Octoginta 1980: Peer Pressure And Progress

In the spring of 1980, a bunch of my buddies were making plans to do a bicycle tour from my home town of Manhattan, Kansas to Bay Lake Minnesota. The whole exercise of planning and preparation was quite intriguing. Not a cyclist, and only 19, I was feeling left out.

That summer I started making some real cash and invested in a Raleigh Super Grand Prix, with panniers, fenders and such. Owning the cool stuff was way more fun than trying to get in shape. However, over a few months I was beginning to venture a little further from home and the rides got longer.

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Every Day Is Event Day

While pinning on my event number for the Fletcher Flyer Century a couple of weeks ago, I swelled with pride, then suddenly felt very old, when realizing how many times I had done this in my lifetime. My very fuzzy math says that I have competed and/or participated in about 200 bike race days, 120 […]