What happens when world champion endurance athletes “tweet” one another?
In the case of the world famous cyclist Lance Armstrong and Ironman celebrity Chris Lieto, a challenge.
When Armstrong, who has been training on the windy west side of the Big Island recently, passed Lieto on his bike, a simple Twitter message was all it took.
“Just passed @chrislieto going the other way. He was hammerin. Hey Chris, a little TT showdown on the Queen K tomorrow? You, me, and whoever.”
Lieto responded: “@lancearmstrong see u on the Queen-K! Will have to be after 8am cause I have to swim first. Flying out mid day. Give me a call. #fb”
Apparently, that was all that was needed. The next day, an impromptu “twitter time trial” challenge, billed as the world’s first, was held on Kona’s Queen Kaahumanu Highway. “This won’t be a twitter ride. First ever ‘twitter time trial'”, tweeted Armstrong. “Love it.”
According to Ron Haake, who described the action in a story special to Hawaii247.org, Armstrong beat out Lieto’s time by a mere 15 seconds, with a time of 18 minutes, 35 seconds.
After the race, both men joked in front of a flash crowd of some 50 people, many of whom heard about the challenge via the social media network.
YouTube video courtesy Team Radio Shack
