyclist, but when my career is over there will be a lifetime of more adventures ahead of me. I’m not one to make big plans, but one thing I will look forward to is the thrill of the unknown and the chance to let fate run its course.
Q: One of the things which concerns me, as cycling cleans up its act, is the issue of test accuracy.
While I’m completely in favor of outing the dopers, I wonder about false positives, particularly as the tests are picking up really new drugs like cera.
Some of these drugs are extremely subtle and can be simulated by completely legal substances. What about it?
I sort of agree with Benjamin Franklin, who said the following:
“It is better (one hundred) guilty persons should escape than that one innocent person should suffer.”
This is one of those questions about which everyone has an opinion, but opinions aren’t definitive.
Thanks, Sat Tara Khalsa
Euser: Sat Tara Khalsa, this is a tough question to answer.
As someone who is being tested on a regular basis, I have to be confident in the procedures of the laboratory that are being used.
We are in an environment where we all have to learn and grow together to truly make this a clean sport.
I am confident in the tests and laboratories that are used.
As doping gets more advanced, so do the methods of catching it.
By staying clean I feel like I have nothing to worry about.
We can play ifs, ands, or buts, but I have confidence in the testers and as long as I have nothing to hide I am willing to be subjected to their methods.
We have to have faith in each other for this to work and to create an even playing field.
Q: This is the Matthew that rode with you for a little bit in Girona a few months ago, as you were preparing for the Giro.
Anyway, while we were talking you mentioned how being a professional cyclist was much more of a job than you had expected.
I was wondering if you could expand on this a little bit.
What parts make it feel more like a job? Are you just as passionate about the sport as ever? What parts make the job worthwhile? Individual success? Team success? Thanks.
Good luck the rest of the year.
Matthew
Euser: Matthew, what I meant was my body is what powers me on the bike and since riding a bike is my job, I have to look after myself at all times.
I don’t show up to work at 8:00 and go home at 5:00.
I am not able to shut my mind off from work and take a break.
Every decision I make has to be with my well-being in mind. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I am doing, but when so much attention is spent to one thing there will always be hard times.
This is the trick in becoming a great professional cyclist.
It’s being able to balance all the normal life things with a 24-hour-a-day job that takes extreme patience and dedication. It’s knowing how your body works and being confident in knowing you are doing the right thing.
It is extremely easy to get inside your own head to the point where you begin to doubt yourself and therefore make wrong decisions.
For me, trial and error is starting to become an effective method on figuring all this out.
I think that is what I like so much about this sport — that amidst training and racing, I get to learn more about myself than I would be able to in any other situation. I am constantly evaluating my performance as a cyclist, and in turn cycling drives me to be a better person.
Success is great, both individually and as a team, but if I can figure out how to be a great human being then that is what will make this all worthwhile.
Q: Here is a question I’ve long had, and with Team Slipstream’s emphasis on transparency with regards to doping, perhaps you can shed some light.
There is some normal range of various blood indicators for the general population. To pick one, say the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone.
I’ve read that in most healthy individuals, a ratio of 1:1 to 2:1 is normal.
The Tour has set a limit of 4:1 before calling foul.
Getting to my question, does the Tour publish anywhere what the profile of ratios they see that don’t violate that already high bar? That is, if 99 percent of the riders tested at a 3.9:1 ratio, it would strongly indicate that the system is being gamed.
If you find that 90 percent of the riders end up in the 1:1 to 2:1 range, and 10 percent are up near 4:1 with few in between, it would also indicate that those 10 percent are likely cheaters.
I realize they can’t publish the names corresponding to each test, but it would be very interesting if they published the distribution of results that they did see. Thanks for taking this long question.
Euser: I don’t believe this is something the Tour de France or any other races have the right to publish, but you do have a good point.
As for me, I really don’t know the answer to this either. The data is just as private to me as it is to you.
However, as part of our team’s transparency, we have made our test results available to anyone that wants to see our numbers. We are tested at random every two weeks to monitor our blood and hormone levels.
They can be requested through the management of the team. I know this isn’t a day-by-day panel of blood work from the Tour, but it could give you a better understanding.
Or even easier, I believe Team CSC-Saxo Bank even publishes its team results on its Web site.
Q: Can riders use more than one machine throughout the Tour? Is there any limits on the number of machines?
Thanks friend, Adam Marquart
Euser: Adam, of course we can. I believe our team took between five and seven bikes for each rider to this year’s Tour.
They have their regular Felt F1 race bike, their new Felt AR road bike for the flatter road stages, a lightweight version of the F1 as their climbing bike, their Felt DA time trial (TT) bikes for the race of truth (an individual event against the clock), and at least one spare road bike and one spare TT bike.
