Back in the 80s and early 90s, I lived near Buffalo, NY. I had already love to ride, but had no idea about training or anything else.
I joined the Buffalo Bike Club and made some good progress as a rider, particularly with the help of John Roden, Larry Reade, and others.
This weekend I hosted a couple of riders from the Buffalo area who were in town for Superweek, Ryan Nye, a newly minted cat. 1 racer, and Janell Clare Bedard.
It was very cool to remember names from the past, especially Boyd Johnson, now making his living at least partially from bike racing. Boyd was a young pup of a high school student when he started riding with us. The boy could ride back then too.
Ryan and Janell are on their way to Pittsburgh right now.
Good to reminisce about the BBC, Handlebars Bike Shop, and Roden, who really gave me a start in learning how to train. He took his time to ride with me often, teach me how to train.
And now Roden apparently just focuses on 'cross! My respect for him just grows!
Interesting comments. I have been wondering when you started your biking "addiction", or rather when did you start to get interested in racing? I remember that when you were in Holland you used a bike to commute to classes and had an occasional encounter with a car, but you were not really into bicycles.
ReplyDeleteThat's true, but the beginnings were back in high school riding with Chris Sperry and Steve Fisher out on the Lowes Creek Road ride. I also remember riding quite a bit in college, but never had the money to get serious. And my first big purchase in Cleveland was a Cilo that was promptly stolen a few weeks later.
ReplyDeleteMy first "race" was in Cleveland, and I raced quite a bit in New York, taking some time off when I went to grad school, but the bug was well-fed by then.