In an e-mail on October 6, 2008, Gary wrote:

Gary scoured the North Country for a good time trial course and came up with a great one. The five mile, out-and-back course runs along the lake, so it has no crossing roads and no stop signs. It is largely flat, but with a modest uphill at each end. [ See map and profile 144 kb.] In the decades since the establishment of this event, several new marinas have been build along the course, which has increased traffic a bit, but much of the five miles is under a 35 mph speed limit so the traffic situation is usually not bad, though occasionally riders encounter a huge farm machine lumbering along the road, taking up most of the two lanes. Probably the worst part of this course is its winds. We are hammered by winds up the Champlain Valley from the south or down the valley from the north, across the cornfields from the west, or across the water from east. We have very little shelter from winds in any direction.

In that first season, Gary envisioned a far grander production than the event that eventually grew from his seeds. He had several classes (Junior, Senior, Old Guys, Women) and he kept point standings (scratch points and handicap points) in these classes according to Byzantine rules that only he knew or understood. He also asked for an entry fee of 25 cents which would go toward awards, which were never purchased. He deposited the money with the bike shop and, years later, Ed Gardner asked around "What shall I do with the money ... ?" I think he may have spent it on a stop-watch which we used at the finish line. There was also a bike club, first the Champlain Valley Road Club, then Champlain Valley Bicycle Club, but I doubt that the club was ever more than a name.

Gary Toth spent just a few years in the North Country, then with college diploma in hand, he returned to his home north of Albany, where he continued to ride and, to no-one's surprise, he has become a high-level cycling official and a bit of a racing historian. In Gary's absence, others picked up the responsibility to keep the activity going, and I don't think there was ever a year without the Time Trials.

Don Evans, a teacher at Peru High School, carried the load for several years and during that period and later, the activity was broadened to include team time trials and small road races. With Evans based in Peru, we sometimes rode courses in that area, for either time trials or road races. One loop used commonly in that period started on Norrisville Rd. just north of Macomb Reservation and headed south through the Park to Peasleeville Rd. There we turned right and followed Peasleeville Rd to its junction with Norrisville where a sharp right sent us back to the start/finish. [ See map and profile 72 kb.] We usually rode three times around this loop for a race of about 14 miles. This was the venue for several events, including a very successful team time trial.

Evans also set one road race on a loop which had us climb Reservoir Rd to the Mother Cabrini Shrine on the Patent Rd. The "Mother Cabrini Hill" is the steepest in the North Country and Evans had us do two loops, climbing the hill twice, for which I have never forgiven him! To the best of my recollection, this course looped from the Calkins Rd, up Barney Downs Rd and Reservoir Rd to the Patent Rd. Then right and back down the Mannix rd. to Calkins Rd., a loop of a bit less than nine miles with considerable climbing. I don't recall where the start or the finish were.

The preceding paragraph was written in 2008, and I don't think that the map posted at that time was correct. It didn't even run on Calkins Rd. In September 2009, I talked to Don about the course and we agreed that it probably started on the Calkins road near the base of Mannix road, then went up the Barney Downs road and Reservoir rd to the Mother Cabrini Shrine. From there we believe we followed the Patent road to Mannix rd, then down Mannix, but not all the way. Instead, we turned right on Taylor road which brought us in to Barney Downs Rd again, but above the initial climb. Then our best guess and recollection is that we climbed the steep hill again and finished at the top, before the Church. That's our story and we're sticking with it! [ See new map and profile 80 kb.]

In that period, Evans also established the short-lived Northern Tier Cycling Club, just the first of several unsuccessful attempts to have a local bike club.

Another dyed-in-the-wool bike racer appeared on the scene. John Leighty (pron. Litey) was an airman at Plattsburgh Air Force Base. He grew up in Pennsylvania where he learned track racing at the famous Trexlertown Velodrome, and arrived in Plattsburgh rated USCF Category 2 in both road and track racing. John took on some of the load of organizing and won many Pt au Roche time trials and Peru road races. He kept the ball rolling, making another attempt to establish a bicycling club, until his PAFB tour was up.

In that period, we frequently did our road races on a different loop south-west of Peru. Starting the Keese House on Union Road, this course proceeded west on Harkness Rd, turning right in Harkness on Calkins Rd, then north on Calkins to River Rd, right again on River Rd, right on Davern Rd, right on Union Rd to the start/finish. We usually rode this loop three times (first lap "controlled") for a road race of about 21 miles. [ See map and profile 94 kb.] John Leighty won most of these races.

We also had small road races at Pt au Roche, usually three times around the loop road for about a thirteen mile event. [ See map and profile 65 kb.] This was the site of a race that gives me an anecdote that I enjoy telling to people who know some of the names in bicycle racing.

For many of these courses, I followed the practice as I do today, of pedaling to the start rather than driving there in a car. This way, I get a nice warm-up and arrive shortly before start time, but I miss the socializing both before and after the event. That's what I did on a certain evening, and soon after I arrived, our little group of riders set off clockwise around the 4.4 mile Pt au Roche loop. I'm a rider of, at best, average speed so it wasn't long before I was off the back of the group, and the strong bikers were out of sight in front of me. When I finished my three laps, I pedaled back to the firehouse and asked "Who won, John [Leighty]?" No, Jim. I puzzled briefly, but couldn't think of a Jim in our regular crew. "Jim who?". The answer got my attention. "Jim Ochowicz."

