rideandgoseek 

About a month or two ago while out cycling, I met an 85 year old British gentleman on a steel framed Mercian nicknamed 'Crumpy'. He began professionally racing at the age of 14 and is still grinding out miles all these years later. He managed 5,500 miles in 2017 alone! Crazy stuff.

Anyway, he's lived in our neighborhood of 'The Pinery' in Parker, CO since its' founding in the 70's and had some old photos of a bike race that occured here in the early 80's. I did some research and it turns out the development company used these bike races (which featured several pro riders) and also hot air balloon races as a way to generate interest in the development.

Terracor and Senior Corp... The first developer of the Pinery was Terracor, a Utah-based company. They planned on building a premier development in the area. The original vision of Terracor was to plot sites for small vacation cabins for people living in Denver. The plan called for open space, green belts, and excellent views of the mountains. This plan never came to fruition: the developer decided the 'homes should be permanent rather than summer "getaways.” The open areas were replotted for 5 - 10 acre sites and estate-sized homes. Included in the new plan were a park and a bird sanctuary. The development was begun in 1971, when the real estate market was poor. Some lots were sold and built on by independent builders, but the selling lagged. Terracor advertised their enterprise heavily to attract more buyers. In 1976-1977, hot air balloon races were held: take-off for the balloons was the elevated site where Mountain View Elementary School now stands. They also conceived of holding bicycle races throughout the Pinery. None of their advertising schemes worked well; in 1982, Terracor was forced to declare bankruptcy. At that time, the Pinery was separated from the undeveloped remainder of the property

Thought this was a cool little tidbit about my neighborhood and I wanted to get these photos out into the light.

Here's a map of the loop they did. Each one was 7.3 miles with 440ft of climbing. It's unclear how many times they did it

Matt110573371's Profile

texaspandj

Cool,

2cam16

Pretty cool history!

crank_addict

I'm thinking the OP is referring to the awesome John Crump... 'just ride the bloody bike'. (Few years back, I sent him a pair of very vinti cycling shoes. They very well and deservedly belonged to him.)

cheer's!

rideandgoseek 

@crank_addict you are correct. Just by luck I met John Crump along my local bike path and found out that he actually only lives around the corner from me. Since then we've struck up a friendship and I've had him over to my garage to talk bikes and we've ridden together a bit. Here's a few pics of my buddy Ramiro and John along the path last Friday. You can't really tell but Ramiro is on his '81 Alan (I've included a close up shot as well) and John is on his 2001 (ish) Mercian that has some beautiful lug work.

John really is a great guy and a treasure trove of cycling knowledge. The guys over on the CR list even have an officially licensed jersey for sale that sports the 'Crumpagnolo' logo and his famous 'just ride the bloody bike' mantra