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We are at a critical time in our Earth's life. The evidence of global warming is, to me, overwhelming, and I feel the need to do my part. (http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/cars/10/14/14lancecar.html)

Pamela LeBlanc - Statesmen.com - Oct. 14, 2006

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Toyota_Camry_Hybrid.jpg
Toyota Camry Hybrid (EPA 40/38) in Lance’s stable.

Just because you're a celebrity, you don't have to drive a big, gas-guzzling vehicle. Consider seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who recently purchased Toyota's new hybrid version of the Camry.

"I drive a hybrid because I firmly believe that we are at a critical time in our Earth's life," Armstrong said by e-mail this week. "The evidence of global warming is, to me, overwhelming, and I feel the need to do my part."

The Camry Hybrid has an EPA rating of 40 miles per gallon in the city and a base price of $25,900. It comes with a 4-cylinder gas engine and electric motors at the front wheels.
The only potential hitch? Armstrong's latest vehicle doesn't have much room in the trunk to haul his biking gear: The car's big nickel-metal hydride battery pack gobbles up a fourth of the trunk space.

Pure conjecture on my part, but I can imagine Sheryl Crow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prius#Famous_owners) telling Lance that cleaner air means less cancer as she drove off in her Prius.

Don't have a bike, but I have a bike rack that would allow my Insight to carry two.

Some time ago, I compared the IMA system to marathon running and thought it was a fairly tight analogy. Wonder (being serious guys....) if the HSD system relates to cycling pretty close...

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This would suprize a lot of people about Lance Armstrong, but he has not run a marathon, yet has cycled and done triathalons since high school (obviously triathalons shorter than the Ironman). On Novemeber 5, Lance will run the New York Marathon and possibly set the fastest speed for a first timer. Runner's World covered it, and while he is doing things other than training these days, this is the prediction:

Men's World record - 2hrs 2min
Women's World record - 2hr 15 min
Elite runner (and automatically qualify in New York or London Marathon) - 3hr
Prediction for Lance - 3hr - give or take 15 minutes
Average men's finishing time - 4hr 30min
Me - 5hr -8min :oFrom a conditioning standpoint, Lance is as good as the best runners, but he is 165lbs - not 130 like the probably winner. Then there is the fact cycling is not quite the same as running...