Alexi's comeback [Archive] - The Paceline Forum

CPP

09-25-2010, 06:48 AM

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/09/news/inside-cycling-with-john-wilcockson-alexi-grewal-is-deadly-serious-about-comeback_142905

If anybody could do it, he could. I'm looking forward to following this!

bobswire

09-25-2010, 07:11 AM

At first I thought it was a spoof from The Onion, who is that skinny guy in funny hat and boots on a road bike and then like a bolt of lightening it hits me, of course it's Grewal, who else, he always was one for doing things his way, I wouldn't bet against him. You Rock Alexi!

indyrider

09-25-2010, 07:14 AM

He's a bit before my time when I was seriously following cycling but man, what a cool and inspirational story.

Makes me realize how stupid I am always chasing after the next best bike and coordinating like Cipo...

CPP

09-25-2010, 07:48 AM

I lived in Aspen for a while and had the chance to see Alexi in action. What a natural!

I remember watching the Los Angeles Olympic Road Race on TV at home in Aspen. What a thriller!

In the Aspen newspaper a few days later, a man told about how he was walking his dog in his neighborhood in Aspen. He told of a sudden and incredibly loud collective cry of joy coming from, what seemed to be the whole town. All of Aspen were glued to their TV watching the race(except for the man and his dog)!

Later, the town of Aspen held a parade in honor of Alexi. He was really unaccustomed to the pomp and ceremony.

During my time in Aspen, I had also the chance to have a few personal exchanges with Alexi. He was really a special guy! What a talent! What a character!!

Pegoready

09-25-2010, 07:58 AM

This will be cool to follow, and he looks fit and hungry. Literally, he looks hungry.

But seriously... the whole begged-borrowed-stolen look makes me feel he's doing it for the drama. I mean, there are countless people who'd give him equipment to ride. Even Dave Kirk offered to make him a bike :)

Steve in SLO

09-25-2010, 10:15 AM

Hmm...Alexi + Serotta?

TMB

09-25-2010, 10:17 AM

Grewal is a certifiable nutbar.

Always a strong rider to be sure.

But certifiably nuts.

Jason E

09-25-2010, 11:23 AM

Grewal is Crazy.

Certifiable and strong.

Watch hungry Grewal go!

----------------------

Sorry TMB, I was trying to 'Haiku' your post.

CNY rider

09-25-2010, 12:14 PM

dd74

09-25-2010, 02:04 PM

Watching Grewal win the 1984 Olympic road race was what inspired me into cycling. He and Steve Bauer battling it out at the end is still etched in my memory.

From what I get of the story, it sounds as if he's going to race on a vintage bicycle. That in itself should be interesting.

I'm rooting for him. He was always one of the cooler characters in cycling at that time.

Allez Grewal! :beer:

TMB

09-25-2010, 02:08 PM

Great.

An admitted, unrepentant cheater who stole an Olympic Gold.

There's something to cheer for.

Polyglot

09-25-2010, 02:53 PM

Great.

An admitted, unrepentant cheater who stole an Olympic Gold.

There's something to cheer for.

1+

e-RICHIE

09-25-2010, 03:01 PM

Great.

An admitted, unrepentant cheater who stole an Olympic Gold.

There's something to cheer for.

1+

sihkstrong atmo -

ps

arrange disorder

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
:rolleyes: :cool: :cool:

CPP

09-25-2010, 03:04 PM

I thought he won his medal?

dd74

09-25-2010, 03:11 PM

Cheating? In the Olympics? Grewal? Where's his medal now?

bobswire

09-25-2010, 03:16 PM

Great.

An admitted, unrepentant cheater who stole an Olympic Gold.

There's something to cheer for.

Not quite, he outed himself in the hopes others would see the evil in it. I'll bet those he road against back then were doing the same thing just as LA and those he rode against.
So yeah I'll cheer him on,especially because he manned up to it.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2008/04/news/an-essay-by-1984-olympic-gold-medalist-alexi-grewal_74053

johnnymossville

09-25-2010, 04:29 PM

I think he'd be competitive in a hilly week long stage race if he prepares well. By competitive I mean he won't embarrass himself. mid/upper part of the pack.

TMB

09-25-2010, 04:54 PM

Not quite, he outed himself in the hopes others would see the evil in it. I'll bet those he road against back then were doing the same thing just as LA and those he rode against.
So yeah I'll cheer him on,especially because he manned up to it.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2008/04/news/an-essay-by-1984-olympic-gold-medalist-alexi-grewal_74053

Outed himself??

24 years later.

You call that outing yourself?

Did he give back the medal? He's still listed as the first american to win a gold medal. Guess not.

sonicCows

09-25-2010, 07:42 PM

fiamme red

09-25-2010, 07:44 PM

Did he give back the medal?No, but it evidently didn't have any great significance to him. He lost it and doesn't seem to care.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/grewal-68187-didn-olympic.html

He also tossed out his cycling mementos, something for which he feels no regret. He also lost his Gold medal at an airport, and he's not particularly emotional about that, either.

