I am a 87 year old, former cyclist that is getting ready to cycle once again. I first became involved with cycling when I was working for Saturn, the former automobile maker. In 1996 the TCCA, Treasure Coast Cycling Associon, of Stuart, FL asked if we would be a sponsor of their cycling club. They were working with a local charity with the project being asking the general public to donate bikes no matter the condition. The TCCA would refurbish as many as possible for them being donated to underprivileged children.

In total after donating the use of our shop on a Sunday the club members were able to refurbish approximately 87 bicycles These in turn were given to the local United Way to distribute to the children. The local newspaper, The Stuart News, had large picture of the event on the front page.

this is when I got interested in cycling. I became a member of the club. The club decided to sponsor a local junior cycling team affiliated with the YMCA of the treasure coast. I contacted the Saturn Cycling Team and ask if they could donate a Saturn Team bike. The bikes they used were from LeMonde. We were going to raffle the Saturn Team bike to raise money for our sponsorship of the cycling team. With the money raised, we were able to have a van built that would carry all the bikes of the cyclist, boys and girls to events around the state of Florida. This enabled everybody to be together rather than having problems with parents getting lost and not bringing the child to the event. It also gave the coaches a chance to ride the course before the races and give tips to the young children as to when to lay back and went to attack, etc.. This proved to be very effective.

Saturn made an error and sent 2 bikes. Yours truly was able to keep the second bike and that became my ride. The club had an annual weekend event that consisted of road racing on Saturday and a Criterium in downtown Stuart on Sunday. Cyclists came from all over Florida some from Georgia and a few from the Bahamas. This event went on for about 17 years when a downtown beatification project ruined our Criterium course.

I participated in one of our events and that was the end of my racing experience. I did participate in regularly scheduled events or club rides. Some were close to 100 miles in length. Fast forward to 2010 on a ride to Lake Okeechobee and back I bonked at 40 miles. I used the sag wagon back to the starting point. A year later I bonked about 10 miles out. I thought, Ed you’re getting too old for this. You have to take it easy. I actually had a white out. I sat on the grass for about 10 minutes and proceeded to ride 2 miles home Never mentioned what happened as again I thought I was getting older.

About 6 months later about 11PM I felt a tingling down both arms. I said to my wife “The jig is up we have to get to the hospital ASAP. As soon as my wife started to explain they rushed me in the ER and I woke up 7 1/2 hours later. The surgeon was standing over me and said you cyclists are all alike. You think you’re getting older when what’s happening is your arteries are closing down. Close call, quintuple bypass.

since then we moved to Bucks County, PA. I am now ready to get back in the saddle. Before we moved last year I had the Saturn team bike refurbished. Now that the weather is nicer I am ready. Luckily there are some paved trails close by. I wouldn’t dare on the roads here as there are no bike lanes and most roads have no shoulder at all.

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