January | 2016 | Steve Tilford

Yesterday I was riding with my brother and Bill and it was pretty windy. Not really windy, just pretty windy. It was probably less than 20mph, but not by much. Bill was saying that he didn’t think that he’d done a ride in January with wind less than 15 and most of the time it was more. I agreed. He was sort of complaining about it. He said he would appreciate a calm day that he could just go out and do a long ride and not have to fight the wind.

I told him I thought the wind was great. I give the wind credit for the reason that many times, riders from around here beat up the competition pretty seriously at the regional races in early season. There is no easy riding when the wind is blowing over 20 most of the time.

I’ve always liked the wind. I’m not that big on straight tailwind (because of my lack of power), but I do like wind to help make the plan at the start of the ride.

Early season, I’m not big riding into straight headwind off the bat. When it is super windy, we tend to try to do more crosswinds on the ride. I’ll usually try to convince everyone that we generally head out against crosswind, slowly jogging into headwind every once in a while, thus storing up the potential tailwind for the ride home. It doesn’t really do anyone any good by having to struggle into a 20 mph headwind, while the rest of us are sitting on going way too easy sitting on.

I’ve raced in some pretty windy places. The windiest has to be in Southern New Zealand. The Tour of Southland is a windy mess. And by windy, I mean 50+ mph windy. I did that race 3 or 4 times and it was always the same. One year there, they stopped a stage at the top of a climb because the officials had deemed the descent too windy to race. I wasn’t into that at the time, but now looking back upon it, that was a good decision.

Races in windy conditions interest me. I like the dynamics of fighting for positions. Riders with more experience will nearly always excel in these conditions. I wrote a post about racing in New Zealand a few years ago. It shows how being smart in big wind can work out well. Here is a link.

Anyway, don’t let the wind scare you off when considering whether you’re going to be riding inside or outside this winter/spring. And never skip a windy race. Racing in the wind is the absolute best way to get good at racing in the wind.

Historically, it has been pretty windy racing in the Middle East. I think the beauty of cycling exposes itself with windy echelons.

I’ve known Otto Wenz pretty much since I started racing bicycles. I went to Superweek and broke my collarbone after just a few races. I drove home, then back to the National Championships a few days later, which were at the Lakefront. Otto promoted both events. I remember him handing me an expense check, courtesy of the USCF, as I was the Kansas Intermediate State Champion and thus earned travel expenses to the race.

That was the very first time I met him. Over the years I got to know him. Otto is a doer. He did so much for sport of cycling, it amazed me. He promoted the entire Superweek stage race for year after year. Sometimes it seems he pretty much sponsored it completely himself. He served as president of the USCF (USAC) for a few years during the late 70’s and really contributed to the growth of the sport.

Otto helped bring the Junior World Championships to the US in 1978 and the World Road Championships to Colorado Springs in 1986. He had the vision. Deservingly, Otto is in the Bicycling Hall of Fame.

I started travelling to bike out of state bike races at Otto’s events. He helped me so much over the years. When I was a junior, I was pretty much living hand to mouth. Otto would let me race his events and if I won prize money, he would deduct the entry out of my prizes and then give me the rest. I think he did this for a lot of guys. There is no way that I would have been able to race these events without his generosity.

His races were the best competitions of the year. Everyone, I mean everyone, that raced bicycles, at the time, raced events that Otto Wenz promoted. Virtually the whole National and Olympic teams attended year after year. He did it right and gave the United States a very good foothold for growth.

Otto has been ill recently. He was in hospice and has son Michael was posting updates on Facebook. Late last night, Otto passed away.

We could use more Ottos, but there is and will only be one. I personally wish him peace and want to thank him for his selfless contributions to his friends and to the sport of cycling. He will be missed by many.

Otto in his racing days.

Otto and Eddy.

I was fortunate to win a few stages of Superweek over my lifetime. I’m in yellow. Gag (Roberto) is being interviewed by Eddy. Otto obscured on the left.

Otto, Trudi and Bromont at Cyclcross Nationals in Madison.

Steve Tilford

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Monthly Archives: January 2016

Windy

Otto Wenz