Back in the Day

This is what bike racing was like back in the day... 1977... way, way back! First five minutes is the RR national championship. The rest is the track championships.

1977 USCF Natz Seattle Washington from CinelliDog on Vimeo.

Jim Rogers 1957-2010

It's with sadness that I learned today of the passing of Jim Rogers. He was struck from behind by a car and killed while out on a ride Sunday near Auburn, CA.

Jim was one of the best bike racers in Northern California when I was just entering the sport as a young teenager. Despite his lofty status (in my eyes) he was very humble and kind, always ready to offer a helping hand or bit of friendly advice to a dorky newbie (me). I've had no contact with him since those days, but from what I read here, it seems he continued to be a wonderful person and a pillar in his local cycling community.

I took the above picture of Jim as he rode in the Senior (Elite) Road Race National Championships. I have no idea of his result that day, but I do remember one funny story. The junior race had just finished, and Greg LeMond had been beaten in a sprint by Jeff Bradley. Jim and a few others were standing near Greg when he ripped off his numbers and threw them in a garbage can with disgust at getting 2nd place. (Greg had worn the #1 indicating he was the reigning champ entering the race.) Jim cracked a little smile and went over and dug those numbers out of the garbage. I wonder if he kept them all these years.

R.I.P.

Top Talent from SB

I've heard it asked many times, "Who's the most talented bike racer from Santa Barbara?"

That's a hard question.

First of all, "from Santa Barbara" means to me that they were living here and discovered bike racing when young, say, under 18 years old. That has significant implications, because it excludes from consideration a whole bunch of really good riders who came from out-of-town to attend UCSB, including:

• Dylan Casey
  
• Eric Cech
  
• Dave Fiengold
• Matt Dubberley
• Adam Laurent
• Kieth Horowitz
• Lynn Brontzman/Gaggioli
  

...along with a bunch of really good riders there right now.

That definition also excludes some really good bike racers who have come to live in Santa Barbara AFTER already establishing themselves in the sport. Examples of those would include:

• Aaron Olson
• Kim Anderson
• Jacob Erker
• Erik Saunders
• Ben Haldeman
• Zach Walker
• Dave Lettieri
• Ken Hanson
  

So you might think that those exclusions wouldn't leave many riders to choose from. You'd be wrong. Santa Barbara has produced a remarkable number of home-grown talented riders over the years. Below is my list of the top-10, presented in no particular order. Of course this is all subjective, and your opinions may vary.

Adam Duvendeck -- A two-time Olympian on the velodrome, and multi national champion. Started bike racing as a junior with Echelon in the mid 1990s along with Aaron Musicant and Matt Abrams, the first crop of many great juniors coached by the next rider on the list.


Rory O'Reilly -- 1984 Olympian, former world-record holder in the flying kilometer, one of the fastest road sprinters in the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s before turning focus to the velodrome. Rode for the famous 7-Eleven team. In the picture here, Rory keeps a close eye on a young Greg LeMond.


Cody O'Reilly -- Rory's son and a favorite of the entire SB cycling community. Seems like only yesterday that Cody was a little tyke on the back of Rory's tandem, his tiny legs turning circles on a 150 mm crank installed just below the seat. Fast forward to today, and Cody is one of the fastest road sprinters in the US, and arguably the best all-around track rider in the country, having just won the Elite Omnium National Championship. Cody has improved every year for the last decade ...how good will he ultimately get?


Uthman Ray IV -- A Dos Pueblos High graduate who began his cycling career flying down hills in the dirt before turning attention to the road. Uthman quickly rose to Cat 1 and was a solid all-around rider for the couple of years he raced seriously. He's a smart guy who completed graduate school at UC Berkeley and has apparently put cycling on the back burner ...for now.


Larry Shields -- When I was a kid in NorCal just getting into bike racing, I only knew of two racers from Santa Barbara. One was Rory, and the other was Larry Shields. His reputation as a smart and savvy rider was well known, but clearly he had an abundance of strength too. A multi-time National Champion on the road as a junior and a podium finisher in the Elite ranks. The picture here shows Larry winning a National Championship after dispensing of a quicker Chris Springer with a crafty move in the final corner.


