Monthly Archives: November 2016

New Bedford Classic/Whaling City

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I haven’t been spending very much time on the Internet and I rarely go to Facebook, but yesterday a couple guys posted stuff about Whaling City Criterium, from the past.  I did the race just a couple times, but was lucky enough to win it once.

It was a super race, big prize list and challenging course with a small hill.  Plus it was in a pretty great town, very interesting fishing village-type place.  I truly enjoyed going there.

The year I won was 1985.  That was the year I crashed into a car at the British Milk Race going super fast and had broken myself up pretty good.  But I got healed and I had just finished the Coor’s Classic.  I had been training pretty hard, at altitude, for the  World Road Championships in Italy.  It was on the way, sort of, so I flew from Denver to Boston, raced and then back to Boston to fly to Italy.

I only had two Raleigh teammates there, Greg Demgen and Paul Biskup.  As it turned out, that was enough.  The morning of the race, we woke up to rain.  Like really raining.  Paul, Greg and I went out and warmed up pretty hard.  We were taking the race pretty seriously.

The race started fast.  Early on, I got off the front with Alan McCormick.  I’d raced with Alan for years and knew exactly his capabilities.  Alan and I worked pretty good together.  About 1/2 way through the race, I was leading into a slight off-camber, shallow corner and next thing I know I’m sliding on my side into the curb.  I got up and rode to the pit to take a free lap.

Alan came around fairly soon and I got back in.  We had a set pulling routine, but when we got over to where I fell, I pulled over and asked Alan if he’d pull through the corner.  I was a little skittish.

We lapped nearly the whole field.  At the end, we were in a small group of guys.  I think Alan had a teammate in the group.  The race finished up the hill, then a right corner and a short way to the finish.  Obviously the first guy through the last corner was going to win.

I was pretty confident that I was going to be able to jump Alan up the hill and do just that.  But just a second or 2 before I was going to jump, Alan attacked me from behind.  It was pretty early.

I jumped and was surprised how quick Alan was going,  I was hardly gaining on him.  Just 50 meters before the corner, Alan lost momentum and I came around him just in time to lead through the corner and, thus, win the race.  Greg finished 3rd, so we had two riders on the podium.

Back then, it was good prize money at all these races.  I’m sure we made over a grand each, all three of us. There was also super post-race parties.  I was still focused on the Worlds, so took that night pretty cautiously.  I hung for a while and then walked down to the pier and watched all the fishing boats return.

It was pretty late, well after midnight, and the dock was busy.  It was amazing the different fish that they were unloading off their boats.  I stayed down there at least an hour watching.

I had a rental car and then headed to the Boston airport.  I had a flight to London, then London to Venice.  When I got to the airport, at the ticket counter, it said that stand-by tickets were $100.  My ticket was something closer to $400.  Those were the days that you could get your money back for plane tickets.  When I got up to the counter, I asked the woman if there were stand-by seats available and she said there were tons of open seats and she could give me a seat assignment.  I said sure, so pocketed another $300.  I felt rich.

Anyway, thanks to Mark McCormick for posting the newspaper article.  It great to see his and his brother, Frank, names in the junior results.  I have some more photos that I’ll try to dig out later.

 

Here is the New Bedford paper's article.

Here is the New Bedford paper’s article.

The next year, I felt good and tried my best to stay on Gag, but that didn't work out so well.

A couple years later,, I felt good and tried my best to stay on Gag, but that didn’t work out so well.  He won road races.  I was riding with Alan then, on the Schwinn team, so Alan finally won the event too.  Wayne Stetina, Mr. Shimano, was 3rd.

I obviously wasn't the only rider that fell that day.

I obviously wasn’t the only rider that fell that day.

Greg Demgen at the pre-race parade.

Greg Demgen at the pre-race parade.

At the road world in Italy. Roy Knickman, me, Thurlow Rogers and Greg Saunders.

At the road Worlds in Italy. Roy Knickman, me, Thurlow Rogers and Greg Saunders.

