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I tried "spinning" at the gym when that fad started. I hated it. I am not much of a bike rider either (I prefer to watch the peleton). Cycling and long distance running and swimming definitely require mental toughness and endurance, as well as physical.

LOL! Betcher boots it does! And I was only going a lousy 12 miles. :) Heat and humidity didn't help, though, so I'll blame my ineptness on that, heh heh.

All those months of bike riding did great things for the lower body, though. Now that I've had my baby, I'm thinking of taking it up again...I like riding better than running, that's for sure. But I'll probably be running again...though I can only do about 8 mile runs, max.

"Cycling and long distance running and swimming definitely require mental toughness and endurance, as well as physical."

Lance developed his toughness starting out as a triathlete. At age 16 he was already competing with the top pros at the sprint and short course distances (1-2 hr races). He was a very good swimmer. He still from time to time competes in some small run-bike biathlons in the Austin area in his off season. His coach, Chris Carmichael, has speculated on how he would do in the Hawaii Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). He's pretty sure with about 6 months of training he'd get his swimming and running to a level where might be able to win it by crushing the field on the bike. There have been a few TDF riders who've done Hawaii (Udo Boltz from Telecom and Chan McRae (former Postal rider from the Austin area)) and they did pretty darn good. I don't expect to see Lance in Hawaii (I intend on racing again next year) but I would not be surprised to see him Hawaii in a couple of years, maybe when he turns 40, and does the race when there's no pressure on him to perform.