By LOIS KINDLE
Valencia Lakes resident Stephen Lawrence recently cycled 4,200-miles coast to coast across 10 states and four mountain ranges in the Ride Yr Bike LLC’s annual Trans-Am Bike Race.
For anyone to complete the course is amazing, but Lawence did it at age 70.
Stopping to take a selfie, Stephen Lawrence enters Illinois.
Stephen Lawrence, a high school PE teacher and coach for 35 years, is seen here cycling into Hamilton, Mont., during the recent Trans-Am Bike Race. He encountered many types of terrain in all kinds of weather and had to find lodging and food stops on his own.
Stephen Lawrence crossed four mountain ranges on his coast-to-coast trek across the country (Cascades, Rockies, Blue Ridge and Allegheny). He is shown here in Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies.
The trek involved his following a set course and cycling unassisted from the Pacific coast in Astoria, Ore., to the Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic coast in Yorktown, Va. It began at 6 a.m. June 2, and ended 55 days later on July 27.
Thirty-one men and women started the trek and 18 completed it.
“Only one other 70-year-old ever finished the race, and it took 97 days,” Lawrence said. “This year’s winner was a 21-year-old guy from the New York area who finished in 19 days.”
Stephen Lawrence met many challenges like this one at Hoosier Pass in central Colorado, where he had to ride his bike in the rain on a road with turns and no shoulders.
This competition isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Riding on mostly country roads through Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia, Lawrence encountered all kinds of weather.
“There are a lot of challenges,” he said, noting after Wyoming, for example, there were no shoulders on the roads and many days he faced very strong head winds and lots of rain.
“It’s a physically and mentally demanding race. You get up, ride all day, sleep and do it all over again. I was alone for 55 days, and rarely talked to anyone.”
Lawrence said some folks living by the course would occasionally come out to cheer, offer water, drinks or food. Otherwise, it was just him and the bike.
He traveled over many types of terrain, including switchback roads with hairpin turns in the mountains and 192,000 feet of elevation climbs to rollers (up and down roads) and flat plains. Temperatures were as low as 20 degrees up into the 100s.
Stephen Lawrence and his family gather in Yorktown, Va., where he crossed the Trans-Am Bike Race finish line. Standing, from left, are his son Matt; daughter Grace; wife Eva; Lawrence; and daughter, Molly Ahonen. In the front row are granddaughter Allie and grandson Stevie.
He had to find lodging and food stops on his own, and it had to be on the course and available to all riders. Meals came from gas stations, convenience stores and a rare restaurant. This involved his making daily decisions about how many miles to ride, taking into consideration where he needed to stop.
“At times, I feel really amazed I did it,” Lawrence said. “It was a great experience, a unique and interesting way to see America.
COURTESY PHOTOS
Stephen Lawrence, 70, recently cycled 4,266 miles across 10 states in 55 days during the Ride Yr Bike LLC’s annual Trans-Am Bike Race. He didn’t even start riding a road bike until three years ago, when he and his wife moved to Wimauma to be near family.
“I’ll certainly do another ultra bike race, but probably not the Trans Am,” he continued. Obviously, at 70 and older, I have a limited number of these types of rides left in my body, but there still are some beautiful places I’d like to ride across.”
Lawrence is already considering the Mishigami Bicycle Challenge next summer, which involves cycling 1,100 miles through four states – Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, including its upper peninsula, Indiana and back to Illinois around Lake Michigan.
Only 1,100 miles? After the Trans Am, that race should be a piece of cake.