Only a small photo of Grewal's Olympic victory survived the purge. It is displayed in the bedroom of his 11-year-old son, Elijah. As Grewal sat on the edge of a football practice field recently, watching Elijah practice, Grewal was asked if he didn't at least wish he could share his gold medal with his son?

Grewal watched Elijah line up for a pass pattern and shook his head no. A gentle breeze blew behind his back. He had moved on.

"He doesn't need to see it," he said of the medal.

"He needs to see me."

Gothard

09-26-2010, 01:33 AM

(Dr House voice/)... Everyone lies..(/House voice). He came out when no one forced him to. We cheer and love Davis, yet he did the same.

He likely has huge demons to fight. And he could make peace with a lot of them.
Let him ride. At least he doesn't say he's coming back for the win. I'd cheer him and give him parts he needs if he came by my place.

Polyglot

09-26-2010, 01:47 AM

One of the big differences with Grewal's position when compared to others is that he DID get caught doping, just before the Olympics and was rightly kicked off the team. He appealed the suspension and then lied through his teeth and based upon his lies was given the benefit of the doubt. He then waited 24 years to come clean.

Gothard

09-26-2010, 01:56 AM

Did not know that part.
26 years later, and seeing him as he is now, I'd still say let him race.
I'd hope/expect he will display a better behaviour, though.

bobswire

09-26-2010, 07:31 AM

It's Sunday, forgive and forget it's but a game and we are but pawns with too short a shelf life to be holding grudges. I like the guy ,what he did over 20 years ago has no bearing to my life.

Fivethumbs

09-26-2010, 02:05 PM

What was it, amphetamines? Ephedrine?

Polyglot

09-26-2010, 05:38 PM

What was it, amphetamines? Ephedrine?

phenylethylamine

akelman

09-26-2010, 05:40 PM

phenylethylamine

Maybe I should get some for my first first-aid kit.

bobswire

09-26-2010, 06:27 PM

Maybe I should get some for my first first-aid kit.

For the good it will do stick with chocolate.

pbjbike

09-26-2010, 06:42 PM

I think he'd be competitive in a hilly week long stage race if he prepares well. By competitive I mean he won't embarrass himself. mid/upper part of the pack.

+1

Hope the race happens and he's in the field. I'll be going to as many stages as possible.

learlove

09-26-2010, 09:19 PM

if he turns pro again I hope his team/employer offers a dental plan

Fivethumbs

09-27-2010, 01:05 AM

Here is something interesting I found on:http://www.littleindia.com/news/152/ARTICLE/3816/2008-09-15.html

Pedaling Glory
Alexi Singh Grewal, the only Indian American ever to win an Olympic gold, seeks to reform bicycling.
By: Emily V. Driscoll

While waiting for his plane to depart from Newark Airport in New Jersey, Alexi Singh Grewal, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in cycling, was about to gain one part of his identity and lose another. The Indian American, who was raised in Colorado, was traveling to India for the first time ever to see relatives he'd never met and to research the state of cycling in the country. As the only Indian American ever to win an Olympic gold medal, and the first American to win a gold medal in cycling, Grewal wanted to nurture what he calls an "inherent genetic ability" in Indians for cycling. While he stood in line for coffee before his flight boarded, however, his briefcase containing the very gold medal that defined his career was stolen.

Alexi Singh Grewal became the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in cycling, at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
Photo: Todd Buchanan

Alex Singh Grewal's journey to become a world-class cyclist has been colorful and controversial. He almost didn't compete in the 1984 Olympics because the U.S. Cycling Federation dropped him from the team after he tested positive for the stimulant phenylethylamine. After an appeal he was allowed to compete. Since then he has been outspoken about the dangers of doping in cycling, which he says is rampant in the community. In the April Velonews, a competitive cycling magazine, he published a candid essay that revealed his own experiences with doping and named doctors who prepared injections for athletes. Grewal hopes his story will prevent others from doping and inspire new cyclists.

"There is a generation of people coming up. It's time to share my experience," said Grewal.

Grewal, who is half-German and half-Indian, grew up in Colorado with two sisters and two brothers, Rishi and Ranjeet, who are also top cyclists. He started training when he was 12. His father, Jasjit Singh Grewal, a Sikh who moved to the U.S. in 1956, owned a bike shop, but was not a cyclist himself until he was 35 years old. In fact, the Grewal family became successful at the sport at about the same time.
"On the same day in 1984 Alexi won the Olympic trials, Rishi was in Montana and won the junior state championship, Ranjeet won the Colorado state championship and I won the veterans state championship!" said Jasjit Singh Grewal.

