Beth Heiden, World Road Cycling Champion returns to France after 31 years to stay at Velo Vercors!
15-10-2011
Beth Heiden (Russell) is one of America’s most illustrious all time endurance athletes and in September 2011 she, with her husband Russell arrived at Velo Vercors in true style on their tandem. Forget about the fact that they had just flown half way across the world from California, jumped on a TGV train to The French Alps and must have been exhausted. We were asked just to collect the baggage – they were arriving on bike. But reading through her amazing athletic career, its no wonder.
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A champion speed skater, World road cycling champion(1980) an
Olympian and American cross country skiing champion. She is a legend and
even now has the fitness, stamina and determination of women 1/3rd her
age. Oh yes, she also appeared on the front cover of Time Magazine with
her brother, Eric, 5 Times Gold Olympian.
Seeing Beth and her lovely husband, Russell on their state of art tandem was like watching poetry in motion. It was a real honour for us to show them everything the Vercors have to
offer and their enthusiasm and passion for cycling was infectious. They found the region exhilarating and cycled with gusto following Roger’s wheel even on the 24km descent of the Combe Laval (Europe’s biggest Gorge), which is no mean feat.
We loved having them stay and look forward to them returning with lots of other Californian cyclists.