|
There, a buddy from back home was shooting 16 millimeter films for the pioneering ski movie director Dick Barrymore. French, who moved to Sun Valley in 1970, still skis, often hiking up Sun Valley's Bald Mountain on climbing skins. Once on top, he sometimes rides the lifts
-- for free. Don't tell the ski patrol, he whispered. "I still ski bumps," he said. "I just can't ski for very long." In 1971, French began as an engineer for Scott, working on ski boots, goggles and ski poles. It was there that U.S. Alpine Ski Team coach, bike racer and inventor Boone Lennon showed up in 1986 with a wooden handlebar prototype that looked a bit like a toilet seat but put his body into an aerodynamic tuck. French, then just 60, rode an early aluminum version at the 1986 Ironman triathlon in Hawaii, setting a record for his age of 12 hours, 13 minutes. Pro triathletes began calling, demanding their own handlebars. "Guys who never could win before were winning," Lennon said in an interview from Bozeman, Mont. "People they beat would call, and week after week we would do more." Finally, American champion Greg Lemond, coming off a shotgun accident that derailed his career in 1987, agreed to clip the bars to his 1989 Tour de France comeback bike. French personally bent Lemond's bars into shape in Ketchum. Lemond entered the final stage, a time trial, with a 50-second deficit to rival Laurent Fignon. Many considered it impossible to overcome over just 15.5 miles, but Lemond beat Fignon by 58 seconds to take the overall win using what announcers called "unique and controversial handlebars." "It's still the biggest timesaving thing you can do to a bicycle," French said, who has one of his aluminum bars on his carbon-fiber racing machine. As of July 31, USA Triathlon had 44 members in its 80 to 89 age group, 38 men and
six women. But French -- World War II vet, European ski bum, triathlete, witness to history
-- was the only one entered in Saturday's race in Idaho. "Can you believe it? I go to a triathlon and I'm the only one in my age group, and I still get nervous," French said. ___ Online: USS Cleveland Reunion Association: Youtube clip of Greg Lemond's 1989 Tour de France final stage win: Website on Boone Lennon, inventor of the aero bars: Website of the Emmett triathlon French is competing in:
http://www.cl55.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vAyvwtOQYQ-E
http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/
Je-Mo/Lennon-Boone.html
http://www.emmetttri.com/
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries
Community |
Perspectives
|
Law & Courts |
Leisure Time
|
Spiritual Life |
Health & Fitness |
Teen Scene
Calendar
|
Letters to the Editor