Orginally posted at calvin.trampleasure.net on July 26, 2020

This story is dedicated to Peter Rich, Velo Club Berkeley Founder and 1971 Tour of California promoter.

The Berkeley Bicycle Club (BBC) was formed in 1979. The Berkeley Wheelmen and Velo Club Berkeley joined forces to create a strong racing club. That same year, a nine-day bicycle stage race the Perrier Classic was held June 26-July 4. Stages of the race were scattered around the San Francisco Bay Area and the Monterey Bay Area. This is a story of Berkeley Bicycle Club’s participation in Northern California races during March-June and in “the longest bicycle race in America” the Perrier Classic. Of 120 entrants in the Perrier race, BBC fielded two teams of five riders each. There was not a women’s Perrier race, so BBC national class riders Heidi Hopkins, Cindy Olivarri, Francesca Saveri and other BBC women found other races in which to compete.

World and National Events of 1978-79

“May you live in interesting times” fits any era. The final years of the 1970s were no exception. They were also years of fun, love, and adventure – especially if your main purpose in life was seeing how fast you could pedal a 12-speed bike down the road. In a world full of upheaval and uncertainty, a focus on athletic challenges always made sense. Yes, 1978-79 were interesting years in so many ways!

The first rap hit, Rapper’s Delight, by the Sugar Hill Gang filled the airwaves in 1979. On June 14, Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Salt II agreement to limit nuclear armament spending for both counties. Margaret Thatcher became British prime minister on May 3 and Elvis Costello’s Oliver’s Army topped the charts in England. Saturday Night Fever was a global phenomenon and its soundtrack was everywhere. Political upheaval continued in Afghanistan, Cambodia, El Salvador, Ireland, Portugal, and elsewhere. The USA federal debt climbed to $829.5 billion (it was $22.7 trillion in 2019). A first class stamp cost 15 cents and a pay-phone call cost a dime.

1978 Giro de San Francisco Criterium winner Laurence Malone flanked by the men who made it happen: (l-r) ’77 Columbus Day Chairman Tony Alioto, Supervisor Dolson, Mayor George Moscone, George Pagni, Lloyd Stafani, and Supervisor John Malignani.

After racing down Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world) twenty times in the 1978 Giro de San Francisco, Mayor Moscone gave bike race winners envelopes with cash prizes. First place was $310. I finished third and shook hands with the mayor as he handed me a $210 cash prize. Two months later, on 27 November, the Mayor and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot dead at the S.F. City Hall. That same month, 909 people died from drinking poisoned Kool-Aid at Jonestown, Guyana; many of the deceased People’s Temple cult members were East Bay residents. However, not all news in the closing months of 1978 was so heart-breaking.

The Blues Brothers kept us smiling on Saturday Night Live. Marion Barry, Jr. was elected as Washington, D.C’s first Black mayor. President Carter more than doubled the size of the national park system in December 1978. Also in December, Dianne Feinstein was named S.F.’s first woman and first Jewish mayor, and the first Women’s Pro Basketball League (WBL) game was played. On 26 December, Spain became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship as King Carlos ratified the constitution.

Malvina Reynolds, folk musician famous for her Little Boxes song, died in Berkeley in 1978. BBC cyclists certainly were not the “little boxes” type. We enjoyed outdoor adventures of outliers exploring the open horizons of life in a relatively unknown sport in the USA.

All this happened as Berkeley Wheelmen and Velo Club Berkeley members were voting to form the Berkeley Bicycle Club at the end of 1978.

Mark Pringle at Pacific Grove 1978. Photo from 1979 Perrier program.

In January 1979, BBC was established. Zachary Cohen was elected club president, and monthly meetings were held in his beautiful Yosemite Avenue home, or at Velo Sport bike store on the newly renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. On January 14, President Carter proposed that MLK, Jr’s birthday be a national holiday.

Cyclists had the 1979 movie Breaking Away, a coming-of-age story set in Indiana. It was a box office smash…and a central character was a bicycle racer! In one scene, a teenage-cyclist on a Masi drafts a semi-truck at 50 mph on the highway (pedaling in his small chain ring) but most of the bike race scenes were accurate and well-filmed. The movie resonated deeply with bicycle racers. As Mark Pringle, a US National Team member, who lived in the upstairs quarters at Velo Sport said, “We lived to break away!”

