1996 Gainesville Cycling Festival

Saturn Santa Fe Century

The most successful of the four Santa Fe Centuries saw 345 riders (on the rolls) take to the street behind the Saturn pace vehicles. For the most part, the rain stayed away or was just spotty, so the biggest problem for the day was the mildly blustery winds. New this year, the GCC supported the ride with five SAG vehicles that were in addition to the two pace cars supplied by title sponsor Saturn of Gainesville. And as always, the GCC handled registration for the entire weekend.

GCC member and Boys and Girls Club board member Bear Bryan did a yeoman job coordinating the entire event, assisted by Boys Club director Jerry Lane. They set up all of the rest stops, obtaining food and manpower. In addition, they negotiated, cajoled, and weaseled to get support from local vendors for the pancake breakfast (kudos to IHOP) and spaghetti dinner (best left unsaid). Due to family commitments, Bear will not be the overall coordinator next year. If you are interested in helping with this worthy fund raiser for the Boys Club call Jerry Lane at 372-5342.

Horse Farm Hundred

Despite iffy weather, 304 riders turned out for the Horse Farm Hundred and Tours. Two hundred and two started from Morningside Nature Center, 181 of those signed up for the century. As the Saturn pace vehicle turned onto US 441, the first of the morning showers cooled off the riders. Some decided to do shorter rides in the Gainesville area, but most pressed on and completed the full ride. They were rewarded with improved conditions during the central part of the ride in the Horse Farm territory of northern Marion county. The faster riders made it back to Gainesville with little additional rain, but the later arrivals had their shower on the road. Meanwhile, 92 riders started their ride at the Calawood RV Park, choosing to enjoy the horse farms without the thrill of doing a full century.

Linda recognizes the 36 GCC members on our volunteer rolls in the President's Message. We also need to thank the Gainesville Police Department, the Amateur Radio people, and Saturn of Gainesville for volunteer labor support. Despite a number of our past volunteers being out of town this year, we were able to fill most of the jobs and put on a quality event. There is not another event that provides the quality of rest stops as the Horse Farm Hundred. Before the ride, we have bagels and muffins. Our rest stops have top notch snacks, Gatorade, and canned Coca Cola products. The lunch stop has peanut butter and jelly in addition to the snacks, and at the end of the ride we have Healthy Choice hot dogs in addition to the other snacks. If you can think of anything we missed, tell any board member and we may add it next year!

Horse Farm Hundred Pictures (long download)

Pavelka Rolls

The first official finisher of both the Santa Fe Century and the Horse Farm Hundred was Ed Pavelka of Alburtis, Pennsylvania. Ed is a graduate of Gainesville High School and is the former executive editor of Bicycling Magazine. This past summer he was a member of the Race Across America team that set a new record for riders over 50. We can always count on him to join our rides during his visit at Christmas; it was good to see him make a special trip to do the Gainesville Cycling Festival. His finishing time of 4:14 was a new record for the Santa Fe Century, and his time of 4:31 in the Horse Farm was 15 minutes better than the best last year (the first HFH finisher was unofficial at 4:24).

Publicity Support

A lot of the credit for the improved turnout for the Gainesville Cycling Festival this year goes to the improved Century Challenge program that we participate in with Bicycling Magazine and the League of American Bicyclists. In addition to having our centuries featured in articles in Bicycling Magazine and Bicycle USA, we were provided with the names of all Bicycling Magazine subscibers living within three hours of Gainesville. In return, we provided Bicycling with the names of the riders in the GCF.

The Horse Farm Hundred was designated a "Bicycling for Bicyclists" event. We contributed $1 for each paid registrant to the League of American Bicyclists for use in their programs supporting bicycling. The L.A.B. is the primary advocate for bicycling issues in Washington DC.

Bandits!

As with many invitational century rides, the Santa Fe Century and Horse Farm Hundred attract riders who choose not to pay the entry fee. For the Santa Fe Century, those fees go directly to the Boys and Girls Club as a significant source of operating income to enable them to continue serving our community. Most Horse Farm Hundred fees are used to pay for the event (we collected $6550 and spent over $6000, we're still counting); what is left over is needed to keep our dues at the lowest level in the state. Those who ride but do not pay are stealing from the Boys Club and the GCC.

Most of the bandits are local riders who typically will start out with the ride and break off at some point to come back to town. But some will continue and actually take stuff at rest stops. This year the first person to finish the full Horse Farm, thus utilizing the pace car for the entire distance, did not show up on the registration rolls. The third finisher had registered for the Santa Fe, but not the Horse Farm. These were the obvious ones; there were others. We are considering using a rider identification system in the future.