• News
• Sports
• Opinion
• A&E
• Multimedia
• Features
• Obituaries
• Blogs

  Home Page » News » Evening With Lance Armstrong

Evening with Lance Armstrong

7-time Tour de France champion helps old cycling friends

by Shane Benjamin
Herald Staff Writer

Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, appeared in Durango on Tuesday for the world premier of “Race Across the Sky,” a documentary about the Leadville Trail 100.

It was a cool night with light rain – a perfect evening for a film.

Five hundred people viewed the documentary at the Fort Lewis College Concert Hall with Armstrong in the audience. After the movie, 100 people attended a private dinner with Armstrong, also at the Concert Hall.

Before the screening, Armstrong met with local children and adults who have been diagnosed with cancer and leukemia.

“He’s a nice guy,” said Leanne Jordan, a Durango doctor who is fighting breast cancer for the third time. “His hair was longer than I thought.”

Armstrong joined a panel discussion on stage before and after the movie. He wore jeans, tennis shoes and a long-sleeve shirt with sleeves pulled up to his elbows.

During the movie, he sat in Row L next to his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, and their baby boy, Max.

Armstrong, who uses the social networking site Twitter, wrote: “Made it to Durango. Yo, where’s the sun?!”

After the screening, he posted another entry: “Just finished the ‘Race Across the Sky’ premiere here in Durango. Film was incredible!”

The producers of the film did not allow a reporter to interview Armstrong or report on the panel discussion that occurred before and after the movie – saying the discussion would be edited into the film before it is released nationwide this week.

In addition to Armstrong, panel participants included Ken Chlouber, founder and president of the Leadville Trail 100; six-time Leadville Trail 100 winner Dave Wiens; Travis Brown, a 2000 Olympian and Durango resident who finished the recent Leadville race with a time of 7:22:06; and Matt Shriver, coach of the FLC cycling team, who helped Armstrong set the pace, and finished third with a time of 7:09:49.

The discussion focused mostly on this summer’s Leadville ride.

Tickets to the movie and the dinner sold out within 13 minutes Sept. 21. Movie tickets cost $20 and $25 apiece; dinner tickets sold for $500 per person. Proceeds from both events will benefit Trails 2000 and the FLC Cycling Team, per Armstrong’s request.

The Leadville Trail 100 is a 100-mile race with more than 14,000 vertical feet of climbing two miles above sea level. The race, which was held in August, is about 25 years old.

Armstrong won the 2009 Leadville Trail 100 with a record time of 6:28:50 – more than 15 minutes faster than the old record – despite finishing on a flat tire.

The premier of “Race Across the Sky” was held in Durango with Armstrong in the audience as a way for Armstrong to repay Shriver, the FLC cycling coach, for setting the pace during the early part of the race, said Dr. Field Blevins, a board member with the FLC Cycling Team.

“Lance promised to repay him, and this is a wonderful way to do it,” Blevins said. “This will definitely help (the FLC Cycling Team) in a big way.”

Morgan and Jamie Masner watched the movie and ate a Mediterranean dinner with Armstrong after the film. Morgan said his father bought the tickets in a roundabout way from someone with a connection.

“Obviously $500 is a lot,” he said of the dinner price tag. “I’m hoping we get to shake his hand, take a picture and maybe ask him a couple of questions.”

Ted and Moira Compton of Durango could have bought tickets to attend dinner with Armstrong, but they turned them down, saying $500 a plate was a little much.

Having Armstrong in town for a movie premier is a “celebrity thing for Durango,” Ted Compton said, but more importantly, it shows Durango has become a strong cycling community.

“Our decision to do the movie and not dinner says we’re more interested in the local aspect of it and not the celebrity aspect of it,” he said.

Ed Zink, owner of Mountain Bike Specialists, said Durango has shown a lot of support for Trails 2000, the FLC Cycling team and other cycling events. The world premier of “Race Across the Sky” and a visit by Armstrong is a sign Durango is doing something right, he said.

“This is validation that what we’ve been doing is the right thing,” Zink said. “It’s because we’ve been doing good things that good things like this happen.”

shane@durangoherald.com