Pedal the Cause

"The Professor"

Laurent Fignon

August 12, 1960 - August 31, 2010

As an American kid, I first came to know Fignon more for what he didn't accomplish, than for what he did.  In 1989 he famously lost to Greg LeMond by 58 seconds in the Tour de France's final stage time trial. This allowed LeMond to win the overall Tour by 8 seconds: the narrowest margin of victory of all time, and something that would alter forever how the last stage of the Tour de France would be organized.  Of course, I was elated - not that he lost, but that LeMond had won.  What I didn't know at the time was how he had already won Milan-San Remo and the Giro d'Italia that same year....or how he had won the Tour in '84 taking 5 stage victories.  Again today, he leads the cycling headlines for what he didn't ultimately succeed at; his battle with metastatic lung cancer, which took his life today.  He was quoted earlier this summer as saying, "I don't want to die at 50.....I'm still fighting."

On October 9th, COMO cycling hard-ass and blogger Dan Miller will be riding in St. Louis at an event called Pedal the Cause to raise money for cancer research, and he could use our help.   

You can go here to chip in a little cash to help fight the good fight, or ride the ride yourself and raise some money in the process.