That chasm between Lance Armstrong and the next great American cyclist could be bridged on the endless mountain trails of Durango.
Tom Danielson, a former mountain biker and Fort Lewis College cyclist, is emerging as a rider who might replace Armstrong in carrying the American cycling flag once the six-time Tour de France winner retires this summer.
At least, that’s according to a pretty reliable source: Danielson’s teammate Lance Armstrong.
“He’s a rider who has tremendous potential, someone who we think could be a factor in races,” Armstrong said. “Maybe not the Tour de France, but certainly he has the body, and tests that show he’s one of the best talents out there.”
That’s not exactly Armstrong passing down the torch, but considering the dearth of young talent in the U.S., it qualifies as a ringing endorsement. Armstrong said this last month in Augusta, Ga., just before the Tour de Georgia, which Danielson won, culminating a remarkable climb from so-so mountain biker to America’s best international prospect in just four years.
How high his star will climb is too early to tell. He’s 27 but looks even younger, and his late start puts him barely in his late teens in road-biking years. Fort Lewis coach Rick Crawford, Armstrong’s first cycling coach when he was a junior, one-upped his former star cyclist.
“There is a vacuum between Lance and the next winner,” Crawford said. “Personally, I’m not objective. But it’s not a stretch to say I definitely think Tom can win the Tour.”
Crawford remembers Armstrong’s first eye-popping test numbers. They pointed Armstrong in the direction of greatness in France before he ever learned to say “Merci beaucoup.”
Well, Crawford also remembers the first time Danielson tested at Fort Lewis.
“His power-to-weight ratio was comparable to Lance,” Crawford said. “He has a lot of power and not much weight. He’s like a Ferrari: a big engine and not much frame.”
All this is pretty heady stuff to Danielson, whose first Grand Tour event ended Monday when he abandoned the Giro d’Italia with a bad knee. Sitting in his hotel room Tuesday in Cesenatico, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, while his Discovery Channel teammates continued the Giro was not discouraging.
He’s still basking in the glow of life on American cycling’s red carpet: a spot on the nation’s best cycling team, history’s greatest Tour de France cyclist as his mentor and a home in the Mecca of cycling base camps, Girona, Spain.
Working under Armstrong’s wing is worth all the real estate in the nearby Pyrenees.
“Whether he says something or does something or acts a certain way, it’s all advice,” Danielson said. “He’s a great cyclist but also a great person. The more time spent around him the more obvious what makes him so great. When you watch him on TV or watch him in races, it’s like a magic show. When I’m around him, it’s like, OK, he does this; he does that. It all makes sense. This is how to become the best.”
Anyone around Danielson knows he’s a fast learner. Just look at the Tour de Georgia. Less than a year after leaving a frustrating experience with Italy’s Fasso Bortolo for Discovery in July, Danielson won America’s most prestigious road race.
Armstrong led the way, tutoring him, protecting him and unselfishly helping him take his Tour de Georgia title. If Danielson had any doubts about his future as a road cyclist, they ended when he defeated a decent international field in cold, rainy conditions.
“I’d say that was by far the most emotional, special point in my career,” Danielson said. “The week after that race I had no energy, just because that was so much for me. To learn from him and watch him in the race and for him to put me in certain positions and then say, ‘You can do it; I believe in you,’ it’s incredible.”
That’s all Danielson ever needed. He had the natural ability. He just didn’t know it until well after he left his home in East Lyme, Conn., to pursue his love for mountain biking and a business degree at Fort Lewis. However, financial support for mountain biking was drying up in the late 1990s, and his road- racing ability began surfacing during Tuesday night road rides with friends.
Fort Lewis cyclists encouraged him to go out for the club team, and Crawford put him through some tests that punched out close to 400 watts. Quite an amazing feat for a guy whose body looked more conducive to delivering pizzas than road victories. Crawford says the average wattage for a guy Danielson’s size is under 300.
“He weighed about 145 pounds, and I saw him weighing about 130,” Crawford said. “You couldn’t even see his kneecaps. He was smooth all over.”
Danielson earned the 2001 and 2002 national collegiate club road racing championships, degrees in marketing and psychology and a spot among the horde trying to become America’s next best cyclist.
His knee, thought to have been injured on the last day in Georgia, shouldn’t be a risk. A magnetic resonance imaging test revealed inflammation and tendinitis but no tears. He won’t cycle, even to the corner market, for about two weeks.
The Tour de France in July probably wasn’t a possibility, but the Tour of Spain in September definitely remains.
It would be the first Grand Tour of the post-Armstrong era.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
