Yesterday I got a message that Lance Armstrong was going to be in Waterbury at 4:00pm. That was all the details I got. I looked at my clock and saw that it was 3:50pm so I figured I'd go to see what was going on. With a 15 minute drive ahead of me I gathered my gear and raced out the door. I had no idea why he was going to be there, where he was going to be or what to expect when I got there.
As soon as I got to Waterbury I saw cars backed up down the street. I decided to park and walk until I found where the event was taking place. It didn't take long. As I was walking down the street I saw a large crowd of people and bikes up ahead. There were riders all over the place. When I got to the park I realized that Lance was running late. There were kids, bikers, police, and a whole bunch of media there.
Finally Lance shows up aorund 4:30pm out of nowhere on his bike and is immediately surrounded by a mob of media, bikers, and autograph seekers.
He said that he was riding from Waterbury to Sugarbush Ski Resort in Warren if anyone wanted to ride with him. He signed a few autographs and then he was off on his bike down main street followed by hundreds of other cyclists.
Come to find out later, Lance was in town to speak at a cancer fundraiser in Sugarbush for the Mary E. Haas Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Foundation. He sent out a twitter message earlier in the day saying he was going to go for a bike ride from Waterbury to Sugarbush and anyone could join him on the ride.
It's amazing how fast word travels in this age.