And they don’t even have to ride the same bike all day long if they don’t want to.
Granted, no one wants to make a bike change mid-race, sometimes crashes or mechanicals happen in which a bike change is necessary.
One special instance in which I have witnessed a pre-meditated bike change was in an uphill time trial I did last year in France. I started early in the day and had the pleasure of watching the last few guys go out on the course.
The first five kilometers of the course were relatively flat before it headed 17 km uphill. Most guys just rode their normal road bikes.
However, one guy started on his TT machine, and about 300 meters into the climbing part of the course, met his team mechanic on the side of the road waiting with his lightweight climbing bike for the remainder of the course.
I thought that was odd, but to each his own, right?
He didn’t win.
Q: How much does the road surface vary? Are the lines as slippery when wet?
In big races, there are always crashes. How do the crashes of the Tour de France compare to other big races (Giros and one-day classics)?
I may be completely wrong, but some of this years’ stages seem shorter than the stages of other races. I realize the elevation changes play a factor in this, but are your legs as sore after each stage as they have been in longer stages?
How hard is it to find the energy for a final sprint after that long of a distance?
Any chance you’d want to send me an autographed jersey?
Thanks, Aaron N. Yeargin, Senior, Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University
Euser: Aaron, I’ll answer these one at a time:
1. How much does the road surface vary? Are the lines as slippery when wet?
Tremendously. Roads go from freshly-paved asphalt to not loose chip seal. Roads go from large highways to barely one-lane goat paths.
All of these are factors in road racing.
These courses are not specifically groomed for us and offer challenges beyond just pushing ourselves to the limit.
And yes, everything is slippery when wet, including the paint.
2. In big races, there are always crashes. How do the crashes of the Tour de France compare to other big races (Giros and one-day classics)?
I don’t know how they differ in the Tour, but I’m guessing they hurt just as much as anywhere else.
3. I may be completely wrong, but some of this year’s stages seem shorter than the stages of other races.
I realize the elevation changes play a factor in this, but are your legs as sore after each stage as they have been in longer stages?
I think the promoters are beginning to realize that a six-hour day after a seven-hour day after a six-hour day makes for some pretty boring, textbook racing.
Shorten the stages a little bit and the excitement factors goes through the roof.
This year’s Tour has been just that, the most exciting I have seen since I started watching it eight years ago.
4. How hard is it to find the energy for a final sprint after that long of a distance?
As a climber, getting through the last 5 km of a flat sprint stage is one of the most nerve-racking parts of racing.
I don’t know how the sprinters do what they do.
They are all on the limit going into the those final sprints, then somehow are able to keep their composure and sprint for the line, eyes crossed and legs burning.
How they do it, I don’t know, I’ll stick to climbing huge mountain passes.
5. Any chance you’d want to send me an autographed jersey?
Hmmmm ...
Q: Many message boards are starting to debate the plausibility of a lifetime ban placed on the riders being caught cheating this year.
Is there anything like this being discussed by other riders? Thanks to their transparency, we know what riders of Garmin-Chipotle feel, but not the other teams.
How are they reacting to the new tests that can detect the newest drugs?
Pat Woods
patwoodsart.com
Euser: Pat, I’m all for a lifetime ban.
The feeling I get at this point in the peloton is drastic times call for drastic measures.
Most of us have committed to racing clean and are tired of being cheated out of race wins and redeeming the fruits of our hard labor.
Get rid of the cheaters and get rid of them for good.
Gone are the days of giving second chances. We have shown that we are in a war against doping, and there can’t be any forgiveness in war.
Q: Last night, after the news of Ricco’s positive test, Bob Rolls makes a comment that “performing drug free in the Tour came at a great personal cost to me.”
What can happen beside the obvious broken bones and injuries to a cyclist’s body over his career?
Euser: This goes right along with the last question.
I think what he was trying to say was he felt cheated out of what he was purely capable of by those that chose to go the easy route.
It’s for riders like Bob Roll and for the future of cycling that we are so committed to making this a clean sport.
Q: Here is a good question. What famous American cyclist was supposed to ride in the Tour de France in 1932?
Answer: Victor Hopkins of Davenport, Iowa.
Here is the irony, had he rode in the Tour instead of taking a more lucrative motor pacing track contract, he would have been the first American to ride in the Tour.
Hence, he is mentioned every time someone would talk about an American in the Tour.
By the way — Victor Hopkins is my father.
He was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2006 and is also in the Bike Iowa Hall of Fame.
