This is the results of the 1978 Davis Double. I finished the first single bike for the first time that year. I went on to win in 1979, and 1981. Click for enlargement.
This was on the front page of the Sacramento Bee. That's me in the back about thirty miles outside Davis Ca in the lead group. I was 29 years old and in the best form of my life. I finished the 200 miles in second overall in 8 hours and 28 minutes. On the Tandem is Rob Templin and Pete Pensyres. Next is Calvin Trampleasure who was first that day.
I learned from bike racing that if you hang on long enough to the front then attrition will eventually shell the rest of the peloton down to the elite. Trying to go it alone off the front was a foolish move if you went too early. At the Davis Double we were given an hour and a half off the clock for a lunch break so that the race was really in two stages. The Davis Double Century was billed as a century ride but it was always a mass start with a timed finish. That made it a race and a lot of regional bike racers put it on their calendars. Leaving Davis Ca at the start there were about two hundred riders in the lead peloton. By the lunch stop and several thousand feet of climbing the peloton was whittled down to about twenty riders. 70 miles later, the lead group was just the four of us. Shortly after this photo was taken I succumbed to attrition and flatted. Calvin Trampleasure, a little while later rode the tandem off his wheel and finished first. After a few minutes changing tires I was back on my bike accompanied by the famous triathlete Dave Scott. We rode into Davis together. I had a few minutes on Dave coming into lunch so there was no need to sprint.
Attrition in the long races I learned was my friend. A lot of bike racing is conserving energy and using it only when you have to. No one ever said I wasn't a good wheelsucker although I did my fair share of the work when I could or had to.
Now that I am experiencing "middle age" I hope I can summon up some of that old affinity for staying ahead of that culling and live a long and productive life. I hope the cancer is behind me now thanks to modern scientific medicine.
I gotta go.
Ouch! I was an 18 year old who you guys dropped not long after Scott, then spent 30 or so miles riding with the triathlete, who jumped me around a piece of farm equipment with less than an hour to go. It hurts just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteWow, I was looking for photos of my brother and found my name in the 1978 results; I didn't even remember riding the Davis Double, but I guess that's 'middle age.' 13 hours and 23 minutes -- that's a long time to be on a bike.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
- Lee Trampleasure