How Many Times Do I

I Joined The Swim Team When I Was 12, And I Was The Worst Kid In The Pool - I Was Put With A Group Of 7-year-olds.

I Want To Die At A Hundred Years Old With An American Flag On My Back And The Star Of Texas On My Helmet, After Screaming Down An Alpine Descent On A Bicycle At 75 Miles Per Hour. I Want To Cross One Last Finish Line As My Wife And My Ten Children Applaud, And Then I Want To Lie Down In A Field Of Those Famous French Sunflowers And Gracefully Expire, The Perfect Contradiction To My Once Anticipated Poignant Early Demise.

The Tour (de France) Is Essentially A Math Problem, A 2,000-mile Race Over Three Weeks That's Sometimes Won By A Margin Of A Minute Or Less. How Do You Propel Yourself Through Space On A Bicycle, Sometimes Steeply Uphill, At A Speed Sustainable For Three Weeks? Every Second Counts.

In My Most Painful Moments On The Bike, I Am At My Most Curious And I Wonder Each And Every Time How I Will Respond.

Cancer Taught Me A Plan For More Purposeful Living, And That In Turn Taught Me How To Train And To Win More Purposefully. It Taught Me That Pain Has A Reason, And That Sometimes The Experience Of Losing Things-whether Health Or A Car Or An Old Sense Of Self-has Its Own Value In The Scheme Of Life. Pain And Loss Are Great Enhancers.