Thirty-seven-year-old Russion Viatcheslav Ekimov was the only rider on Postal - indeed, perhaps the only person in Armstrong's world - whose work ethic was beyond question. This status was underlined frequently, most of all by Armstrong's assertion that Eki was "nails". Which raised the question: what does it take to be "nails"?
This is what it took. When Eki was fourteen and living at a sports club in St. Petersburg, he rode 38,000 kilometers in one year, an average of 450 miles a week. In 1996, as a professional, he nearly doubled it ("That's not possible for a human," Landis said incredulously). But it was true -- Eki had twenty-five notebooks full of training logs to prove it. Eki had ridden thirteen tours and finished every one. Eki never missed a training day. Eki was never late or unprepared. Eki coached himself.
(from the Daniel Coyle book on Lance Armstrong)
More How we work.
Comments