My dad also rode in Chicago races back in the 1920s and 1930s.
I read where Christian’s (Vande Velde’s) great grandfather moved to Chicago.
No doubt he passed on the stories of the great bike races back then.
Lots of Belgians settled in Detroit, Michigan too. Van Kempen and the Debaets brothers are just a few names that come to my mind.
Maybe you could pass this on to Christian after the Tour is over.
He and his dad may find it very interesting.
Dad was an Olympian in the 1924 Olympics in Paris and was in position to medal when he suffered an accident.
No support cars to help you out.
Finally, I was stationed at Mare Island back in the ’70s. Was assigned to the USS Seawolf (SSN575).
Later I joined the US Army and was medically retired during Desert Shield.
Take care and if you could, let me know what you think.
Harry Hopkins
Euser: Harry, well, that was an easy question to answer!
That is a great story.
Thank you, I plan to pass it along to Christian and the rest of the team. Can’t wait to chat about it over the dinner table!
Editor’s Note: Napa native and professional cyclist Lucas Euser, who is living and training in Girona, Spain, writes a column for the Register every other Friday.
Euser: Jeff, the sport has been a bit stale over the past few years.
The sponsors have become sedentary, as they have been worried what the future of the sport will bring. It’s been at least four years since a new sponsor has come into the sport and really created a stir.
As with everything, it takes a leader to truly make a change.
With my team, Garmin-Chipotle, and Team Columbia (sportswear that is, not the country) close behind, we have dedicated ourselves to making a change.
We’ve been poked and prodded and poked some more trying to make everyone believe we are racing clean.
With newfound sponsors willing to step up to the plate, it all of a sudden makes me realize that all of our hard work is paying off and it shows our sport is making the shift in the right direction.
The sponsors came on board because they want to use our teams as advertising means for the European and North American markets, not because they felt they wanted to waste a few million dollars on some fancy bicycle team.
Names are just that — they are names, and they can change over time, but what matters here is what we are doing as a sport will go down in history as the turnaround point where everyone realized that cheating just isn’t the way to go.
This time in the sport is monumental, a resurgence of that passion and glory that once was cycling. With big sponsors behind us we now have the power to continue the fight against the cheaters and we won’t stop until they are all gone.
It may be a bit of a sponsor plug, but as Garmin’s slogan goes, “Follow the leader.”
We are on the verge of the tipping point of a new, clean sport. We are showing the world we can do it and soon the rest will follow!
Q: I have known you from when you were very young and I have to say you have grown into this wonderful human being. I admire all your courage and tenacity to fight the good fight with your asthma and the strenuous circumstances of the sport.
How far do you intend to participate in the sport? Do you find the grueling demands worthy of the self-sacrificing efforts that are demanded of you while your own health is taxed?
I give you a big “high five” for all your efforts — the sweat, tears, and at the end, the exalted feeling of knowing you overcome all the obstacles and won your spot along with your goals and took part in something that is a part of the greater whole!
Keep going, Lucas, you’re the BEST!
Love, Jan and Jean Bianchi
Euser: I get asked this question a lot, in various forms of course — my favorite being, “When do you plan on getting a real job?”
I plan to take this sport as far as I possibly can, until my body says no more.
Whether that is five, 10, maybe even 15 years from now, I don’t know right now, but just like everything else in my life, I’m sure I will know that day when it comes.
This is a career I have chosen and I plan to see it through to the end. And on that day begins the next part of my life.
I have been fortunate enough to have this exciting life as a professional cyclist, but when my career is over there will be a lifetime of more adventures ahead of me. I’m not one to make big plans, but one thing I will look forward to is the thrill of the unknown and the chance to let fate run its course.
Q: One of the things which concerns me, as cycling cleans up its act, is the issue of test accuracy.
While I’m completely in favor of outing the dopers, I wonder about false positives, particularly as the tests are picking up really new drugs like cera.
Some of these drugs are extremely subtle and can be simulated by completely legal substances. What about it?
I sort of agree with Benjamin Franklin, who said the following:
“It is better (one hundred) guilty persons should escape than that one innocent person should suffer.”
This is one of those questions about which everyone has an opinion, but opinions aren’t definitive.
Thanks, Sat Tara Khalsa
Euser: Sat Tara Khalsa, this is a tough question to answer.
As someone who is being tested on a regular basis, I have to be confident in the procedures of the laboratory that are being used.
We are in an environment where we all have to learn and grow together to truly make this a clean sport.
I am confident in the tests and laboratories that are used.
As doping gets more advanced, so do the methods of catching it.
By staying clean I feel like I have nothing to worry about.
