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By NANCY CLARK
REGISTER COLUMNIST
July 7, 2005
Robert Peterson, a retired Marshalltown dentist who is the fastest cyclist in the country among men his age, is fixated on the Tour de France.
Peterson, 74 , is fascinated by the race, the spectacle - and the superhero.
He has gone to France twice to see Lance Armstrong tame the Pyrenees.
He has met the six-time champion.
As referee of a race in Wisconsin, Peterson considered telling a young Armstrong to move his race number, which was pinned in the wrong spot. He was too awestruck to ask.
"It didn't matter," Peterson said. "We knew he was going to win."
He has absorbed Armstrong's book, "It's Not About the Bike," a gripping account of the Texan's near-death battle with testicular cancer.
Peterson gets it.
He also is a testicular cancer survivor, diagnosed and treated about 18 years ago.
He can identify with the shock, the pain and the fear - and with the untapped, superhuman resources that somehow are unlocked to create champions.
"You keep going every day - to the max," he said.
Peterson, a longtime runner and triathlete, picked up his bike and started pedaling with new, competitive resolve at age 60.
It hasn't waned.
Peterson claimed the stars and stripes national champion's jersey in USA Cycling's time trial for ages 75-79 last week in Park City, Utah. He was in that category because it goes by calendar year rather than actual age.
"I won by about a minute and a half," Peterson said. "One rider from Idaho started 30 seconds ahead of me. I knew if I could keep him in my sights, stay within 30 seconds of him, I could win."
Peterson noticed the man slow on a hill as they neared the finish.
"I went around him," he said. "And I won."
Five years ago, Peterson claimed national age-group championships in the road race and the criterium. He was excited to add a time trial title.
He was grateful to do it by passing a rival, especially on a hill.
"There are two disadvantages to training in Iowa," he said. "One is that we don't have altitude, and some of these races like Park City are at high altitude. The other is that we don't have a lot of long hills, none that are 10 or 20 miles long, so you never get to be a good climber."
Peterson, who covered the 12.4-mile course in 36 minutes 33 seconds, dedicated the win to the memory of Dr. Bob Breedlove of Des Moines, a fellow rider on the Des Moines Orthopaedic Surgeons/Bike World Race Team who was killed June 23 in Colorado. Breedlove was hit by a pickup truck while riding in the Race Across America.
"We were all so saddened by that," Peterson said.
Saddened but not scared.
It's all about getting back on the bike.
"I had a really, really bad wreck in 1996 in a race in Cedar Rapids," Peterson said, "and broke my right leg in five places, and broke my right shoulder. I've got a plate in my leg from that."
It fails to slow him down.
"We all aspire to be as fast as Bob at his age," said Randy Catron, director of the race team. "There is little doubt he is among the fastest older cyclists in the United States, probably the world."
Peterson plans his training rides now around Tour de France television coverage - although he has caught himself napping and missing part of the action.
Dreaming of coming down a Paris boulevard in a yellow jersey?
"That race is quite a challenge," he said.
And his stars and stripes are already more than he ever dreamed.
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Source: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050707/SPORTS05/507070363/1016
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