LOTOJA Treasure

Posted by on Aug 25, 2009 in Bike | 2 Comments

I am moving. I am excited about this. My family and I have grown in the last year, and we could do with a bit more space. In the process of packing up all of our stuff I have stumbled across some old keepsakes that today just don’t have the meaning they did when I filed them away. For example, a picture of me and my high school girlfriend dressed as Raggedy Anne and Andy for Halloween was something that my wife was not too thrilled about keeping around.

As I was packing the books from my office, I found a long forgotten treasure tucked in between some of the many various titles and old software boxes. It was a little beaten up, a little worn by time, but for the most part, as good as new.

It was the sticker from my first and only LOTOJA ride, from 2004:

lotojosticker

My immediate thought was “I should stick that someplace”. Of course, by someplace I was thinking the trash can. But then, I thought about all the various and sundry places that I ought to stick this priceless evidence of my rite of passage into cycling adulthood. So, in a flurry of airplane rides and sneaking through security gates and even doing a bit of time travel I decorated important and well-known places with the window sticker of window stickers.

The Presidential Podium:

prezpodiumweb

The Pope:

popeweb

And of course, the Tour de France. But I was not content to just plaster the sticker onto some obscure telephone pole or road sign along the route. I did what all good cycling fans do, and painted the road with my own LOTOJA themed message, It’s there, right at the bottom of the frame:

climb-andorra-web

Not bad eh?

Now, a few years ago, after Lance Armstrong retired from professional cycling the first time, you might recall that he started hanging about with Hollywood big hitters. Especially Matthew McConaughey, the meaty star of all sorts of very in-depth action films. Perhaps you have heard of him? And then, perhaps you will also recall that there were all sorts of odd rumors about Lance and Matthew swirling about the internet, which of course, all turned out to be untrue. However, one rumor that did not get a lot of press coverage did end up being absolutely true. Lance and Matthew decided to get matching pectoral tattoos.

As you can see, the photographic evidence is indisputable:

lance-collarboneweakweb

And to think, folks used to make fun of those two prancing about with out their shirts on!

2 Comments

  1. Brandon S.
    August 25, 2009

    ah, come on you know you want to stick it on your car.

  2. Aaron
    August 27, 2009

    Yeah, you should put it on your car. Just make sure you alter it first. I have an idea for a word you could add just above “Lotoja”, but I probably shouldn’t say it here. It starts with the letter ‘F’ though.

    Sorry, that was mean. I really love you Lototards. Man, I just can’t help myself.

Sign up for email updates and get STOKED!

A FREE manifesto for subscribers.