We can play ifs, ands, or buts, but I have confidence in the testers and as long as I have nothing to hide I am willing to be subjected to their methods.
We have to have faith in each other for this to work and to create an even playing field.
Q: This is the Matthew that rode with you for a little bit in Girona a few months ago, as you were preparing for the Giro.
Anyway, while we were talking you mentioned how being a professional cyclist was much more of a job than you had expected.
I was wondering if you could expand on this a little bit.
What parts make it feel more like a job? Are you just as passionate about the sport as ever? What parts make the job worthwhile? Individual success? Team success? Thanks.
Good luck the rest of the year.
Matthew
Euser: Matthew, what I meant was my body is what powers me on the bike and since riding a bike is my job, I have to look after myself at all times.
I don’t show up to work at 8:00 and go home at 5:00.
I am not able to shut my mind off from work and take a break.
Every decision I make has to be with my well-being in mind. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I am doing, but when so much attention is spent to one thing there will always be hard times.
This is the trick in becoming a great professional cyclist.
It’s being able to balance all the normal life things with a 24-hour-a-day job that takes extreme patience and dedication. It’s knowing how your body works and being confident in knowing you are doing the right thing.
It is extremely easy to get inside your own head to the point where you begin to doubt yourself and therefore make wrong decisions.
For me, trial and error is starting to become an effective method on figuring all this out.
I think that is what I like so much about this sport — that amidst training and racing, I get to learn more about myself than I would be able to in any other situation. I am constantly evaluating my performance as a cyclist, and in turn cycling drives me to be a better person.
Success is great, both individually and as a team, but if I can figure out how to be a great human being then that is what will make this all worthwhile.
Q: Here is a question I’ve long had, and with Team Slipstream’s emphasis on transparency with regards to doping, perhaps you can shed some light.
There is some normal range of various blood indicators for the general population. To pick one, say the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone.
I’ve read that in most healthy individuals, a ratio of 1:1 to 2:1 is normal.
The Tour has set a limit of 4:1 before calling foul.
Getting to my question, does the Tour publish anywhere what the profile of ratios they see that don’t violate that already high bar? That is, if 99 percent of the riders tested at a 3.9:1 ratio, it would strongly indicate that the system is being gamed.
If you find that 90 percent of the riders end up in the 1:1 to 2:1 range, and 10 percent are up near 4:1 with few in between, it would also indicate that those 10 percent are likely cheaters.
I realize they can’t publish the names corresponding to each test, but it would be very interesting if they published the distribution of results that they did see. Thanks for taking this long question.
Euser: I don’t believe this is something the Tour de France or any other races have the right to publish, but you do have a good point.
As for me, I really don’t know the answer to this either. The data is just as private to me as it is to you.
However, as part of our team’s transparency, we have made our test results available to anyone that wants to see our numbers. We are tested at random every two weeks to monitor our blood and hormone levels.
They can be requested through the management of the team. I know this isn’t a day-by-day panel of blood work from the Tour, but it could give you a better understanding.
Or even easier, I believe Team CSC-Saxo Bank even publishes its team results on its Web site.
Q: Can riders use more than one machine throughout the Tour? Is there any limits on the number of machines?
Thanks friend, Adam Marquart
Euser: Adam, of course we can. I believe our team took between five and seven bikes for each rider to this year’s Tour.
They have their regular Felt F1 race bike, their new Felt AR road bike for the flatter road stages, a lightweight version of the F1 as their climbing bike, their Felt DA time trial (TT) bikes for the race of truth (an individual event against the clock), and at least one spare road bike and one spare TT bike.
And they don’t even have to ride the same bike all day long if they don’t want to.
Granted, no one wants to make a bike change mid-race, sometimes crashes or mechanicals happen in which a bike change is necessary.
One special instance in which I have witnessed a pre-meditated bike change was in an uphill time trial I did last year in France. I started early in the day and had the pleasure of watching the last few guys go out on the course.
The first five kilometers of the course were relatively flat before it headed 17 km uphill. Most guys just rode their normal road bikes.
However, one guy started on his TT machine, and about 300 meters into the climbing part of the course, met his team mechanic on the side of the road waiting with his lightweight climbing bike for the remainder of the course.
I thought that was odd, but to each his own, right?
He didn’t win.
Q: How much does the road surface vary? Are the lines as slippery when wet?
In big races, there are always crashes. How do the crashes of the Tour de France compare to other big races (Giros and one-day classics)?
I may be completely wrong, but some of this years’ stages seem shorter than the stages of other races. I realize the elevation changes play a factor in this, but are your legs as sore after each stage as they have been in longer stages?