LeMond leads Muzzy (on right), Bob Meeker, Rory O’Reily, and Trampleasure. Tour of Santa Inez, 1978

On June 12, the first human-powered aircraft flew across the English Channel. Brian Allen piloted the Gossamer Albatross from England to France, pedaling into the history books. BBC members were flying as well, in many races throughout California. Big chain rings and small cogs were bringing big results for the newly-formed racing team in Berkeley.

Chilcott, Trampleasure, Muzzy at Cat’s Hill, 1978

The BBC, 1979 Early Season Races and a Kid Named Greg

Success came early for BBC riders that first year. After training 300-400 miles each week, January through March, many BBC riders were race fit. Weekday rides left Velo Sport at 9 AM. Weekend rides, if there was no race, left Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley with 25-40 riders. These training rides included the 90-mile Morgan Territory ride east of Mt. Diablo, the 60-mile Crockett-Martinez loop, the 90-mile loop Palomares Canyon through Sunol, or “around the world” though El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Orinda, Moraga, up the Pinehurst climb and back down Tunnel Road to Berkeley.

Gavin Chilcott’s professional card 1984.

On January 1, prior to all the early season training miles, 17-year-old BBC junior Gavin Chilcott won the Mt. San Bruno Hill Climb. The race was 4.2 miles with 1300 feet elevation gain. Junior racers received a one-minute handicap, but Chilcott was untouchable. Even course record-holder Joe Ryan couldn’t catch the flying youngster. Years later, Gavin would go on to complete a PhD in Biology in Seattle, and then start a European Professional team, BMC. As a junior he would entertain us with memorized passages of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. So, like Arthur Dent in the book, we always carried a towel and never panicked.

In 1972, the Northern California Cycling Association (NCCA) created the annual Prestige Road Trophy (PRT). Points were earned in Senior category road races and the trophy awarded to the rider with the most points in October. The PRT perpetual trophy was a 3’x2’x6” section of “road” with yellow stripes down the middle. Made from metal and redwood by frame builder Albert Eisentraut, it was a unique and coveted award for Northern California bicycle racers.

In the first PRT race of 1979 near Sacramento, Olympian Leonard Nitz won. BBC members finished in second, third and fourth places (Calvin Trampleasure, Bob Muzzy, and Robert Ford). A 16-year-old kid named LeMond finished sixth. The second PRT race was Pinkie’s road race, near Half Moon Bay. George Mount (who left for his European pro team that week) won. BBC took second, third and fourth places (Ford, Muzzy and Dan Dole).

Dole leads LeMond in field at Nevada City Criterium 1979

The next PRT race was on the Laguna Seca car race course. That pesky 16-year old kid showed up again, and the junior racer beat all the category 1 and 2 senior racers that day. As the next decade would show, Greg LeMond was a cycling GOD; the rest of us just mere mortals. A BBC rider placed third (Trampleasure). A few weeks later, in the PRT Tour of San Joaquin, a BBC rider placed third (Trampleasure), with the help of BBC teamwork. Muzzy, Dan Dole, Tozer and the rest were polishing blocking skills and other team tactics. Learning to help each other out, we became a real team.

“You guys ride so fast,” the young Greg would tell us, with a big smile on his face. He was having fun going fast. When he beat us, it would be followed by big smiles and cheerful words. Greg the won the Folsom Criterium with Bob Muzzy finishing second, just ahead of national team junior star Greg Demgen.

Muzzy leads (l-r) Greg LeMond, Bob LeMond, Malone, Robertson, Nitz, Tozer at the 1978 SF Criterium, Fort Mason.

At the Marin road race in May, it was a Jacques Boyer win, Muzzy finished in eighth place. A week later, in the Berkeley Hills Road Race, Boyer won again and BBC riders placed third and fifth (Trampleasure and Muzzy).

At Crockett-Martinez road race, it was BBC second-fifth places (Tozer, Trampleasure, Dole and Muzzy). According to legend, it wasn’t 1981’s El Nino that washed out the “snake road” connecting Crockett with Martinez, rather it was attacks from the likes of Tom Richey, Bob Roll, LeMond, Boyer, Mount, Pringle, and others who raced that road in the 1970s and BBC riders who trained there regularly. The road could only take so much sheer force! Finally, the road gave way! 1980 was the final year of the Crockett-Martinez road race.

