Velo City Cycles

The Legend of Dr. Bob – a True Story. (Aren’t they all?)
First published in Velo News, 1/15/96
By MC

Bob showed up in the shop one day, looking for a ride. Said he was in town for a couple of weeks, visiting family. A dentist, he said, from Iowa. I forget which town. He looked plenty fit – classic climber’s build, legs with lots of definition (and no hair), tan lines around around his helmet straps and Oakleys, you know the type, right? He all figured him at 40 or so, give or take a few years. (Note: this was long enough ago that 40 seemed pretty old!) “Man!” we all said, “Hope I’m that fit when I’m his age!” Or words to that effect.

Back then, before this whole mountain bike thing, we did 25 miles or so every morning from the shop and Dr. Bob quickly became a fixture on our rides. He was real pleasant, real quiet and real fast! Basically it was two weeks of watchin’ Bob go up the road, sheddin’ us left and right. Only Skip, our resident jr. time trial champion-mutant could hang with him. He was real smooth and just sat there, on a well-worn Turbo and spun away.

One day, early in the ride (it had to have been early in the ride – I was still there) he suddenly threw his Serotta into the 53×13 and stood up. Didn’t sprint or attack, just stood up. He stayed that way, rockin’ back and forth like same skinny Italian in the Alps, for a mile or so.

“So…what’cha doin’ there Bob?” I asked. (I had to ask!)

“Oh” he said, “Coupla years ago they found a lump on one of my testicles and had to operate. I couldn’t sit on a saddle for about 6 months so I rode like this. Got to kinda liking it.” We called it ‘Doing the Bob.’ Try it sometime, it’ll wear you out.

So one day Bob comes in wearing a U.S.C.F. Master’s National Championship cap. John, our Head Wrench, got to thinking – Bob’s name had always seemed a little familiar so he dug through his Velo News stack ‘til he found the issue with the coverage of the Master’s Nationals. There was Bob’s name all right, 3rd in the T.T., 5th in the road race, 3rd in the crit, in the 60-65 age group! Yep, Bob was 60 that year and these days, 6-7 years later, he still comes ‘round every year or so to kick some butt and take some names. He’s an inspiration and an icon to our teammates and riding buds and if you were to come on a ride with us it wouldn’t be too long before someone pulled up next to you and started in with “So, have we told ya ‘bout Dr Bob?”

The End

Story about the Story, Part 1: Maynard Hershon is my (MC) favorite cycling writer. His books, Tales from the Bike Shop & Half-Wheel Hell are (sadly) out of print, but worth looking for because every cyclist oughta read them cover to cover. If you can’t find them ask me nice and I might loan you my copies, but look hard first! I got to know him a while ago, rode with him out to a 17th century Spanish Mission near Tucson on his 69th birthday and we still keep in touch. Every time I found myself tellin’ the Dr. Bob story I would think that I oughta tell Maynard so he could make a story out of it, ‘cuz it sort of sounded like his stuff to me. Then Velo News announced the “Write like Maynard Contest,” so I wrote it up and sent it in. 1st place prize was a sweet Merlin titanium ATB and 2nd place was a cool little Bike Friday folding bike. I had a heavy jones goin’ for the Merlin but was still pretty stoked to hear the I was 2nd and was gonna be in the magazine. The Bike Friday was cool but I had no use for it so I rode it a bit and sold it. I liked the 1st place story so I was cool with the silver, y’know?

Story about the Story, Part 2: I went to the bike show that fall and ran into Maynard almost immediately. He tells me that he hated the winning story and thought that I should’ve won, but he wasn’t a judge. So I had to spend the next 4 days at the show tryin’ not to walk past the Merlin booth and get all bummed lookin’ at the sweet mountain bike that wasn’t mine. Thanks a lot, Maynard!