Starting Line

Referee Skip Obermeyer prepares the USCF Midgets (looks like three of 'em) for the start of a race on a rainy day in April of 1978. (Or perhaps 1979.)

I joined KBC in September of 1973, and attended my first club meeting a few days later. That meeting was dominated by a proposal from T.J. (Jeff) Smith that the club join the Amateur Bicycle League of America (ABLA--later the United States Cycling Federation) and begin promoting races. The issue was not decided at that meeting, but in the spring of 1975 the club hosted an early-season racing series at Kalamazoo's Spring Valley Park. The series would continue for several years; for most of those years I was the race promoter. Our role on the Michigan USCF schedule was to provide early-season racing opportunities for the state's racers; our objective in Kalamazoo was, of course, to introduce the sport to the community. It was fun, and the riders seemed to enjoy the event, but staging four early-season races can be pretty hard on your volunteers.


My notes say the rider in the middle is a very young Frankie Andreu, who'd go on to bigger races as a member of Lance Armstrong's Posties. Spring Valley Park, Kalamazoo.

Camera: Minolta Zoom 110 SLR