My dream of making this Raleigh “A” Team has become a reality and I am feeling sick to my stomach with the pressure surrounding me and the team as we ride some prep races in Montreal a few days before the actual Tour de L’Est stage race starts.
I am trying not to flash back to the year before when I was just a long haired hippy riding into Quebec for the first time as part of my bicycle ride from San Diego. It is just a bit too much to believe and I am hoping that I am not recognized which is highly unlikely because now I am cleaned up with two haircuts, shaved legs, a new Cinelli and a Raleigh CRC of A jersey on a team that has the experience of 7 Olympic Games and 50 years between them.
We actually have a stronger team than the USA National Team that is entered, with guys like John Allis, John Howard, Dave Chauner, Jim Huetter and Stan Swaim, I am a bit overwhelmed and unknown.
But it does happen!
When the team is finally all together having dinner in Montreal, Jimmy Huetter from Buffalo, NY is starring at me from across the table and I am snickering to myself in total disbelief because this is the same guy I had approached before the start of Quebec-Montreal a year earlier with my oversized, filthy Raleigh Professional, pannier bags, hairy legs, and pony tail to ask him for a wrench to take off my Pletcher Rack so that maybe his support car could carry my bags to the finish.
I can tell he is on to me but he hasn’t quite figured it out yet. Then a big grin comes across his face and interrupts the whole table, which is actually quite normal for him, to say. “Hey, I know this guy!”
I am busted but have no idea what the impact will be on the rest of the team. He embellishes the story of the year before as only Jimmy can do, totally busting my balls while at the same time he is totally amazed that I am now his teammate on this legendary line up.
As the new guy, I am relieved that the truth is out and the team is enjoying the moment. Now I don’t have to explain anything, it is all done for me by one of the more colorful and respected characters on the team.
Just as the laughter begins to die down, Chauner, who really knew me best, and had heard bits a pieces of my story on some of our early spring training rides, Chimed in with, “And out of the West came ‘The Bike Guy.’”
Howie has not been feeling well for a few days and drops out of the race on stage one which puts us one man down and much less of a threat to the U S Team consisting of Butch Martin (rider/coach) Wayne Stetina, Mike Neel, Jim Ochowicz, and Steve Desmond.
I am sick to my stomach with stress but finish 45th but the very next day I am off the front alone chasing down a 2 man break that is 2 minutes up on the field. Going into large by Quebec standards, town of Drummondville a policeman points me in the wrong direction off the course and I then look up to see the two Canadians, Brian Keast and Gregg Simm riding towards me. Now what is wrong with this picture? All 3 of us have ridden off course while in front by 2 minutes and come out of town about 10 minutes off the back. We are pretty pissed off to say the least. Here I was over the jitters and doing hard work for my teammates chasing down the leaders and now I am fighting to finish the stage under the time limit. Officials realizing the mistake that was made let the 3 of us hang onto their cars while they tried to tow us up to the back of the field but we were too far back and just rode across the finish line together without sprinting to protest the situation. For that and hanging onto the back of race officials cars we were almost thrown out of the race altogether. It took several hours for this to all be sorted out and we were finally allowed to stay in the race but were given a time penalty of 2 minutes.
This was all figured out just in time for me and the two really pissed Canadians to line up for the second stage of the day a 40 mile hilly stage with gravel sections and an uphill sprint.
Such is life in stage racing outside the USA. In fact there is no stage racing beyond a 2 day race in the USA at the time. The emphasis over the last 15 years for US cycling has been on the Olympic Games years and sending a small team to the World’s Championships in between Olympics with no European stage race experience before hand.
Allis and Swaim had been racing these longer stage races in Canada for a few years now with John Howard and other CRC of A riders competing in this particular race the previous two years with good results. Tom Spains film documentary of the team competing in this event in 1970 is a classic portrayal of the difficulties inherent with this European stile of racing.
As a French Province, Quebec was as close to the European cycling culture as we could get without crossing the Atlantic. Cycling was front-page news here and as riders we were recognized everywhere we went here with sponsors, organizers and the press making us welcome with interviews, photographs and daily race coverage.
When traveling with John Howard, John Allis and Stan Swaim in Quebec people knew who we were when seated at restaurants and often times our bill was paid for by local supporters or a bottle of wine was sent to our table. This made a big impression on me to be considered a first rate international level athlete one year after my trip. This was something that did not happen just a few hours south in our home country.
Also, Raleigh of Canada, provided a staff to look after us by finding us hot showers and hotels and restaurants after each stage. We had a mechanic to clean and repair our bikes each night and to do wheel changes and hand ups during the day. This was as big as it gets for American riders and it helped me concentrate on riding hard as hell each day to help my teammates.
There were several pick-up teams from the northeast in the race that were paying their own way, and life for them both on and off the bike was not quite as professional and stress free as our situation.
Jimmy Fraser, a hard working Scottish rider from Connecticut had taken a weeks vacation from his job as a hardwood floor installer to ride this race for a smaller team and his car with all his clothing, parts and tools was stolen on day 3. Jimmy had his wife on the trip helping with team support but they never considered quitting the race. Jimmy was in the action everyday and finished in the top 10 on GC.
Racing against the same riders twice a day for 6 days as we went from town to town in the rugged countryside of eastern Quebec was an experience that brought us all closer together on a personal level while we all got tougher than nails while we reached a whole new level of fitness and appreciation for what the sport must be like in Europe.