In June, with the PRT Perrier Classic looming large, BBC led the team standings for the PRT with 236 points. Trampleasure led the individual standings, Muzzy was fourth, Tozer fifth, Ford sixth, Dole ninth and Tom Simonson was twentieth place. The young 16-year-old Greg, was in seventh place. Fortunately, “that kid” decided to race more national and international events, leaving the mere mortals to fight it out among themselves. On occasion, he would show up at a Northern California race, and tear us all apart. Still we were happy and honored to suffer on the wheel of a wonderful, passionate person, a future three-time winner of the Tour de France and World Champion. Greg had “joie de vie” from the start.

European pro Jacques Boyer finished second in the PRT standings. In 1978, he’d caught a virus in racing in South America. Now he was testing his racing legs in the relatively shallow racing waters near his home of Monterey. He had been laid low for more than a year by the bug, but seemed to be regaining his form, training very long miles and competing locally. The Perrier would be his last “local race” before racing the Red Zinger Classic in Colorado and returning to the life of a pro on the continent. In 1980, he finished fifth in the Pro World Road Championships in Spain. In 1981, he rode with Bernard Hinault’s team in the Tour de France.

The Perrier Nine-Day Classic

Perrier Classic program cover; Boyer leads Watkins 1979

European countries have had multiple week stage races for bicycle racers since the Tour de France started in 1903. But it was not until 1971 that this style of day-after-day racing arrived in the USA with Peter Rich’s Tour of California. In Colorado, from 1974-1979 the Red Zinger Classic stage race was sponsored by Celestial Seasonings tea company and promoted by Michael Aisner. A Tour of the Sierras was held in 1974. These races attracted international fields of riders, and gave future Olympic gold medal winners and future Tour de France stage winners experience in stage racing.

Robert Liebold of Santa Cruz was inspired to create his version of stage racing in Northern California by the Red Zinger Classic in Colorado and The Tour of Britain (known as the Milk Race). In 1976, Liebold’s first La Conteinda de la Colinas (the contest of the hills) was held and it was run successfully for another two years. In 1979, Liebold landed a large sponsor – Perrier, and the race became The Perrier Classic, a stage race of 10 stages in 9 days.

Red Zinger is an herbal tea and the Milk Race promoted drinking milk. Liebold found Perrier, a beverage company, to sponsor his race!

Promoters Liebold and Norm Gall of Santa Cruz had pulled off a real gem in securing Perrier although the race hit a few unexpected turns that literally threw the race off course. The inauspicious beginning was on the Grand Highway Road Race next to SF’s Pacific Ocean Beach. Stage One had 17 racers with punctured tires in the first half-lap of the 25 lap, 100-mile race. Plus, so much sand had blown from the beach onto the highway that it became unsafe to ride on. Riders stopped to “strike” and the promoters quickly shortened the race to short prologue – an individual time trial. The shorter and safer event dramatically reduced the miles raced that day.

A colorful cast of characters filled the list of starters for the Perrier Classic. The racers came from the USA East Coast, British Columbia, and all parts of California. Pennsylvania road race champ, Mac Martin, won the first prologue stage in 7:40, beating Jacques Boyer by one second. BBC rider Hal Tozer finished sixth place, his place in the final standings as well.

Lindsay Crawford was the second oldest competitor in the Perrier Classic. At 38 years old, he was a veritable old man. Only Bob LeMond (Greg’s dad) at 39 years old, topped Lindsay’s age. None of the 20-22 year-olds racing could even imagine being so old! Lindsay was a class act, with an immaculately clean 12-speed machine, and sharp looking racing clothes and shoes. He was someone many of us youngsters emulated. Lindsay had a smooth riding style reminiscent of the best in the pro ranks. While riding his wheel you felt safe. Plus, he was a full six-feet-tall so he provided a great draft. Lindsay had won the NCCA Road Championship in 1974.

“He drove a Pantera, and was a pilot for United who flew 747 planes,” Mark Pringle said. “I held him in high esteem for those things in life he achieved…wife, kids, house in the hills.”

Off the bike, Lindsay was a kind and easy-going soul, who could talk “bikes” with the best of them. His stories were born from experience, and his first-year racing was 1970. In 1971, Lindsay won the Patterson Pass road race. First place prize was a Sears 13” black and white TV (a big prize for those days). He also raced the Tour of California that year. Racing on Velo-Club Berkeley with Mike Neel and David Brink, he finished a very respectable 42nd place, behind Mexican Champion Alcatara. In 1979, he finished the Perrier in 55th place, behind Boyer.

