Before Ciocc | ||||||||||||||||
I've been cycling since the "Bike Boom" of the early 1970s. When I was in high school, my friends and I would ride our department-store "10-speeds" on the back roads around Fayetteville, Arkansas. 20 miles was considered a "long ride" back then! My first good bike was a Gitane Tour de France (pictured at right). In the mid-1970s I rode my Gitane to classes at the University of Arkansas and on club rides with the Washington County Wheelmen. |
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In early 1977 I got "racing fever", helped organize the Arkansas Bicycle Club - Razorback Racing Team, and traded-in my Gitane for an all-Campy Nuovo Record equipped Raleigh Professional Mark IV (photo at left). I raced for one season as a USCF Cat IV and my best finish was 3rd place (Senior III-IV) in the 50-mile "Tour de Hogeye" road race in September, 1977. That same month I rode my Raleigh Pro in my first LAW century. Unfortunately, the Pro's frame was a little too big for me and proved very uncomfortable on long rides. | ||||||||||||||||
My next two frames were built by Austro-Daimler. Both were Reynolds 531 frames and I built them up using the Campy gruppo from my Raleigh Pro. My second AD frame was a Superleicht (photo at right). It was a fast yet comfortable bike that I rode in several centuries and my first double-metric century (October, 1983). I also raced my AD ("Citizen's Class") in several time trials and at least one road race (Hodges Gardens in June, 1985). | ||||||||||||||||
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