Kurt and Derin Stockton -- Brothers, both among a select group of the best road sprinters in the US during the late 80's and early 90's. Both rode as professionals for a number of teams and participated in all the big Pro races back east, with Kurt winning the USPro Road Championship in Philly in 1990. Both went on to successful careers on the booming downhill MTB circuit.


Chris Walker -- Most people don't realize C-Walk started bike racing as a junior back in the mid 1970s. He was a mediocre rider back then and soon hung up the bike for other interests. He returned to the sport ten years later (1987-88), and since then has put in, oh, at least a quarter million miles of training. I'm completely serious. Do the math... 20 years X 52 weeks/year X 250 miles/week. Probably a low estimate actually. He's been a podium finisher in some of the hardest, highest-level races in the country, including Tour of the Gila and the Killington Stage Race. He's won National RR Championships as a Master and Elite competitor, along with many Districts victories. Still, at 48 years old, he's one of the top roadies in California.


Daniel Ramsey -- When I first met Daniel he was an affable, slightly-gawky, enthusiastic puppy dog of a bike rider. Fast forward fifteen years or so, and he's now one of the most exciting bike racers you'll ever see. Nobody rides with more heart and grit than Daniel. If you think of US Domestic Pro bike racing as entertainment, then Daniel is a star. If you've never seen him roll one of his improbable solo break-aways with 100+ hungry riders nipping at his heels, well then you are missing one of the most heart-pumping scenes in bike racing. Sometimes he gets caught (e.g., annually at Manhattan Beach) and sometimes he pulls it off (Sea Otter; Tulsa Tough). Either way, it's always a great show.


Nieko Biskner -- A mercurial career if there ever was one. Nieko also started as an Echelon junior after doing some running at San Marcos High (5K in the 16's!) and when he began to really train on the bike, his talent was immediately evident. A big-boned kid at 6'5" he was still as good a climber as anyone in town, and when he got on top of a gear on the flats, well, following him was essentially motor-pacing. He finished top-10 in a Tour of Georgia sprint and recorded 1900+ watts on his SRM. That's a Mario Cipollini-like number. In the NRC San Dimas Stage Race one year, he powered a small break in the road race and was barely nipped at the finish by Chris Horner, who was the most dominant rider in the US at that time. Nieko's pro career only lasted a couple of years because he was pulled in lots of conflicting directions, including school and partying. Who can blame him... would you rather ride your bike a quarter of a million miles earning minimum wage, or hang out at night with good friends and pretty ladies, and learn about cool technology during the day?


So that's my top-10 list.

At this point, it's fair to revisit the original question, "Who's the most talented bike racer from Santa Barbara?" But this naturally leads to a more enigmatic question, namely, "What is talent with respect to bike racing?"

Every rider mentioned above has talent. For example, Adam was able to master all the technical and physiological details necessary to get maximum explosive power out of his body. Both Rory and Cody were and are able to live extremely disciplined lifestyles that ensure maximum productivity from their training efforts. Kurt and Derin had the bravery to fight at the front of thundering field sprints. C-Walk has the ability to religiously churn out thousands of miles in training. Daniel seems capable of tapping into raw emotion as a fuel source, digging deeper than most people realize is possible.

All those traits above are important, and clearly they led to success for all these Santa Barbara bike racers. To me, however, "talent" in the context of bike racing is defined as an innate potential for great success, and it's mostly a physiological aptitude. In my opinion, for raw physical talent, Nieko tops the list and I think he could have been a world-class bike racer.

Discuss?

Old Time CX

Long before there was Page, Trebon, Johnson, and Douville...

...there was Sir Lawrence Malone, Clark Natwick, and Mary Ann Allen:

(Thanks to Dot Wong for finding this)

And some trivia for SB locals... in those results listed at the end of the video, which rider is the brother of a popular Santa Barbara endurance athlete? Next, which rider lost a National RR Championship after being forced into a ditch during the final sprint by a Santa Barbara rider? (Yes, I know, those are hard questions...)

Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering who Gary Douville is, check this:

And it turns out he can CX in addition to TT, as he is the SoCal elite champ and got 36th at the Elite nationals in Bend last weekend!

Thurbo..... Turbo..... Per-turbo.....

