The mighty Campocat just keeps rolling along. Here’s part 5 of his series on racing history.

Bob Bergen is an amazing person that has done some amazing things, and a guy that makes me laugh and want to ride my bike and race my butt off. He is a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. I’m sure he will be getting a call from Jay Leno probably shortly after the release of this interview for a personal appearance….

I owe you one Bob. Enjoy, everyone. Campocat

JC When did you start racing? What club did you race for? When did you start velodrome racing?

@##=#<5,r>@##=#BB I joined the North Park Cycling Club in 1940 as the youngest member. In 1941, the Nationals were held in Pasadena and I was disappointed in not qualifying so I went to the Nationals as a spectator and watched Marvin Thompson win the Senior division, Andy Bernadsky win Juniors and Jean Michels win the women’s division. My friend and 1939 National Champ, Martin Deras did not ride. The 1940 National Champ, Furman Kugler, was shut out. I took a picture of him sadly watching the awards presentation. I was determined to make it to the Nationals in l942, still as a junior. But the Japanese pulled their sneak terror attack on Pearl Harbor, and the l942 Nationals were cancelled. I was 16 years old but went and joined the Navy because I was so angry over the War. The Tour de France was cancelled the previous year when the Germans conquered France.

Some of the bike officials decided to hold sort of a National Championship anyway even though it was not an official ABL event. They chose Kezar Stadium in San Francisco as the site. It was a banked track surrounding the Polo Grounds. It was my first time on a paved velodrome. I was used to the San Diego Velodrome which was a dirt track. Norman Drageset, who headed the Pasadena Cycle Club, had invited me to join with his team and travel to San Francisco for the event. It was my first travel experience to a bike race. San Francisco is about 500 or 600 miles from my home in San Diego. I had never ridden with the big boys in competition. The powerhouse team from Pasadena included Don Hester, Don Whetstine, Dick Goerz ( 6 feet 4). Riders from all over the country came, feeling just as I did, to hell with the Japs, we’re going to have a National Championship in spite of Pearl Harbor and regardless of the absence of the ABL sanction.

Anyway, for me the results were interesting. I was the only rider to ride every event on the entire program. I rode all the Junior and all the Senior events and finished 4th in the Juniors and 4th in the Seniors. I gained more confidence in those Senior events and was shocked to realize that a little innocent kid like me could hang in there with these giants of the sport. Don Hester won and I will always regard him as the best bike rider I have ever known. Don and I were called to active duty by the Navy together. Coincidentally we ended up at the Brooklyn Navy Yard together in l946, got discharged together and Don came home to win every race he rode in 1946 including the National Championships in Columbus, Ohio where he survived a terrible crash in which a rider named Ted Brill was killed.

@##=#<1,L>@##=#The war imposed a terrible toll on the American Cycling scene. Furman Kugler was an Electrician’s Mate on board the USS Witchita, a cruiser. I last saw him at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In a shipboard accident the day the war ended, Furman was electrocuted and died. The Tour of Sommerville in New Jersey became the Furman Kugler Memorial. Martin Deras was badly wounded in Germany. I went to see him at the Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco. He lost an eye and never fully recovered, but we rode together many times and went to Mexico for a big series which I won. I still have the most beautiful trophy of a cyclist standing by his bike. Deras was second in that race, but I must acknowledge he would have won but for those terrible battle injuries. Don Whetstine was also wounded in Germany but came home and raced again but retired. Another rider killed in the war from California was Jim Mathews. The annual Rose Bowl Race was named the Jim Mathews Memorial. I won that event in l947. Big Dick Goerz also went into the Navy with Don Hester and me. Dick was the eternal third place rider. In race after race it was Hester first, Whetstine second and Goerz third. Dick died of a heart attack about 1948; Martin Deras died a couple of years later and so did Marvin Thompson.

JC How did you get to the races, and what distances did you drive? Tell us some Bob Zumwalt stories.

BB In my early days, I had no car and didn’t know how to drive, so It was always up to some adult to offer to drive me to the races. The Bike Club Meetings were where we learned of upcoming races and planned transportation. Today’s club meetings are full of pure hippopotamus manure, the most important items being the reading the secretary’s minutes of the last meeting and the treasurer’s report. Upcoming races are not even mentioned. Bob Zumwalt was the son of Leslie Zumwalt, who opened a lawnmower repair shop in l931 at 2811 University Ave, North Park in San Diego. A few used bicycles were added and later a Schwinn Franchise developed. Leslie was a cranky old guy who carried a flat whisky bottle in his back pocket. He retired and turned the shop over to Bob Zumwalt Sr., who started the North Park Cycle Club about l934 or l935.