Jim Ochowicz had ridden for the U.S. Olympic Team in the 1976 Olympics. He married Olympic cyclist and speed skater Sheila Young and they lived for a few years in Lake Placid. Jim had learned about our little events and had come down to join in the fun. As far as I know, he only came that one time, and I regret that I didn't meet him on that occasion. Since that time, Jim Ochowicz was the founder and team manager for the 7-11 and Motorola cycling teams and a coach for two U.S. Olympic Cycling Teams. And it was Jim, with a couple of others, who contrived to get Lance Armstrong back on his bike after Lance's horrendous cancer treatment.

For a while, Clyde Rabideau sponsored our events, though with very modest support, and also organized a road race and threw a season-ending picnic. This was before Clyde became Plattsburgh's Mayor and he had a string of convenience stores in the area, called Checkout Lane. The road race course was designed to pass each of the stores in order, looping from Plattsburgh to Peru, then Morrisonville and finally back to Plattsburgh. I have proud memories of that race because I somehow managed to be with the lead group until we climbed up Quarry Rd., about a mile from the finish. Charlie Mitchell won the bunch sprint. [ Read about the race and picnic.]

In the 1990s the activity settled down to a single format on a single vunue -- time trials on the Pt au Roche course. The main event is the weekly ten-mile time trial, five miles up and five miles back, though we have long offered a five-mile event open to all but intended primarily for youngsters. The international standard distance for bicycle time trials is 40 km or 25 miles, so we have also marked a turn-around point at the railroad crossing in Cooperville 12.5 miles up the road from the fire station and later in the season we occasionally have some riders completing the 25 mile option.

It was in this period when young Craig King was riding and his mom, Jeanette, became the enthusiastic organizer. She did a great job and even promoted a small criterium in the City. Terry Nash carried the ball for the Time Trials for a while. He was the first one to make accurate measurements and establish the start/finish and the turn-around where we now set them. He also tried to tie the activity to the local running club, but that went badly when one of the riders collided with a pedestrian who got a lawyer and sued everybody in sight.

Around 1990 Mark Elmore did the chores as he tried to keep the Champlain Valley Cycling Club afloat. About ten years later Winslow Moore caught bicycle fever, bought a couple of very nice bikes, brought his times down to quite a respectable level, and for a couple of years he organized the time trials. In that period Winslow's young teenage daughter Ashleigh threw herself into activity as well and did most of the timing and submitted the results to the Plattsburgh newspaper, the Press Republican. Over the decades, the Press Republican has been very cooperative in posting Time Trial results and announcements of upcoming events.

The list of other riders who have kept the ball rolling from time to time includes Charlie Mitchell, who has done so much for cycling in the Champlain Valley. Charlie has ridden in the time trials almost from the beginning, but he is also involved in mountain biking and weekend races so in recent years, he has ridden only occasionally in the time trials. The list also includes Dave Bilow, perhaps the most loyal participant in the middle period, who quietly made phone calls to assure that the time trial started each spring. Dave suffered a life threatening brain aneurism and we no longer see him at Pt au Roche or out on his regular rides.

There have been brief periods when I was the one who kept things going, but in more recent years, Mary Duprey has been making sure that the Time Trials continue. She has sometimes obtained prizes from local bike shops, while at the same time turning unbeatable women's times, often "beating the boys", posting the fastest time for the evening.

In the early years, 24 minutes was a very good time when the course was a few hundred yards longer than it is now. John Leighty, Ken Burl and others won many events with times around 24 minutes, but one week in 1986, Larry Martel came over from Vermont and took a minute off that course record. Four weeks later he came back and shaved off a few more seconds. In a striking development, just two weeks later, Spencer Yates drove down from Lake Placid and, disk wheel and all, took off another minute, leaving the record in at 22:07.

In the 1991 and 1992 seasons, a very strong local rider turned in a number of incredible rides under 22 minutes and repeatedly shaved seconds off the course record until it was discovered that he was doing it by shaving a few more yards off the course at the turnaround. We never became suspicious when he always wanted to be the first rider in the start order. After this all came to light, we never saw him again. His 1992 times have been taken out of the finish lists and the season summary.

The 22:07 record that Spencer Yates posted in 1986 stood until 1995 when Kevin Duniho came home from his senior year at Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado, where he had ridden on the nation's best college cycling team, and set the present record of 21:31.

Of course, Mary Duprey has held the record for female competitors for years. In 1995 she posted a 24:34, and two years later she shaved off two more seconds. She improved still more in 2007 when she brought out a brand new Orbea time trial bike in bright orange colors of the Basque Euskatel Pro Cycling Team. On her first time out with the hot bike, she rode a 24:15, and before the season ended she broke the 24 minute barrier, posting a 23:59! With times like that, it's no wonder she can beat the boys.

We finally have not one but two bike clubs in the North Country but both of them are based in Lake Placid. Once years ago I learned that Montreal had about 17 bicycle clubs. Those were the racing clubs, then there were the touring clubs. I was blown away by this -- why couldn't we have just one? Then I did the arithmetic. Taking the ratio of the population of Clinton County to the population of Montreal, then multiplying by 17, I found that Clinton County should be able to support one half of a bicycle club, and that's what we had done, repeatedly.

I think of our time trial more as an activity for friends and interested guests. We try to welcome riders of all caliber and not make them feel put off by commenting disparagingly about their equipment or clothing.

When I think of our activity and our organization, or lack thereof, I recall a riding group I once read about in a bicycling magazine, where one of the organizers described it as "Less of a club and more of a start time."

Don West, Plattsburgh NY, September 2008