All means the same thing ...Pain... especially if he's in your race ...which is highly likely since he's out there every weekend, and often does three races a day!!

Read Mark Johnson's excellent article about the legend himself written for Competitor SoCal Magazine. Mark is a pro writer and photog and one of those great folks --like Lyne Lamoureux and Mike Hernandez-- who shine the media light on bike racing here in the US. Our obscure sport has a million stories below the surface, and these guys do the telling with their superb pictures and eloquent words. Grazie!

So... not much to add to the article other than perhaps this. To observe Thurlow at the races, you might wonder whether or not he's really having fun. You could call it a look of indifference ...or perhaps aloofness ...sometimes you'd even have to call it a scowl. But I ask you this, when doing an activity that you've been doing for consistently for 30 years ...take breathing for example... how much visible enthusiasm do you show? I hesitate to guess at the total number of races the man has done, but it's got to be well into the thousands. Think about that for a minute. Is he having fun? The proof is inside the pudding, and maybe doesn't always show on the surface.

But every now and then he lets a bit of the emotion out. Elite Nationals RR, 2008, up against 130 Gggg-gnarly Cat 1's from all around the USA. Super fast race on a windy, hot-n-dry, cranky afternoon. Half way in Turbo scoots across to the big break and, no doubt, goes pull for pull with the big motors up in first class. 'round about 100 miles in, the break starts cracking so Turbo goes off again, this time with just two others, each a hardened NRC thoroughbred ...who happen to be teammates. Do they work T over? Can they? I don't know, it's hard to see first class from the back of coach. Anyway, with the sun setting and 120 fast miles in the bank, the trio sprints for the prestigious Stars-n-Bars jersey. Thurlow gets the bronze.

3rd at the Elite Nationals. Is that a good result? Compared to what? Top-shelf Euro pro victories, top-10 in the Olympics, buckets of major US professional wins, ...Masters 45+ vee at the Ontario Industrial Park merry-go-round?

Well, his non-stop beaming smile after the race left no doubt...



...he's still having lots of fun.

Still a Fan, Greg

Greg LeMond continues to pop up in the cycling news, most recently at an Interbike press conference where he directly confronted Lance Armstrong and doping expert Don Catlan. You can hear audio from the contentious exchange here and also a follow-up interview with Greg. A video of the press conference is on Cyclefilm.com.

The public's reaction hasn't been particularly kind. Based on comments in various internet forums, I'd say the prevailing opinion is that Greg needs to drop the crusade and get on with his life. The more vitriolic comments suggest that he's a whiner who can't stand being eclipsed by Armstrong, and that he has serious emotional issues. While I wouldn't go that far, it's clear that he's obsessed with exposing Armstrong's past doping. Unfortunately that obsession obscures his primary message and his ideas for better dope-testing procedures going forward, which I believe come from his sincere love for the sport.

But perhaps I'm biased.

I fondly remember going to races in NorCal ...including bygone classics like the Tassajara RR and the Butterfly Criterium... and seeing the whole LeMond family pull up in their lime-green VW Westfalia van. A young and enthusiastic Greg would come bounding out like a skinny blond puppy dog, always with a smile and always wanting to talk about bike racing. He was equally friendly with the good guys as he was with those of us who he crushed every weekend. It was impossible not to like him even though he was the purveyor of pain once the race started!

Now I'm an average Johnny Anonymo as a bike racer, but one distinction I do hold is being one of Greg's first acquaintances outside of the Reno/Carson City cycling community where he started. His first race was the Land Park crit in Sacramento in March of 1976. We were Intermediates, which in today's system would be called Juniors aged 14-15. The field that day was small, certainly less than ten riders. Greg went fast from the gun and soon only four of us were left. Despite it being his first race ever, he was barking commands at us to rotate through and keep the speed up. The few kids left behind were probably in total disarray but Greg cracked the whip to keep us focused nonetheless.

It's been well documented that Greg won his first umpteen races, and this was the very first of that streak as he easily took the sprint. I got 3rd. Afterward he came up to me and we talked for a couple hours, sitting on the curb watching the other races. I only remember one thing from that first conversation: he said he rode the rollers two hours a day the entire winter. The significance of that dedication quickly became evident.