Although not a BBC member, Lindsay would show up for some BBC Sproul Plaza training rides.

The Berkeley Bicycle Club (BBC), entered two teams in the Perrier Classic. So, ten BBC riders raced the first prologue in San Francisco. Eight of them would complete the race. Our team managers were Casey Kerrigan and Jim “Streak” McKinstry. These two would take care of food shopping, cleaning and filling water bottles, feeding BBC riders in race feed zones, filling tires before races and other odds and ends. They were the unsung heroes of the team effort!

Three of California’s best—(l-r) Hal Tozer, Kevin Lutz, & Alex Osborne—pound the turf at the Watsonville Criterium.

The Berkeley/Farats Painting B Team included Alex Osborne-age 21, Dan Cvar-age 20, Roger Scowcroft-age 26, George Olson-age 26 and Dennis Shea-age 22,. Nicola Farats-Ban (BBC member) owned a painting company in San Francisco, and our BBC wool shorts were flocked with the name of his company, as were the side panels of our jerseys.

The Berkeley/Farats Painting A Team included Bob Muzzy age-27, Tom Simonson age-28, Dan Dole age-30, Hal Tozer age-25 and myself, Calvin Trampleasure age-21.

My birthday is June 25. While some people might celebrate a 21st birthday with a big party, a parachute jump, or a trip to an exotic place, I spent the day with my feet up, and maybe a short 15-mile easy ride. On Sunday, I won the Northern California/Nevada road race championships, a 100-plus mile event. On Tuesday, the Perrier Classic would start with a 100 mile road race. The best birthday gift was rest, with no more than a greenish bottle of mineral water in sight!

Riders cresting the hill at Cats Hill, 1979. Tom Simonson is #73

Stage Two was the Coast Team Time Trial, a forty-five mile, five-rider effort from Half Moon Bay to the city limits of Santa Cruz. The BBC team flew along Highway One, with Tozer and Dole turning the big gears with graceful power, aided by a steady tail wind. Muzzy, Simonson and I did our best to keep it going when it was our turn at the front of the pace line. While the time for the third rider crossing the finish-line counted for the team time, Dole pushed Simonson up a few grades to keep him in the group. This was not something required, but BBC wanted to finish as a team. BBC finished second, in a time of 1:31:42, at nearly 30 mph average speed. The Chinook-Grab-On Team finished in 1:30:53. The speed of pro Jacques Boyer, USA National Team member Mark Pringle, and big motor Bill Watkins was unbeatable that day. The Grab-On team did not cross the finish line with all five riders.

As the BBC team settled into Dan Dole’s mother’s house in the Santa Cruz hills, we felt good with our results, and that we all finished as a team. Mrs. Dole had a hot tub at her place, but it was unlikely any of us used it – there was a 70’s belief that hot baths were not good for racing muscles.

The third stage was the infamous ALBA Road time trial. In just 3.75 miles, racers climbed 2,035 feet in elevation. Each rider started off a minute apart and raced the time trial alone, in their own private pocket of pain! Pringle won in a time of 21:48. Boyer finished just 4 seconds down. Boyer led the race on general classification, 25 seconds ahead of Pringle. These two would battle it out each stage for the remainder of the 9 days of racing.

At the fourth stage, Fort Ord Road Race, BBC was in second place on team standings, just 7:11 behind the Boyer/Pringle Chinook Grab-On team. The times of the top three riders from each stage were added together for a cumulative team time.

Mark Pringle was a fun-loving and jovial person, on a bike he was a driven and talented champion with a twinkle in his eye. Pringle was master of the 10-mile joke. On training rides he would regale us with the shaggy dog version of a joke that might end with a punch line like “I left my harp in Sam Clam’s Disco.” Pringle lived upstairs in Velo Sport, rent-free, for a couple years in the late 1970s. So, on 9AM training rides in the early season, BBC riders benefited from his hammering style of training and his comic side! He showed us how to train hard and enjoy the ride. Fun was his middle name! But make no mistake, “Pringilini” could mix it up with the best of them in international competition. He finished tenth place in the 1977 Amateur Road Championships in San Cristobel, Venezuela, just missing a fifth place result as he sprinted for a sign 25 meters before the finish line.

