What happens when world champion endurance athletes “tweet” one another?
In the case of the world famous cyclist Lance Armstrong and Ironman celebrity Chris Lieto, a challenge.
When Armstrong, who has been training on the windy west side of the Big Island recently, passed Lieto on his bike, a simple Twitter message was all it took.
“Just passed @chrislieto going the other way. He was hammerin. Hey Chris, a little TT showdown on the Queen K tomorrow? You, me, and whoever.”
Lieto responded: “@lancearmstrong see u on the Queen-K! Will have to be after 8am cause I have to swim first. Flying out mid day. Give me a call. #fb”
Apparently, that was all that was needed. The next day, an impromptu “twitter time trial” challenge, billed as the world’s first, was held on Kona’s Queen Kaahumanu Highway. “This won’t be a twitter ride. First ever ‘twitter time trial'”, tweeted Armstrong. “Love it.”
According to Ron Haake, who described the action in a story special to Hawaii247.org, Armstrong beat out Lieto’s time by a mere 15 seconds, with a time of 18 minutes, 35 seconds.
After the race, both men joked in front of a flash crowd of some 50 people, many of whom heard about the challenge via the social media network.
YouTube video courtesy Team Radio Shack
by Big Island Video News
on at
STORY SUMMARY
What happens when world champion endurance athletes “tweet” one another? In the case of the world famous cyclist Lance Armstrong and Ironman celebrity Chris Lieto, a challenge. When Armstrong, who has been training on the windy west side of the Big Island recently, passed Lieto on his bike, a simple Twitter message was all it took. “Just […]