The next day was the Tassajara Road Race, the unofficial start of the NorCal season. Nearly twenty years later, upon Greg's retirement, Kent Gordis wrote about that day at Tassajara in the tribute magazine "Greg LeMond, the official story"...
(click to enlarge)

Greg would go on to race nearly every weekend in NorCal for the next two years, winning a substantial fraction of the time.

I was in 20-30 of those races, some of which were more memorable than others. In 1977 we were first-year Juniors (age 16-18) racing against older, bigger, and more experienced kids. That proved challenging for me, and I often struggled to hang on. One of my few decent results that year was the Butterfly criterium in Pacific Grove. For juniors and seniors it was classified as a National Prestige race, which would be somewhat analogous to an NRC event today. Fairly early in the race I managed to hold on to Greg's wheel as he escaped the pack. As I recall, I attempted to pull through but most likely provided no help at all for the few laps we were out there. Just before being caught, he turned to me and said that he would go again with ten laps to go. I actually processed that information and was later paying attention ...from mid pack... when he did indeed attack again with ten laps to go. He soloed away for yet another win. I got 10th place, which was a thrilling result for me.

One of his most memorable NorCal performances took place in 1978 at Cat's Hill where Greg, the reigning US Junior RR champ, entered the senior race, which included Wayne Stetina, the reigning Senior RR champ. I do not know why I skipped the race that weekend, but I regret it because the drama that unfolded is the stuff of legend. Thanks to NorCal cycling guru and head-honcho Casey Kerrigan who archived many old NCNCA newsletters, here is a picture and description of that day...
(again, click to enlarge)

(SB folks: note who got 3rd place that year!)

By mid-1979, at 18 years old, Greg was arguably the best rider in the US. He won many national-level Senior events and capped off the year with a rainbow jersey from the Junior World Championship RR in Argentina. His time in California was pretty much done.

The following year he was racing in Europe, and his upward trajectory continued. Here, also from the "Greg LeMond, the official story", is a podium shot from his first major victory...
(SoCal folks: note a smiling Thurlow Rogers in the middle!)

Well, not much point in me continuing the history lesson beyond this point because everyone knows it.

I feel fortunate at having been around when LeMond started racing, and enjoy reminiscing about those first couple years. I was in the right place at the right time. One point I want to make clearly is this: Greg was one of the most genuinely enthusiastic bike racers I've ever known. I never saw him get conceited or arrogant, despite the incredible success he had. I last saw him in 1981 when he returned from Europe to demolish the field at Nevada City. I don't remember talking to him that day, but I do remember him being humble in victory. Nothing about his public persona I saw in later years made me feel any different.

I think people should cut him some slack now.

[Updated, October 13th 2010]

Well, a lot has changed in the two years since I wrote this post. With all that's happened, only the most naive or delusional fans wouldn't now acknowledge that cycling has some deep and systemic doping problems. Yet, you still find two diametrically opposed opinions. There are many who feel cycling should take the path of certain other high-profile sports, only giving lip service to anti-doping while keeping the dirty laundry out of sight. Why scare away sponsors and promoters, they ask? It's an impossible problem to solve; they say dopers will always stay a step ahead of testers. Dope testing is a joke, just as it should be.

I don't share that view in the slightest. Why? For one, I cannot subscribe to a passive acceptance of cheating. Life has gray areas; sport should not... if it's in the rules, enforce it. But more importantly (to me), if doping is tacitly allowed at the highest levels, you can be sure it will become more and more pervasive in lower echelons of bike racing. It's a bleak future if juniors are faced with doping.

And maybe it's already metastasized at lower levels... Rumors are swirling that a bomb will soon drop on amateur masters racing in the US, one that would hit pretty close to home for me and some readers of this blog. I'll be greatly saddened and disappointed if the rumors prove true, because I had respect for some of the individuals involved. I liked them, and defended them when people made accusations that seemed unfounded. Yes, I was probably too naive.

Sometimes I long for the simpler, more innocent days of bike racing. And on that note, I'll leave you with another historical picture, this one from an old issue of Competitive Cycling. Here's 16-year-old Greg on the front leading the way up a hill in the National Road Race championships in 1976. Hey Greg, I'm glad you're staying on the front and leading the way for a cleaner future in bike racing.

