Drillium Dude 

...there's a story behind each one:



This particular number is the oldest one I have, from a race at the Scottsdale Airpark in 1983. My second or third race, open class, on my huge Raleigh Super Course 12.

I used to catch rides to the races with the Harrisons, Nell, Joella and their dad; Nell and Joella were both National Champions in their respective categories. Nell wore the Stars and Bars jersey in the races, but I can't find anything on her in the archives. Joella shows up finishing second to Lisa Andreu in the old Midget class at the 1981 Nationals in Bear Mountain, NY:

US National Road Champions 1972-1981

Anyway, a couple of times I missed my open races (I never held a USCF license) because dear old Mr. Harrison used to wait until the last possible second to clean his bike and ready it for the race. I recall one occasion watching him detail his bike with Q-tips in his driveway while my watch said my chances for making my race on time were ticking away. Oh, well. I made it to this particular race on time because I rode over myself. I remember three things about this particular race. One, the start; almost everyone left me because I was nervous and couldn't get my right foot in the toeclip. Second, a huge crash at the first corner, which I avoided because I was only just catching up to the pack when they hit the braking zone. Third, a dude actually raced a lap with us on a single-speed Schwinn paperboy bike! Seriously! Bermuda shorts, T-shirt - the works. He was just having fun

I did okay after my messed-up start and finished fourth. After the day's racing was done, I was invited over to some friends of Nell's in Scottsdale. We all did pizza at Peter Piper Pizza, then went to their place to swim in their pool for the rest of the afternoon.

I'm certain plenty of y'all have old numbers, be they from races or organized rides (I've got plenty more myself). Post a pic of your number and tell us your story!

DD

Wildwood 

My last.
Simple story of an old man being aided by others to have a great time.
edit: several others on this forum

Dfrost 

I raced for a couple of seasons in the early 70's in Colorado. Unfortunately no number bibs left from that long ago time, and any pictures are slides that haven't been digitized.

My teammates were mostly engineering workmates at Martin Marietta (pre-Lockheed merger) at the Titan rocket plant in the foothills SW of Denver. They included Jack Janelle with whom I shared an office and who had nearly qualified for the previous Olympics, but most of us were just learning about bike racing.

My memories are mostly about the fantastic camaraderie among everybody, including competitors. Team tactics were never mean-spirited, at least not at my Cat 4 level (there was no Category 5 back then). It was all about good, clean, exciting competition. My best finish was a close second on the Morgul Bismarck course that includes "The Wall" outside Boulder. This section was featured in the American Flyers with Kevin Costner. I was a pretty good climber back then, but had zero sprint capability. If the finish had been at the top of The Wall as in that movie I might have won my category, but it was another 8 rolling miles away. A good friend from Turin Bicycles in Denver beat me in the flat sprint finish by a few lengths.

There also fond memories of racing in multi-day stage races in Aspen (one day in the snow, next in sun) and Durango, where my closest competitor was Alexi Grewal's dad. He did much better than me in the TT stage and took the Category 4 win.

All great fun, but I decided I didn't want to devote the time require to compete at Cat 3 and higher levels. And I left that job at Martin Marietta soon after.