Bob had no experience in racing but was primarily trying to sell bikes. Still, he was a major influence on my cycling life. He sold me my first “racing” bike, a Schwinn New World 3-speed Sturmey Archer in l940. I rode it in my first race, the 45-mile road race from Arcadia to Riverside. I was way off the back but ended up outsprinting a guy twice my age who was riding an identical bike. I learned that my “racing bike” was not a racing bike and quickly traded it in for a Schwinn Paramont fixed gear which everyone else was riding. The transition to multispeeds didn’t occur until the l948 Olympics along with aluminum rims instead of wood and aluminum handlebars, stems (goosenecks), cranks and pedals, seatposts, etc.

@##=#<4,r>@##=#Zumwalt was my friend until his death. He drank too much, was a chain smoker and never exercised. He had three children, Donna, Bobby Jr., and Shirley. He was devastated by the death of his wife, Ellanee, and began drinking more heavily than ever. He had a massive stroke which left him totally paralyzed on one side. I would go on evening walks with him in those declining days. Finally his lungs failed completely and he died a horribly slow death at the Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. I saw him on Christmas, eleven days before he died. Bob was the Southern California ABL District Rep and a member of the Board of Directors of the ABL and a race official. He drove me to many races in those days before I had a car of my own. He ran the races at our dirt track velodrome. Bob was made the first Life Member of the SDBC which is now in it’s 60th year. He put together the first race in l946. Every member of the old North Park Cycle Club went into the Armed Forces so the club ceased to exist. But when the War ended and we began coming home, Zumwalt created the San Diego Bike Club, and he got the program up and running again.

JC What were the bikes like back then? Were you riding fixed gear bikes primarily, or did you ride road bikes?

BB In the l930’s and 40’s EVERYBODY rode only fixed gears. We referred to them as stiff hubs. When I first heard the expression fixed gear, I had to ask ‘What’s that?’ Of course, in Mexico they are pinones fijos. If someone on a 3-speed showed up, the other riders would always harass the poor guy by yelling “You can shift now” on every hill or at the final sprint, but usually freewheels were banned because of the danger of the dude using a handbrake or coasting in the middle of the pack. It wasn’t until the l948 Olympic Trials that I first experimented on a borrowed 10-speed, trying to learn how to shift. I qualified on a fixed gear and when I was told I would have to have multiple gears to be on the Olympic Team, pay my own way to New York where we would board the ship for London, probably lose another semester from college, I just gave up. I knew no American would medal anyway, so they gave Wendal Rollins from Utah my spot. At the Games, Bob Maitland from England finished 6th, turned pro, rode the Tour de France and now is age 81 and still riding. I never beat him in a road race, but regularly turned in faster times in time trials.

JC Who were some of the racers you raced against back then? Were you ever at Madison Square Garden as a spectator or racer?

@##=#<6,L>@##=#BB I never went to Madison Square Garden. At one time or another, I rode with or against just about everyone who was involved in U.S. racing all over the U.S. I rode up and down the west coast from Spokane WA to San Diego CA, and up and down the east coast from Syracuse NY to Tallahassee FL, and from Montreal Canada, to Mexico City. I rode both track and road plus many summers in Europe where a lot of the pros were allowed to ride in the amateur races which they used for training. I really learned a lot riding with those fellows such as Gianni Motta who was a teammate of Eddy Merckx. Motta is sort of forgotten now, but he won the Giro one year. I always felt honored to ride among the superstars of cycling. In the U.S. Charlie Morton and John Sinibaldi from the l936 Berlin Olympic Team were both very kind to me, and gave me encouragement. They remained my friends until their deaths, as did Cecil Cripps from Australia.

JC Did you know Lou Maltese, Al Toefield, Jack Simes, Joe Saling, Mike Lyach, Mike Fraysse?

BB I do not know of Mike Lyach. I did know Lou Maltese and Al Toefield. There were a string of Jack Simes, Sr. Jr. III IV etc. Mike Fraysse and I were on the USCF Board of Directors together. Joe Saling I also know. Several years ago at the Nationals in Linton, IN, Dorothy Saling and I were talking. Little did we know what disaster awaited us. I won my time trial, but Dorothy hit a dog just after her start and took a horrible bone breaking crash. The next day at the crit I crashed in the final sprint, broke my back, and ended up in the same hospital as Dorothy.

