September 3, 1988

My first bicycle race. Craig, JT, Art, Pat and I were all there. That face in the black helmet peeping over J.T.'s shoulder is Clark Hamilton. He was the fastest runner on base.
This was before we received our Volvo team jerseys, and we had no way to advertise, so someone made little "Volvo" stickers and just before the race we each put them on our helmets. Pat was excited, and I, characteristically, was very quiet and nervous. The race was underway and almost immediately someone pulled

I need some ketchup>>>

away from the "pack" and Art (off picture), myself, Craig, J.T., and Joe Zamora (in red...not part of our team until 1989) took up chase. We dropped Joe and everyone else, and the four of us pulled away from the field.

We opened up an enormous lead of more than five minutes and it came down to a four-horse race. Unknown to me at the time, Art and I almost broke the paceline many times because we were too aggressive at the front...and I'm difficult to draft from because my profile on the bicycle is very low. The breakaway was so overwhelming that we had a four-man team time trial for the entire race, the only drama being when I clipped a barrier on a turn, and J.T. went down on the last U-turn, but jumped back up and caught up. We all stayed together for 20 miles, none confident enough to try a solo break.

At the finish, Art tried to ride away from us, and I chased him down with J.T. and Craig on my wheel. J.T. came around me in the sprint, and instead of using my aero advantage, I tried to upshift and J.T. pushed ahead at the line

Hey, I wasn't kidding about the ketchup>>>
I'm hungry>>>

for the win. I was a few feet back in 2nd, Craig was 3rd, and Art, 4th. I learned a valuable lesson in the technique of sprinting that day which would pay off later.
But the big thing was that we'd had our first test as team Volvo and swept the top four, and 8th place (Pat). Our performance raised many eyebrows, dropped many tongues, and we were all so excited we could've given Orson Wells a sloppy open-mouth kiss...but we didn't. I guess the first time is always the best, and you can easily see how close we were at that day.

Art's girlfriend shot the photos but never moved the camera with the bicycles so they all blurred. She tried to shoot J.T. winning at the line but instead got my blurred image streaking across instead. The black man cheering in the photo is Spence, our friend and "coach". We called him coach but he never did any coaching. Once JT, Pat, Craig, Spence, and myself were driving around near the base, and I was telling them how bad the pollution was in Japan. Spence, not thinking, said,"I know what you mean...when I first got here I went riding and when I came home and looked in the mirror my face was black!". The car was silent. I asked,"What color was it before?"

There's a rock in my shoe>>>

<<<previous
<<<free as a bird

Come on over here Orson BABY, let me give you some lovin'>>>
Orson, we all want you!!!>>>