Name Those Riders (History)

Like many bike-racing obsessed teenagers, the walls of my room were adorned with colorful images of great riders and epic races. Legends from across the Atlantic, grand tour winners and spring-classics hard men, cols and cobbles, thundering field sprints ...all of it very mysterious and entrancing to this fledgling early-teen cyclist. Of course I was also in awe of the US stars--the George Mounts and the John Howards--but it didn't take me long to figure out the cycling world's pecking order. I knew the very best racers weren't in Berkeley or Boulder.

No, for Dave Stoller and me, it was the Italians, French, Belgians, and Dutch that we were obsessed with.

But Cinzano never came to Stockton so the closest I could get to the Euro stars were the 24"-x-36" glossy pictures on my walls. How many hours did I stare at those posters, wondering to myself in the dead of winter, "If I stay on the rollers another 30 minutes, can I be a winner too?" "Maybe just one more set of squats and my quads would look like that" They weren't life-size on my wall, but of course they were larger than life in my mind. Other kids had posters of Reggie Jackson, Van Halen, and Farrah Fawcett ...I had Eddy Merckx, Bernard Thevenet, and Roger DeVlaemink.

You johnny-come-lately fans of bike racing have no idea what it was like 30 years ago. No cyclingnews.com, no OLN/Versus, no streaming internet video, NO BLOGS. Maybe you would get TdF top-3 buried in the back of a big paper like the SF Chronicle or the LA Times, but then only if it was a slow day for Major League Baseball. Mostly you just waited for your mid-August issue of VeloNews for tour coverage. A couple pages in black-and-white. I'm telling you this so you might better understand why those large colorful posters of bike racing held such power over me...

...which might also explain why I still have many of them now, 30 years later, on the walls in my bike room, where I can stare at them doing squats or riding the rollers.

So today when I was out futzing around with my bikes I had the idea to see if any blog readers could possibly identify some of the riders in the posters. Kind of a history test. Obviously any cyclist could recognize the big stars. In fact, if you are a cyclist reading this blog and can't recognize Eddy Merckx in his prime, then go away and never come back!! ...Just kiddin'

But since most people could identify the big names, instead I'll show you some wall hangings with lower-level riders, or riders before they were stars. A few of these should be easy; others I'd be amazed if anybody knows. If you want to play, send me your answers or put them in a comment. If you know someone who's been around for awhile, point them here and see if they can get some right. Maybe I'll even give a prize to the best history student! So let's begin, and you can click on the pictures to get a larger size image.

#1 - In case you cannot tell, this is a Euro field sprint. I have no idea what race it is. One rider jumps right out at me, but I can't pull any other names out of the gray matter. Can you?

And speaking of gray matter, don't you just cringe at the notion of 40 mph field sprints like that with no helmets?!?


#2 - I think this is an easy one, at least the front rider, but perhaps not. You tell me. Bonus points for naming both riders. This was one of two large posters listing the NCNCA calendar for 1981.


#3 - This is the other one from that calendar pair.


#4 - Believe it or not, there was a 7-day stage race held in the hills between Santa Cruz and San Jose, California. It was a pretty big deal regionally. This race-ad poster shows one of the favored riders. He had a very colorful history. Who is it? Bonus points if you can describe a really bizarre incident that occurred in the race involving this rider.


#5 - A really old ad for the track national championships. I'd be shocked if anyone can name any of these riders. I'd have to do some research to confirm your answers anyway. Note that our governing body back then was the ABLA (Amateur Bicycling League of America) and it became the USCF a year or two later!


#6 - Not really a poster, just a full-page magazine picture that I ripped out and stapled to my wall (and kept for 30+ years). This guy was one of my many idols when I was a wee junior, and to this day I can remember a few of the tidbits of expert advice he gave me in very casual passing.


#7 - Another race ad, albeit for a local crit in NorCal. I know at least 4 and maybe 6 riders in this picture. Very few people on earth would be able name them, although there's a slim possibility one is lurking on this blog. He is in the picture. One of the riders should be known to everyone.


#8 - And finally, another race ad, but this one for two events in Santa Barbara. The artsy effect of the picture makes it even more difficult to identify them. A hint: everyone in this picture was a NorCal rider, and all were very good. One still goes to the track (Hellyer) occasionally.