JC I’m not sure but I think I remember you saying you were a skater, and you did some barrel racing also?

BB I did some roller skating and racing but nothing to write home to mother about. I did have an ice skating experience once that could have ended in serious trouble. I was in Port Washington and one night I thought it would be a brilliant idea to skate by moonlight across the Long Island Sound. A long way out and all alone I noticed a crack in the ice beside me and could begin to feel the ice sag. Fortunately, I was able to turn around and set an unofficial speed record of sorts getting back to where I started.

JC How big was racing bikes in your life, and did it conflict with family life, or was your family supportive?

BB Bike racing has and still is very significant to me. Like the nine lives of a cat, cycling has been one of my lives. My family life was a separate life. My little children didn’t have pajamas, they slept in my cycling jerseys. Many times they didn’t get to go to the beach or the zoo on a Sunday because Daddy was dragging them off to a bike race. They didn’t get to go on vacation to a place of their choice because there was a series of races in Canada, Mexico, or somewhere in Europe that got priority. The children and I spent a lot of time on airplanes flying to faraway bike events, but I usually took only one child at a time, except when I took the entire junior and sub-junior teams from Tijuana, Mexicali. Tecate, and Ensenada, Baja California Norte to the Mexican Nationals far down in Mexico.

@##=#<2,r>@##=#JC On the web site there is a picture of you pulling an AirStream what is that all about?

BB That picture was staged just for the camera.

JC You told me Arnold Frayman of CRCA stole your national championship at masters nationals a few years ago, because the race organizers, after Arnold did his time trial, lengthened the course so you had to do a longer distance? Tell us your take that and on how common screw ups are at masters nationals?

BB Let’s get the facts straight first. At the Nationals in Tennessee about ten years ago, the time trial (20 kilometers) was held on a beautiful day and on a beautiful course called the Natchez Chase Parkway. Our written instructions clearly stated each rider would ride to the posted 10K sign where we would turn around and return to the starting area. Pretty simple so we thought. I was flying on my funnybike rolling along at 30mph and sailing past my minute and two minute men, and on my way to gold medal. I saw the posted 10K sign. I saw the rider ahead of me make his turn and I heard the people standing at the sign yelling ‘Turn around’. I made my turn, caught and passed the last guy in front of me and pounded away to the finish.

Upon crossing the line, I looked at my computer and knew something was wrong. My time was way too fast. I looked over at the other side of the street and there was no starting line with riders waiting their turns. I kept slowly riding and way off in the distance I saw the start line ahead. The bastards had Mickey Moused the course without telling any of the riders. It was NOT 10k out and 10k back. It was about 13k out and 7k back and the 10k sign was NOT the turnaround. Anyway, after the first half dozen or so riders bitched about the screwup, some official went out and took down the 10k sign. All of us who followed instructions were disqualified. The slow riders didn’t have a false turnaround and took the medals. All protests were denied. Some riders left in disgust. I didn’t get mad, I didn’t protest, I just got even. The next day at the road race, I took off from the start and won by 5 minutes and 33 seconds solo.

JC Bob, I’m primarily doing these articles to show the younger racer some history as it pertains to our sport. Do you have any knowledge you can pass on that might be helpful to some of the younger racers with aspirations to make cycling a lifelong passion as you have. And I want to thank you very much for this interview. I’m hoping we can spend some time together and ride down at the velodrome when I get out there in March. Say hello to eveyone at SDBC for me. John Campo

www.sdbc.org Check out the photos on this club’s website – amazing!

BB Through cycling, I learned that a little guy like me with no apparent athletic talent can achieve an amazing degree of success if he really puts his heart and soul into it. Body size is not really a factor in cycling success. I may not be able to beat anyone in arm wrestling, but by serious training, taking care of my equipment, and really studying all the intricacies of the sport, there are races to be won, and can be won. Confidence gets built up, experience leads to perfection. Avoid mistakes, keep trying, analyze what went wrong and keep setting higher goals.

The biggest myth that was heaped on me was not to overtrain, rest is a part of conditioning and take it easy and learn to relax. That is hogwash. There is no such thing as overtraining, but there sure is undertraining. Work, work, work, train, train, train, sweat, sweat, sweat, do reps and more reps, learn to suck in quarts of air with every breath, spin, spin, pound up those hills, push those big gears, do sprint after sprint in daily training. Talk to the big boys and learn some of their secrets. Don’t be afraid of anyone. There are thousands of little tips to think about. For example, if the track or road you are racing on is unusually bumpy, complaining will not help, but letting a little air out of the tires will.