Even before their battle over Herbalife, the hedge fund managers William A. Ackman and Daniel S. Loeb have had their share of competitions. Some of them, it turns out, were a bit on the petty side.
In an excerpt from his article in the latest Vanity Fair, William D. Cohan recounts what was supposed to have been a friendly long-distance bike ride involving the two in the Hamptons.
Despite not being as practiced as Mr. Loeb, Mr. Ackman could not help himself and rode flat-out at the beginning of the ride, in Mr. Cohan’s retelling. He initially outpaced the serious cyclists. And then the seemingly inevitable happened.
From the excerpt:
But soon enough Ackman faltered â€" at Mile 32, Ackman recalls â€" and fell way behind the others. He was clearly “bonking,†as they say in the ycling world, which is what happens when a rider is dehydrated and his energy stores are depleted.
While everyone else rode back to Loeb’s East Hampton mansion, one of Loeb’s friends, David “Tiger†Williams, a respected cyclist and trader, painstakingly guided Ackman, who by then could barely pedal and was letting out primal screams of pain from the cramps in his legs, back to Bridgehampton. “I was in unbelievable pain,†Ackman recalls.
As the other riders noted, it was really rather ridiculous for him to have gone out so fast, trying to lead the pack, considering his lack of training.