A bit about these races: they were promoted by Doug Knox in conjunction with a week-long series of big-time races in SoCal. Many of the best riders in the US came. The first weekend were two crits in LA, one in Westwood and the other downtown. Tuesday was a night-time crit in SLO where Eric Heiden showed up (and was mobbed by Cal Poly coeds). Thursday was the Santa Ynez RR, Friday was the Solvang crit, Saturday was a circuit race up and down State St. SB, and Sunday was the crit around Santa Barbara High School. It wasn't exactly the Amgen Tour of California, or even SuperWeek, but it was big-time and it was here. So anyway, blow me away and name any of the riders in the poster.

From Eddy Gragus...

Just got the following comment regarding a post from last year. Actually, it's a response to Nick Nitro's comment from that post and is in reference to deals riders make about not sprinting. Since the post and the comment are buried in the archives, I'm bringing it to the front here. Besides, it's from Eddy Gragus who was a very accomplished rider in the US back in the day. Usually the pros and ex-pros just lurk on this blog ...I just know it... but maybe they're all too intimidated to comment...

Anyway, here's the comment:

"Regarding the comments on May 22, 2007 I would like to defend myself a bit. It appears as though not everyone knows the complete story of myself, Gaggiolli and Huber that day in Santa Rosa. The real story was that Gaggiolli and myself jumped away on the first lap of the race and I had told him that I would not sprint, because I knew this guy could beat me anyway. So he and I stayed clear on the wet and technical course for half of the race and I put in my share of work. Half way into tht race Huber brdged up to us and I told him that I would not sprint for the win. He scolded me and said that, "you won't sprint for second either." I called BS on this and as we approached the finish line I stayed true to my word. I didn't sprint for the win. As they let Huber or Gag, I don't remember which, go ahead by about one meter I threw my bike to get second, which I felt I deserved because I did my fare share of work the first half of the race. They freaked out! How could anyone disrespect the Coors Light Team. I was a slolo rider in those days and was just trying to get from one race to the next, and I would do what it took to do that, but I kept my word when I gave it, and this was no exception. That day pretty much made me a mortal enemy of their team for the season and they did not give me an inch. Still, I managed to beat them, without a team, in Casper Classic and several other races before turning professional. That is my two sense and if I have anything to recomend to younger riders reading this it would be: Don't give people sh** but don't take it either, never.

Eddy"

Thanks for commenting and setting the record straight!

BTW, this is a cool pic I lifted from his blog...
Beating Lance Armstrong at the night-time crit in Austin of all places!

Blast from the Past

Come on, admit it... you google yourself from time to time, don't you. I know I do. Well, thank god I name names here on this piddly little blog because my old good friend from 30 years ago googled himself (or his significant other did, so he claims) and stumbled upon this site and then emailed me. Wow! Great to hear from Tim and great to hear he's doing well in Sacto.

He also sent me this pic......which shows Tim with me on his wheel (both in yellow with red shoulders) in a race when we were juniors.

Yowza! There's hair flowing out from under that helmet!

He's making me guess the race and the year, but I think it must be 1977 and judging by the crack in the concrete pavement, I bet it's at Cat's Hill in Los Gatos. That bike was a Frejus that I rebadged on the head-tube with a Playboy Bunny sticker. See, juniors have always been dorky! But that's not half as dorky as those bunched up socks and those hot-pants cycling shorts!! Jeeezus, cycling fashion has come a long way.

So this little history quiz prompted me to dig out my log from that year and make sure I actually did Cat's Hill... and sure enough, on May 22, I did. The log says that it was an E-for-excellent workout and further, that Chris Springer won, Greg LeMond got 2nd, and I got 7th.

Few people ever beat LeMond in the junior races, but Chris Springer was one of them. I don't recall a single race where I did...

But later that same year, at the 4th-of-July crit in Davis, Tim himself solo'ed off the front of the junior field to win. Second place that day... Greg LeMond.

Great to hear from you Tim!

Up to the Attic with Ye All

More or less in chronological order from the late 70's to the present, with 6 or 7 years missing...














































Of course that last one isn't going into the attic just yet...