Pringilini, had competed with George Mount and the USA national team in Europe the previous year. That team, coached by Mike Neel, amazed Europeans by getting top results and a few wins.

On occasion, hammering down the road at 25 mph in a 90-mile training session after a Morgan Territory climb, Pringle would glance over at me with a big smile and say, “Haystack, you ever gonna get good, you gotta go harder than that!” I learned how to suffer and go faster and enjoy the ride too. Without Mark Pringle as a regular training buddy, it would have taken me much longer to find my top form and confidence.

For the remainder of the 1979 Perrier Classic, it was a two-way contest for the overall win between fun-loving Pringle and the oh-so-serious Boyer.

Boyer’s personality was distant and mysterious. Even Pringle, his Grab-On teammate, said he never got to know him well. Boyer would head back to his Monterey home for the night after most stages, not staying with the team in a hotel. If the team had dinner together, Boyer, a vegetarian, would get ribbed by his teammate Dave Watkins, the short Canadian sprinter, about how he was going to “eat some cow” for his dinner. Still, Boyer won the Perrier on veggies!

Boyer and Pringle shared a champion’s drive, a training ethic made of steel, and a love of riding fast and winning races. Boyer had hundreds more European races under his belt than Pringle, but their passion for the bike was evenly matched.

The fourth Perrier stage was inside the Fort Ord military base. The 98-mile race over seven laps included two major climbs. Total climbing was 8,000 vertical feet. Strong winds off the Monterey Bay often buffeted the cyclists. Groups of more than six racers were uncommon, so small group sprints often decided the top 10 places. This year’s race was no exception.

The peloton of nearly 120 riders was in shambles mid-way though the race. At the finish, Boyer edged out Pringle for first place. Bill Watkins, Grab-On’s big Army man, finished third with a tired, former two-time Junior National Champion (1975-76) Larry Shields finishing on Watkin’s wheel for fourth place. All four riders were given the time of 3:56:37, about 25 mph for the grueling course.

Trampleasure winning Berkeley Criterium 1979 (a few weeks after the Perrier).

The next group of three riders had the Northern California district road champ Trampleasure in fifth place, the Pennsylvania district road champ Mac Martin in sixth, and Washington State road champ (and future 1981 national road champ) Tom Broznowski in seventh place. This group finished in 3:57:41, a minute behind the first group.

The third group of just two riders crossed the finish line in 3:59:27. The fourth bunch, included BBC rider Dan Dole in eleventh place in 4:00:46. BBC’s next finishers were Tozer in fourteenth and Muzzy in fifteenth place. So BBC had four riders finish in the top 15, and it retained its second place in team standings behind Chinook Grab-On and ahead of the team from British Columbia.

This fifth place was to be my highest place in any stage. I moved into fourth place overall, behind Boyer, Pringle, and Big Bill Watkins. Consistency through the race paid off, as I ended up still in fourth place after the final stage in San Francisco. Luck played a role too – I’d had no flat tires and no crashes for the entire nine days. My confidence, after six years of racing, was growing along with self-knowledge and bike smarts. As the youngest rider on the BBC team, the team support and wise words from older teammates were essential too.

Stage Five was on the University of California at Santa Cruz campus. The UCSC road race had 3-mile laps, with maybe 20-feet of level road each lap. Riders climbed past the finish line, got to the top of the course, then descended downhill at 40 plus mph to the right turn at the bottom. The race started at 8:30 am. After 25 laps and 75 miles of this challenging course, there would be a short rest before the 6:30 pm Garden Mall Criterium in downtown Santa Cruz. Two stages in one day was sure to make this one of the toughest days of the tour!

Heidi Hopkins finishing the 1978 Nevada City Classic

Pringle got the better of Boyer that morning stage. He took seven seconds out of Boyer at the finish, with a winning time of 3:08:03. BBC rode strong to preserve their team standing second place. Tenth place was Trampleasure, eleventh place was Tozer, and Muzzy finished in fourteenth place. Boyer lead Pringle by just eight seconds overall on general classification.

That evening, after a short seven hours of rest the Perrier racers lined up for the Garden Mall Criterium in Santa Cruz at 6:30 pm.

