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BIKE GUY: FOR REASONS I FIND HARD TO EXPLAIN
Bill Humphreys
January 5, 2010
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My current bike will be six years old in 2010, but it has a pair of brand new wheels waiting for springtime. Old or not this baby still feels fine. Once the base miles are in my legs she can still float me on beautiful country roads while my mind drifts away. There is not a ride I take these days that does not bring back some fleeting memory of a training ride or race from the distant past.
Whenever I go for a ride now, I am more, how should I say it… congenial, and I attempt conversation with those I come across riding the roads I have been riding since 1971.
It has taken a few years, but nowadays I don’t just chase down and blow past any rider in front of me. Maybe my lack of form or my age or both have finally caught up to me. In fact the last two riders I’ve met and talked to on a ride had actually caught me and were nice enough to say a few words as they came by allowing me to get on their wheel without too much chasing.
I’ve met some interesting people this way. Some are racer types but most just love to ride and get out for some decent mileage each week. This second type is usually training for some fundraising charity ride that has drawn them further into the sport and they are hungry for any tips on how to get better.
Memories in the legs once awakened, bring back lost stories of days long ago and far away when hanging tough in stiff cross winds on cold rainy days, day after day earned us the respect of our hardnosed peers, many of whom are gone now while others of us are still out there remembering the old times while sitting in some younger guy’s group ride.
On the other end of the spectrum are the master’s racers, who make up the largest category of licensed racers in this country. These guys have been racing for anywhere from 10 to 20 years, hold full time jobs and have families.
The sport has been ready made for them and they have found easy entry into it thru web pages, racing magazines, local bike clubs and bike shops. They have acquired all the latest equipment and technology that has attracted them to the sport and they are always on the lookout for the latest trend that can make them lighter and faster
I’m 65 now and still get up before the sun on cold Sunday mornings to massage liniment deep into my calves and start putting on the layers for a local group ride, in which virtually no one will really know what it was like back in the day when we wore wool, had toe clips and used down tube shifters.
. It was an “Anger” driven sport back then, presenting a rare opportunity for negative energy to actually be a good thing for those of us determined to get to the front and defy the odds of getting ahead in a hard and unrecognized sport in this country.
Cycling was the number two spectator sport in the world at the time, second only to soccer but it was obscure in America. My favorite trivia question for my non-cycling friends was: “Who is the third most famous athletes in the world?” They never got it right. Eddy Merckx the famous Belgian cyclist was the answer then and he is still considered to be the best cyclist of all time (regardless of Lance’s seven Tour wins.)
It was difficult to find entry into bike racing back then and new riders were not always welcomed with open arms. Finding training partners or clubs with coaching was elusive and even under the best conditions it was a lonesome endeavor. The turnover was high many kids got discouraged and quit.
I can only guess that they were being reasonable by finishing college, getting jobs, getting married, having kids and developing a portfolio.
The Raleigh Boys spawned a movement of riders from around the country, that over a 25 year period from the early 70’s to the early 90’s, made a conscious decision to put their heads down and overcome all the built in obstacles that prevented cycling from being popular here. Slowly discovering by trial and era the established traditions of the European racing culture and devoting themselves to the dream, regardless of the consequences, this group broke down the barriers and took US cycling to respectability on the international scene.
We decided to put our “Futures” on hold with no thoughts for “What are you going to do when you grow up?” College, getting married, full time jobs, kids, we had miles to put in and weight to lose and races to get to. It was a small world here, but we knew how big it was elsewhere and we had experienced “elsewhere” and we wanted more.
Suffering through stages when we had to wear two pair of wool shorts because our butts were so sore from racing day after day on rough roads in the rain, while washing out our own shorts and jerseys in hotel sinks, knowing they would still be damp when we put them on the next morning, was all part of the life we had chosen. Finishing too far down on certain stages meant getting to the hotel too late for there to be any hot water left for a shower, after cramming 4 riders into a 2 person room for the night.
This was just part of the job, the payoff for making it to any kind of stage race in Europe or South America. We had arrived, we were where the real action was, where the euro kids were fighting tooth and nail for every wheel every day and no American was going to take their spot. We clawed our way up thru the bunch, got our butt’s kicked and came back for more, we took some wheels and some wins in the process.
When we came home there was only another teammate to pick us up at the airport no cycling blogs or mainstream press there to interview us We were on our own to get a job in the off-season so we could afford to go racing the following spring.
My Mom used to complain to anyone who would listen. “My son is racing on the USA cycling team in Europe and I cannot read about it anywhere in the news or hear about it on the radio or TV?”
By then Greg LeMond had won the Tour de France three times, was voted Sports Illustrated’s Athlete of the Year, Lance Armstrong had won a World Championship was coming back from cancer and was about to win the Tour de France seven times in a row.
Now cycling was cool.
Now everyone was jumping on the bicycle.
So who were these guys from the 70’s & 80’s that took it upon themselves to take bike racing out of the dark ages and into the modern era? Where are they now and what price did they pay so others could ride the wave of popularity, media coverage and lucrative salaries?
I cannot speak for all the riders of that period that helped launch the sport to where it is today but I do stay in contact with many of them and our camaraderie and respect for the sport is still there. We are excited about the exposure the sport receives now.
Some still scour web page results looking for the old names (or son’s of old names) to see who is still alive and fit.
Life goes on, it was a special time in our lives, and we savor every minute of it.
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