PORTLAND (AP) – Ted Darling has been riding his bicycle 200 miles a week preparing for the annual race to the top of Mount Washington. He’ll soon find out how well his training prepared him for an even bigger challenge: the Tour de France.

Darling, 42, will ride portions of the race route and meet Lance Armstrong and other cyclists after winning a sweepstakes sponsored by Subaru.

As an added challenge, the contest requires him to ride with an integrated keyboard and cell phone so he can put his daily musings on a Web log, or “blog.”

“Just to be with the tour is an amazing thing. It’s the Super Bowl of cycling. If you’re into cycling, it’s the place to be,” said Darling, a self-described bicycle news junkie and recreational cyclist from Cape Elizabeth.

The three-week race got under way Saturday with a time trial. Darling will be joining the race for the second week and riding two classic climbs, Col de la Madeleine in the French Alps and Mont Ventoux in Provence.

Another contest winner will take over the final week that includes the Pyrenees and the ride to the finish along the crowd-packed Champs-Elysees on July 24. By far the most exciting part of winning the contest is the prospect of insider access to the Discovery Channel team led by Armstrong, a six-time tour winner who announced this race will be his last as a professional athlete, Darling said.

Sitting in on Discovery Channel strategy sessions or seeing Armstrong blasting ZZ Top to get fired up for the race – well, that’s nearly too much to imagine, he said.

He’s not sure how that part will play out, but he hopes to meet Armstrong. Last year, he and his wife went to France for two stages and never got close to the Texan. “I’m extraordinarily happy,” he said. “It’s a dream come true for sure.”

Darling won’t be allowed to ride alongside the racers, but he’ll be riding some of the stages with an escort to give his perspective on different stages of the race.

The prospect is both exhilarating – and intimidating.

“For me the greater pressure is just to be able to finish the rides reasonably well. They’re long, steep climbs and they’ll be tough. But I think I’m up to the task. The commentary will be the fun part,” Darling said.

Bicycle company Trek will be loaning him a $4,500 Trek Madone 5.2 in France. Trek also is a sponsor of Armstrong’s team.

Darling learned that he won the “Race to the Tour” sweepstakes a week ago, and the legal documents for his trip were signed on Tuesday.

That doesn’t leave a lot of time to get ready, but Darling already had been incorporating climbs into his training regimen for next month’s Mount Washington Auto Route race, an eight-mile climb with an average grade of 8 percent.

The blogging part doesn’t worry Darling. He said he’s used to writing for his marketing and branding agency. He is co-owner of Ethos Marketing and Design in Portland.

“I’m a news junkie. I’m pretty well versed in happenings (in the race world), and I write a lot in my job,” Darling said.

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On the Net:

http://www.racetothetour.com/

AP-ES-07-02-05 1034EDT