Off the Clock: Breaking Away

After training together for a year, three Hogan & Hartson partners take on the Tour de France's most difficult stage just days before the pros took to the course.

The American Lawyer

By Matt Straquadine

July 24, 2009

Pack Leading Lawyers: Warren Gorrell, Stephen Immelt, and Dennis Tracey.

On the Clock: Gorrell, 55, is chairman of Hogan & Hartson. Immelt, 57, is a partner in Hogan's Baltimore office doing enforcement litigation for health care companies; Tracey, 53, is the managing partner of Hogan's U.S. offices.

Off the Clock: Rabid cyclists.

First Clipped In: Gorrell began cycling a year ago, Immelt has been riding his bike seriously for three years, and Tracey has been an avid cyclist for five years.

The Tour de France is a punishing athletic competition spread out over 21 stages, but for cycling enthusiasts one stage stands out as a sure appointment with agony: the Montélimar to Mont Ventoux stage.

The grueling hill climb stage, the race's penultimate leg, is 104 miles long. It requires riders to ascend more than 21,600 feet before crossing the finish line at the summit of Mont Ventoux, the highest point in Provence. How brutal is this particular stage, often the deciding one in the race? One cyclist actually died of dehydration climbing Ventoux in 1967. (Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, Lance Armstrong and the rest of this year's Tour competitors tackle the hill Saturday.)

So what made Hogan & Hartson chairman Warren Gorrell and partners Stephen Immelt and Dennis Tracey decide to attempt the arduous ride just five days before the pros took it on?

(continue reading here: http://bit.ly/kSXl1)