The Day I Beat Lance Armstrong

An older cyclist in a neon yellow jacket and white helmet smiles as he crosses the finish line just ahead of a focused rider in a blue USPS jersey, while a cheering crowd lines the road behind them.

After surviving one of the wettest, coldest, most miserable 100-mile rides of my life at the Ride for the Roses, I returned to my job as a 6th-grade geography teacher — tired, sore, and a little proud.

Naturally, the students were curious. “How’d you do?” one asked.

Without missing a beat, I said, “I beat Lance Armstrong.”

That’s when a spunky girl in the back — the kind every teacher remembers — shot back: “Prove it.”

Now, keep in mind, this was the early 2000s. You couldn’t just whip up an AI photo or use Photoshop on your phone. But I had an idea.

A friend of mine had taken a picture of Armstrong early in the ride. I also had a photo of myself crossing the finish line. So I got to work. I merged the two images, aligning them just right so that it looked like I was beating Lance Armstrong by about a foot.

I had the picture printed and framed. Then I hung it in my classroom — right next to the map of Europe I used for teaching about the Tour de France.

Most of the kids could tell it was fake… but that wasn’t the point. The joke took off. For the rest of the school year, the running gag was that I was faster than Lance Armstrong and that I should try the Tour de France next summer.

It became one of those goofy classroom legends that made the year more fun — and one of my favorite teaching memories.

I gave the photo away to the student at the end of the year. This photo is AI generated.

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