5 Weeks Out/In

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

Today it has been exactly 5 weeks since I crashed and fractured my skull.  It is hard for me to get a handle on that time frame. Since I don’t really have any agenda, sometimes the days drag like crazy, other times it is slow, but not crazy slow.   It is really day by day.  The days are going alright recently.  I can’t say that I could live like this continually, but compared to just a little over a week ago, I am doing amazingly well.

For sure, I have some issues.  I’m going to KU Med on Monday and spending most of the day there.  I’m doing a MRI on my neck, which isn’t so good, and then spending the rest of the time with the neurologist.  I think she’ll be happy with my progression since I last saw her, but I’m in pretty unfamiliar territory here, so what do I know.

I’ve been walking some outside, and riding the training once or twice a day.  It is hard getting on the trainer when I have a splitting headache, but I know that once I start riding, it gets a ton better.  I’ve up my heart rate to anything below 110.  I kind of did that on my own.  That is enough to sweat, but not really get a workout.  I think I’m riding around 200 watts, which isn’t embarrassingly pitiful considering.

I think most of the reason I’m doing better is that I’m sleeping more.  Last night was another record, over 6 hours.  The thing that always wakes me up is a headache.  It is getting better continually, but I’d love to get in another hour or two.  I think my brain would really appreciate it.

I still have close to 1000 emails I haven’t read yet.  I plan to allocate some time to those soon. The problem with that is when I feel good enough to do that, I’d rather be doing something else.  Life, I guess.

It has been super weather here in Kansas.  That changed last night.  It was in the upper 70’s yesterday, but a cold front blew in last night and it is in the lower 40’s now, which isn’t super cold for November.  One of the highlights of my day is going to the back yard and sitting in the sun with Tucker.  And a cat, which is always up for that.   It’s going to be back in the 60’s early next week, so I can’t really complain.  It has been a warm fall so far.

I’m hoping that on Monday, when seeing the doctor, she’s okay me to do some other exercises. This is close to the longest period of my life I’d been so sedentary.  Even when I’ve been real broken up, I’ve figured out a way to stay relatively fit or in shape.  This one is different.  The risk/reward factor is much higher.   So, it is just spinning inside.

I feel I need to thank everyone again for being so encouraging.  And for all the stuff.  Seems like I’m getting a package nearly everyday.  I’m doing alright.  It could have been a lot, lot, worse.

It is definitely turning fall here in Kansas. A little late really.

It is definitely turning fall here in Kansas. A little late really.

I was looking for pictures yesterday and found these. This is me and Andy (Hampsten) at the Coor's Classic. Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond are behind/between us.

I was looking for pictures yesterday and found these. This is me and Andy (Hampsten) at the Coor’s Classic. Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond are behind/between us.  Andy looks better than the rest of us here.

Here I am at the start of a race in Texas with Eric Heiden. Check out his arms. They still look pretty much like that.

Here I am at the start of a race in Texas with Eric Heiden. Check out his arms. They still look pretty much like that.

This photo was from the Coor's race in 1985, after I'd hit the car in England and had only ridden a couple weeks before the race. I'd made it three days and then completely fell apart. The race doctor wanted to take me to the hospital, but I wouldn't leave my hotel room for some reason. I ended up doing IV's all night, no sleep, then raced Tahoe to Reno and finished fine. One of the two times in my life I've done IV's at a race. Both times I was in dire need.

This photo was from the Coor’s race in 1985, after I’d hit the car in England and had only ridden a couple weeks before the race. I’d made it three days and then completely fell apart. The race doctor wanted to take me to the hospital, but I wouldn’t leave my hotel room for some reason. I ended up doing IV’s all night, no sleep, then raced Tahoe to Reno and finished fine. One of the two times in my life I’ve done IV’s at a race. The other time was in Guatemala.   Both times I was in a dire situation. .This is the closest I got to Thomas Dekker’s saga.    And the last time I did an IV, other than 5 weeks ago at the Intensive Care WIng of Stormont Vail.  This photo was at the Harrahs hotel in Reno.