Memory Lane

Sunday's Giro Ride was small and mellow this week. There was a MS Tour training ride across the lake that probably sucked away a number of riders, and some others may have been still licking their wounds from Saturday's thrashing. I hung around the parking lot afterwards chatting with Mark G., procrastinating about going home where sandpaper and paint cans awaited. On the plus side, the sky was mostly overcast, which kept the temperatures down, and by early afternoon we finally got a little bit of much-needed rain. In fact, it was actually quite pleasant outside last night, so I was a little disappointed that Monday morning's air felt just about as hot and humid as usual. There were just a few of us up on the levee today for an easy recovery ride. I could still feel some lingering soreness in my quads, but once we got going, it mostly disappeared.

When USA Cycling sent out an official reminder last week about discontinuing the late-season discount on racing licenses there was a bit of an uproar among the Local Association representatives, many of whom felt that it had been sprung on them without warning (actually, it had been mentioned very early in the season). I think it real issue was that some of the dedicated Cyclocross riders, whose seasons don't really start until September, had been getting by on half-price licenses and the promoters were worried that it might affect participation, which I doubt. Anyway, at some point Wayne Stetina sent a comment to the group and that's what started me on my little trip down memory lane.

Long, long, ago, in 1980, I went to the nationals road race, which was held that year in Bisbee, AZ. The race consisted of multiple trips up and down a mountain, basically, so the less said about my own performance the better. Anyway, it was a fun trip that five or six of the local guys and women took. I was riding the road race, three riders were doing the time trial, a couple were in the junior road race, and one person was in the women's road race. At some point shortly after I'd been dropped I came around the curve at the top of the hill and found two of the Stetina brothers (I think) exchanging bikes. It turns out that one of them had broken his fork. So I got to blast down the downhill with one of them, after which he dropped me and caught back up to the pack. I was never quite clear on which Stetina it was, so a little while ago I sent Wayne an email. I wonder what he remembers about it.

That got me thinking about that year's nationals, so I looked up the results from the 1980 road nationals. Dale and Wayne Stetina took 1st and 2nd that year. Beth Heiden, who had won Olympic bronze in speedskating, won the women's race (and she was pretty hot, too, as I recall). What was interesting, though, were some of the other names I recognized from the races. Davis Phinney was 10th that year, just ahead of his future teammate Ron Keifel. Jim Montgomery, who was actually a member of the NOBC at one point, won the "Veterans" class. Even more interesting, though, were the riders in the Junior races. Andy Hampsten was 4th in the Junior men's race and Rebecca Twigg was 2nd in the junior women's race. Just the year before, in 1979, an upstart kid from Nevada named Greg LeMond had won the Junior's race. Little did I know at the time that I was in the presence of so many Olympians and Tour de France riders! Indeed, in retrospect, it was rather a watershed year for U.S. cycling. I remember seeing John Howard there. He had basically retired from bicycle racing and was training for some odd event called the Ironman triathlon. I remember being surprised at how much thinner he looked since his bike racing days. Tempus fugit!