Do I regret it? I can�t. Do I want someone else to go down the road? No. I want to tell people what I experienced so they don�t have to experience it themselves.�
Photo: Brad Kaminski

Alexi Singh Grewal was drawn to cycling because "it is nomadic, difficult, and adventurous." He dropped out of high school to train and first experimented with doping when he was still a junior player.

"I was a little apprehensive about how it would hurt me, but not apprehensive enough not to take it," said Grewal of his first experience with doping. He said cyclists doped more than other athletes because of the "biochemical interface" of the sport - it gets exponentially more difficult as you increase the speed, which he called "physically and psychologically draining." Doctors were in on the doping too, supplying and injecting steroids, but in the past few years have started to "detect (steroids) rather than inject them."

After he turned professional in the mid-1980s Grewal quit taking stimulants, but says he wouldn't change his past: "Do I regret it? I can't. Do I want someone else to go down the road? No. I want to tell people what I experienced so they don't have to experience it themselves."

Now Grewal, who was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2004, is looking to the future by examining his roots. While visiting the Punjab region of India, where his father is from, he visited the Cycling Federation of India. He saw himself in the Indians he met. "When I was in Punjab I felt like I was among an army of champions," he said. "My genetic makeup and my families makeup was naturally suited to my sport."

Grewal has a complex plan to set up programs in India, to facilitate sponsorship and bring in coaches to train the next championship cyclists that he says are in India now. "India is a sleeping giant," he says. "A Tour de France winner is in India right now."
Back in Colorado, Grewal, who turns 48 on Sept 8, works in the ancient tradition of timber framing and carpentry of cathedral-style houses using only wood. He is also active in the Christian church where he helps the homeless and people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. He cycles recreationally, but the competitive sport is still close to his heart. "I want to help be a part of the reformation of sports in America and the world," said Grewal.

Crossing the Line

In a startling essay in April in Velo News, a leading magazine on competitive cycling, Alexi Singh Grewal acknowledged his use of performance enhancing drugs during his professional career. Excerpts

"The fear of doping hit me for real the day I dropped into the continental professional scene. From day one with Panasonic-Raleigh it was made known that "The Program" was the high and holy way, salvation open to all, and required of all to survive and win. Faux doctors like Ruud Bakker, no more than pseudo-credentialed soigneurs, introduced me to the gospel of champions. That all of them said and took the Holy Vow. Team director Peter Post, as the high priest, intoned that I must listen to the "doctor" and submit to the "Preparation." Our syringes came gift wrapped in the morning and evening during stage races, and in the 2007 Tour de France one of my former roommates sat behind the wheel of a team car pulling feathers out of his hair.

"Somehow grace intervened for me. Should I have ever been headed for classic or Tour podiums surely I would have entered the full-blown 'roid ranks. Dangle Li�ge or Paris glory in my face and there is no question both feet would have crossed that line. No one wants to hear that but it is very true. Whether it be the blood of bulls or goats, I would have drunk from that cup in a heartbeat for any measure of that glory."

Source: Velo News

GuyGadois

09-27-2010, 01:13 AM

Does my memory serve me right? Wasn't Alexi fail a drug test BEFORE the Summer Olympics but was reinstated the day before the road race he won? Bummer for Bauer.

Recent pic of Alexi?:
http://www.bicycle.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/tammy-thomas.jpg

dd74

09-27-2010, 01:30 AM

More like it:

Then:

http://cache3.asset-cache.net/xc/81398630.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215ABF3343C02EA548F726535252DB02C5 A5C8837844F16D0C769E0274259BA994

and the winning '84 Olympics' bike:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_I4Snyzw2IMM/SjHb0nT3CKI/AAAAAAAADd8/8DezsKHg9Lw/s400/speed_001.jpg

and Grewal in the last couple years:

http://images.onset.freedom.com/ocregister/kpj77r-b78537511z120090810160451000gc9j44nr2lg.jpg

Fivethumbs

09-27-2010, 01:52 AM

This is more like it.

firerescuefin

09-27-2010, 02:10 AM

"No one wants to hear that but it is very true. Whether it be the blood of bulls or goats, I would have drunk from that cup in a heartbeat for any measure of that glory."

Source: Velo News

......sobering. Makes you wonder if telling yourself that your doing it for a greater cause would allow you to sleep better at night.

JD Smith

09-27-2010, 02:39 AM

if he turns pro again I hope his team/employer offers a dental plan

Depends on whether they'd rather risk him drooling on cameramen or spitting on them.

pbjbike

09-28-2010, 09:36 PM

Geez, what a sympathetic crowd here. :crap: None of you raced on the Continent, AFAIK, please correct me. :) There's only one or two members of this forum that could could keep up with Alexi today. IF you would have challenged Panasonic's DS Peter Post's judgement back in the day, when Grewal raced for Panasonic, you would have less b*lls than Lance has now. Just Sayin.

johnnymossville

09-28-2010, 09:58 PM