My Hero, Saul Raisin

Two days ago my girls and I went bowling with Saul and Aleeza. We had such a fun evening, though I could tell Aleeza was distracted by something. The next morning Saul called me. He broke down in tears as he said that his dream of racing professionally had been crushed. You can learn more about the circumstances in this eloquent post he published to his blog this evening.

Over the course of writing and promoting the book we've written together, Tour de Life, our family has come to love Saul and Aleeza. Saul's parents have a special place in our heart, too. For two days we've been talking and thinking about them. We've only been able to communicate with the four of them a little bit since the news hit. As you can imagine, their lives have been thrown into turmoil.

Watching Saul's determination, and especially getting to know him as things have progressed, has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I believe to my core that Saul would have eventually won the Tour de France, but unfortunately, there were factors involved in reaching that goal that were out of his control. Saul's ability to race again at the pro level was dependent on more than just his recovery. Every doctor, every sponsor, every race organizer, and every governing authority who signed off on letting him continue were also signing on to a potentially enormous liability should he ever crash or cause a crash. Unfortunately, the time has now come when someone with a large stake in the matter is too fearful of the risks. As saddened as I am by their decision, I can understand why they might have made it.

Saul can't be kept down, though. If you've read his book or followed his blog I'm sure you'll agree that we're going to see more great things from him, even if winning a pro cycling race is not among them. As Saul always says, "Blue skies ahead!"