Laurence Malone of Santa Cruz, a 4-time U.S. National Cyclo-cross Champion, had been disqualified from the Perrier Classic for sitting out four laps of the UCSC race that morning. Still he jumped into the criterium anyway as the starting gun sounded. Malone had won the 1975 La Contienda stage race, but wasn’t acting like a champion this year.

The course was just 0.66 mile long with four corners per lap. Lots of close riding, and elbow-to-elbow contact had many riders on edge. Add to that the fatigue of the 75-mile UCSC stage that morning and many riders felt at the end of their physical and mental ropes. With just two laps to go Malone and Pringle got into some elbow-to-elbow physical pushing at full speed, Pringle went down and had the road rash to prove it. Malone stayed upright, finishing the stage despite his DQ by race officials. Tensions were mounting and competitive natures were near the boiling point.

Greg LeMond after 1979 Nevada City Classic

It is tough to relax enough to sleep well, after a day with two intense races. Stage racing is about discovering energy you didn’t know you had, but with little sleep that energy becomes tough to find. The reserves needed for the day-after-day efforts are sometimes buried deep. At the quiet BBC headquarters in the Santa Cruz hills, the team must have slept well.

On Sunday July 1, stage 7 was the San Jose TNT Criterium. Start time was 3pm, so there was a bit more time to rest. Many riders prefer early morning start times, not late afternoon times like 3pm, as there isn’t much wind-down time after the stage. The TNT stage name forecasted an explosive stage with blood on the ground.

As the riders lined up for the start in downtown San Jose, the TNT stage got a surprising start. The NCCA Newsletter later reported the incident this way: “Malone clobbered Pringle before the start sending him to the hospital with a broken beak and Laurence landing in the hoosegow (jail). He will be charged by the D.A.”

Tom Simonson recalls standing with me right behind Pringle at the start of the stage and seeing the punch to the nose. “There was blood everywhere,” Simonson said. I was floored to witness this happen to Pringle, my mentor and funny-guy training bud down on the ground. Malone was known for having a Jack Kerouac, free-wheeling style but this was unexpected. Joan Earnest, a Perrier official, yelled, “Police, police! We need the police!”

I was happy just to finish in the main pack after the unsettling event. Pringle was given the pack time for the stage, even though he was in the hospital having his nose examined and didn’t ride the race. John Hill won the stage in 1:28:26, winning a three-up sprint. Boyer was third, and gained 26 seconds on his teammate Pringle. Most of us were just looking forward to seeing Pringlini on the start line the next day! He was one of the most beloved riders in the race.

Trampleasure and Muzzy top of Hamilton Perrier 1979

Stage eight started in San Jose the next day at 2:30 pm. It was the classic Mt. Hamilton road race, a race first run in 1959. The first 19 miles of the 74 miles to Livermore was a long climb that rose 4,000 feet to the top of Mt. Hamilton. Riders would speed past Lick Observatory at the top of the climb and then head down a major descent. However, that was not to be this year! Road construction on the back-side of the mountain prevented the descent from being safe, so the finish line was moved from Livermore to the top of the mountain.

Pringle showed up to the start line of Mt. Hamilton with a puffy and purple nose. Feeling a little shaken, no doubt, from the TNT of the day before, he was the second rider to the top of Hamilton. Boyer won with a time of 1:05:11, and Pringle was just 50 seconds behind. BBC’s top rider was Tozer in third place, with a time of 1:06:47. Muzzy and Trampleasure got to the top in 1:07:56 in a large group that filled out the top 20 riders.

Pringlini’s champion engine was still full of gas that day, and after getting knocked to the ground the day before, he was a winged man who could still put the crunch to the best of them. My money would have been on Pringlini finishing a few seconds ahead of Boyer on the Hamilton stage, had his breathing not been impaired by a congested nasal passage.

The final two stages were criteriums in Oakland and San Francisco. BBC members provided course marshals for the Oakland stage. The hope was to draw large crowds in downtown areas, and to expose a minor sport to more people. The Oakland Criterium was next to Lake Merritt, near the Kaiser Center. It was 40 miles with a hill each .8 mile lap. The race was won by Canadian Dave Watkins. His teammate Pringle said, “Dave would hang on by the skin of his teeth, and at the end unload a sprint.” Watkins also would be the winner of the Kinko Sprint Point award at the end of the race in SF the next day. He had 74 points, 30 more than second place Jerry Meyers.