How hard is it to find the energy for a final sprint after that long of a distance?
Any chance you’d want to send me an autographed jersey?
Thanks, Aaron N. Yeargin, Senior, Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University
Euser: Aaron, I’ll answer these one at a time:
1. How much does the road surface vary? Are the lines as slippery when wet?
Tremendously. Roads go from freshly-paved asphalt to not loose chip seal. Roads go from large highways to barely one-lane goat paths.
All of these are factors in road racing.
These courses are not specifically groomed for us and offer challenges beyond just pushing ourselves to the limit.
And yes, everything is slippery when wet, including the paint.
2. In big races, there are always crashes. How do the crashes of the Tour de France compare to other big races (Giros and one-day classics)?
I don’t know how they differ in the Tour, but I’m guessing they hurt just as much as anywhere else.
3. I may be completely wrong, but some of this year’s stages seem shorter than the stages of other races.
I realize the elevation changes play a factor in this, but are your legs as sore after each stage as they have been in longer stages?
I think the promoters are beginning to realize that a six-hour day after a seven-hour day after a six-hour day makes for some pretty boring, textbook racing.
Shorten the stages a little bit and the excitement factors goes through the roof.
This year’s Tour has been just that, the most exciting I have seen since I started watching it eight years ago.
4. How hard is it to find the energy for a final sprint after that long of a distance?
As a climber, getting through the last 5 km of a flat sprint stage is one of the most nerve-racking parts of racing.
I don’t know how the sprinters do what they do.
They are all on the limit going into the those final sprints, then somehow are able to keep their composure and sprint for the line, eyes crossed and legs burning.
How they do it, I don’t know, I’ll stick to climbing huge mountain passes.
5. Any chance you’d want to send me an autographed jersey?
Hmmmm ...
Q: Many message boards are starting to debate the plausibility of a lifetime ban placed on the riders being caught cheating this year.
Is there anything like this being discussed by other riders? Thanks to their transparency, we know what riders of Garmin-Chipotle feel, but not the other teams.
How are they reacting to the new tests that can detect the newest drugs?
Pat Woods
patwoodsart.com
Euser: Pat, I’m all for a lifetime ban.
The feeling I get at this point in the peloton is drastic times call for drastic measures.
Most of us have committed to racing clean and are tired of being cheated out of race wins and redeeming the fruits of our hard labor.
Get rid of the cheaters and get rid of them for good.
Gone are the days of giving second chances. We have shown that we are in a war against doping, and there can’t be any forgiveness in war.
Q: Last night, after the news of Ricco’s positive test, Bob Rolls makes a comment that “performing drug free in the Tour came at a great personal cost to me.”
What can happen beside the obvious broken bones and injuries to a cyclist’s body over his career?
Euser: This goes right along with the last question.
I think what he was trying to say was he felt cheated out of what he was purely capable of by those that chose to go the easy route.
It’s for riders like Bob Roll and for the future of cycling that we are so committed to making this a clean sport.
Q: Here is a good question. What famous American cyclist was supposed to ride in the Tour de France in 1932?
Answer: Victor Hopkins of Davenport, Iowa.
Here is the irony, had he rode in the Tour instead of taking a more lucrative motor pacing track contract, he would have been the first American to ride in the Tour.
Hence, he is mentioned every time someone would talk about an American in the Tour.
By the way — Victor Hopkins is my father.
He was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2006 and is also in the Bike Iowa Hall of Fame.
My dad also rode in Chicago races back in the 1920s and 1930s.
I read where Christian’s (Vande Velde’s) great grandfather moved to Chicago.
No doubt he passed on the stories of the great bike races back then.
Lots of Belgians settled in Detroit, Michigan too. Van Kempen and the Debaets brothers are just a few names that come to my mind.
Maybe you could pass this on to Christian after the Tour is over.
He and his dad may find it very interesting.
Dad was an Olympian in the 1924 Olympics in Paris and was in position to medal when he suffered an accident.
No support cars to help you out.
Finally, I was stationed at Mare Island back in the ’70s. Was assigned to the USS Seawolf (SSN575).
Later I joined the US Army and was medically retired during Desert Shield.
Take care and if you could, let me know what you think.
Harry Hopkins
Euser: Harry, well, that was an easy question to answer!
That is a great story.
Thank you, I plan to pass it along to Christian and the rest of the team. Can’t wait to chat about it over the dinner table!
Editor’s Note: Napa native and professional cyclist Lucas Euser, who is living and training in Girona, Spain, writes a column for the Register every other Friday.
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