|
Saul is a professional rider that rides for the French Team Credit
Agricole who had a bad crash in a European race that put him into a
coma for two weeks. Saul was on his way to being one of the best
young riders in the Pro peleton when this life changing incident
happened. Our connection with Saul is through Tyler Farrar who
races for the French Pro Team Confidas and through Rocket 7 the shoe
company based here that sponsors Saul.
He was supported with an escort vehicle sponsored by the Tour and
GU. The 3 of us joined Saul with about 2 hours of riding to
the finish and he was glad to see some other riders because there
was a stiff 20 mph cross wind that was brutal.
Saul filled us in on his road to recovery and his quest to help
other young people deal with the long healing process involved with
dramatic brain injuries. Saul himself has made an incredible
recovery himself. He attended a training camp with his team
and he was one of the fastest guys. He is cleared to be with
the team physically but doesn't have the green light quite yet from
the mental side.
Saul was telling us a story about a phone call he got from his team
mate Thor Hushvold that was really cool. After Thor won a stage in
the Tour de France last year and took over the race lead and the
yellow jersey, he called Saul and told him that he and the entire
team were dedicating the victory to him and toasting him with a
glass of Champaign. You could tell it meant a lot to Saul.
Back to the ride, every little town we passed along the way
thought that we were the leaders of the race and were cheering us
on. This made us ride just a bit faster and with a little
purpose.
When we hit the out skirts of Sacramento all the roads were closed
and had manned security turning everyone away. Saul told us
that we were getting the full escort to the finish line. Every
check point we ran into they knew it was Saul's posse and we got the
red carpet treatment and the free pass. The closer we got the
to the finish line the more people lined the streets.
When we hit the finish line with Saul we were stopped in front of
thousands of people lined up waiting for the peleton that was just
outside of town. The fans were all looking at us wondering
"who were these guys". We hung with Saul for a bit until
security and Governor Schwarzenegger's secret service crew talking
into their wrists secured the area. We were official,
but not that official.
Riding with Saul was an inspiration and a special day for Russell
and I.
Saul has a book out titled From Coma to Competition available on
Amazon. Take a swing by his website and buy a wrist band at
http://www.saulraisin.com or sign his guest book.
Raisin Hope is what it's all about.
Have one....Andy
|
|
||||||||||||||
| © Leadout Sports LLC | ||||||||||||||||
Russell
and I went down to the Bay area last month to take in the Tour of
California. We road ahead of the race on stage 3 from Santa
Rosa to the finish in Sacramento. Along the way we happen to
catch up to Saul Rasin who was riding each stage ahead of the race
on his own to help raise awareness for brain injuries.