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Jeannie Longo is
renowned as the greatest woman bicyclist of all time and is synonymous
with determination, independence and longevity. She is a pioneer
for women in a sport that has long been dominated by men and at
the age of 44, is still a world-class athlete. Her list of achievements
is endless. In road racing she took Olympic gold in 1996 and silver
in 1992 for the road event and silver in 1996 against the clock.
She has been World Champion in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1995 and
against the clock in 1995 and 1996. She won the Tour de France in
1987,1988, 1989 and the list just goes on. Jeannie was presented
the Ecoflag by GSA at the recent El Tour de Tucson,atwhich she was
the guest of honor. Jeannie is deeply concerned about environmental
issues and credits her long time success to eating organic foods.
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El Tour de Tucson
The 20th El Tour de Tucson took place on 23rd November with over
6000 cyclists taking part in America' largest perimeter bicycling
event. Professionals and amateurs alike take part in the 108, 81,
62 or 35-mile events. Cyclists as young as 3 (in the children'sevent)
and as old as 84 have taken part and over $13-million has been raised
for various charities.
Among the VIP's at this year's event were Greg LeMond, three times
Tour de France winner, Jeannie Longo (who won the women's 108-mile
event) and Robbie Ventura of the US Postal Service team (who won
the men's 108-mile event.)
The environment is an important concern to cyclists and was a central
theme at this year's event. The Ecoflag was flown prominently at
the start/finish and event organizer Richard deBernardis gave an
environmental message to the competitors at the start of the race.
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