Overall Perrier winner, Jacques Boyer, at full criterium speed; Butterfly Criterium April 1979

The final criterium in San Francisco was on July fourth. The half-mile course finish-line was right in front of the City Hall, and the four streets raced on were wide and smooth. The first 25 miles was a regular race, but on lap 26 a “miss and out” began. The last rider each lap was pulled from the race, and the final two riders left sprinted it out for the finish line. Tom Broznowski of Seattle won the stage, beating Nevada City rider Jim Rogers. Dan Dole was the top BBC finisher in seventh place. Dan still had some kick in his legs after 9 days of racing!

BBC riders wore “resist the draft” cloth patches on their racing jerseys that day. With a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan stirring world-wide protests, there was talk of re-instituting the draft for the United States Army. Maybe it was a bit ironic that all most of us wanted to do that final stage was find the best “draft” behind a bike, but we wanted nothing to do with the military draft.

The King of the Mountain award went to Mark Pringle with 7 points more than Boyer. Grab-On Chinook won the team trophy, with Berkeley Bicycle Club/Farats Blue team finishing second ahead of the team from British Columbia.

The Perrier Classic had 180 points for the PRT trophy. (The Berkeley Hills road race had 80 points.) Boyer collected 40 PRT points for his win. Pringle finished second just 3:34 down on Boyer, with Watkins in third. Trampleasure was fourth and Tozer was fifth, both BBC riders earned big points for the PRT, 20 and 14, respectively.

Entries for the five rider teams had been $75. The overall prize list was $10,000, and Robert Liebold hoped to promote an even larger event in 1980. However, Velo Promo lost money promoting the 1979 tour. The logistics and budget for large stage races are enormous, and the next year event never happened. The Amgen Tour of California in 2005 was the next large stage race in California.

The 82 finishers of the 1979 Perrier Classic knew they had completed a tough and historic event. One of the most satisfying and fatiguing experiences in bicycle racing is completing a long stage race. Eight of the ten BBC riders who started the nine-day event crossed the finish line in front of the S.F City Hall on July 4. Each rider had completed a heroic effort and left with many memories, if not race prizes.

In the final 1979 PRT standings, BBC had four of the top seven riders, Trampleasure won with 106 points, Muzzy was fourth, Tozer fifth, Dole seventh, Don Phelps eleventh, Jeff Stevenson seventeenth, and Tom Simonson was twenty-eight place.

The Berkeley Bicycle Club promoted the Berkeley Criterium, the Berkeley Hills Road Race, and the Tilden Park Cyclo-cross that first year. BBC is now 41 years old, and this story will add some history to the BBC blog. If you made it through this entire story, you either must have been racing back then, or you crave stories of BBC in the days of steel bikes.

The late 1970s racing in Northern California provided a springboard for many racers to be successful in Europe and set the stage for big results from US riders abroad. BBC was a huge part of those extremely interesting times.

A special thanks to Tom Petrie, an original BBC member in 1979. Once a classic Cat 3 rider! Currently an excellent editor!

BBC members, 1979

I think I got all of us; if I missed you, please leave a comment so I can add you.

Lori Basso
Caedmon Bear
Ed Bense
Noel Canfield
Gavin Chilcott
Dan Cvar
Zachary Cohn (first club president)
Dan Dole
Tom Downing
Nick Farats Ban
Darren Hodies
Ron Hodges
Heidi Hopkins
Casey Kerrigan
John Leyhe
Jim McKinstry
Bob Muzzy
Cindy Olavarri
George Olson
Alex Osborne
Tom Petrie
Don Phelps
Peter Rich
Francesca Saveri
Steve Schultz
Roger Scowroft
Dennis Shea
Tom Simonson
Hal Tozer
Calvin Trampleasure

BBC history points for matching the nicknames to the birth names. Add your guesses/knowledge in the comments.

Baby Bionic Woman
Bear
Benzeneee
Bird Legs
Big O
Frittata
Haystack
Hodage
Simonize
Streak
Teenze
The Barb
The Muz

The Birth of the Berkeley Bicycle Club and the 1979 Perrier Classic

World and National Events of 1978-79

The BBC, 1979 Early Season Races and a Kid Named Greg

The Perrier Nine-Day Classic

BBC members, 1979