Tour de Todd

Eamon Lucas is in the midst of his season riding for a UCI continental team, Evo Pro Racing. At the moment he's close to 40 races so far this season. Eamon says he's raced in ZLM Tour to the Belgian semi-classic Scheldeprijs. The team is Irish registered but based in Belgium. We also touch on his time with the national track pursuit team earlier this year. With a midseason break Eamon spoke with me while vacationing with his wife in Greece. 

This episode of the Tour de Todd Cycling Podcast I'm doing something a bit different. I recorded this episode during the last weekend of the Tour de France. I called up former pro Erik Saunders to get his opinion on the last weekend of race. We also talked about the new women's Tour de France with Zwift. Plus we touched on the American crit season and the recent fight at the Salt Lake City stop 

Mike McCarthy got his first taste of bike racing at the Kissena Velodrome. After a few years away from racing he picked it right back up at 14 years old. This time he began riding and racing in Central Park in New York City. By 1983 he got an invite to a junior winter camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. He eventually became a 4 year resident at the OTC. In 1986 he won a national championship. By 87 he was a Pan Am Gold medalist in the team pursuit. The next year he did the Olympics and got 9th in the team pursuit. In 1990 he won a bronze medal in the pursuit at worlds. 1992 Mike is world champion in the pursuit at 5k. He beat Shaun Wallace for the jersey. 93 was a wash because of Epstein Barr Virus. 1995 hit and he was back on track and riding for Saturn till 98. In between that time Mike rode another Olympics in 96 and won stages in Redlands, Tour de Taiwan, Tour of Japan, Boulder and multiple crits. In 1998 he smashed the Goodwill Games in his hometown and eventually retired. I'll admit it, I'm a fan of Mike's just like I'm a fan of Jame Carney, Mike Creed to Erik Saunders. I hope you enjoy the interview because I sure did. 

Monica Van Haute graduated from college and ended up becoming team manger of PUCH Women's Cycling Team purely by being in the right place at the right time. Monica says it was a labor of love. She would drive around the country to races, prepare food for the racers, and handle all the logistics. Riding on the team ranged from Connie Carpenter-Phinney, Inga Thompson to Sue Novara-Reber. PUCH eventually went away and Levi-Raleigh was formed and picked up the tab. During the 1984 Olympics Monica was a presence good friend Connie could rely on. Eventually she would work with the 7-Eleven team as a soigneur. She worked the 1989 Tour de France where Lemond beat Fignon by 9 seconds. Monica says there was great support from the riders considering it wasn't common to have a woman soigneur. She left cycling in 1989 to start a family and go back to school to become a physical therapist.  Monica says she had a wonderful time and she's made life long friends.  

Ron Kiefel got into cycling at the age of 13 when his dad bought "Wheat Ridge Cyclery" bike shop. the he got on his Nishiki ten speed he gained a lot of freedom. His first race was at the Denver Tech Center where he crashed 300 meters before the finish. By his senior year in high school in 1978 he'd made the junior worlds team with Greg Lemond. The team won a bronze medal in the team time trial. As an amateur he spent a lot of time racing with the national team in Europe. By 1984 he was on the Olympic team. In the road race he was 9th and he won a bronze in the team time trial. In 1985 Ron was racing for 7-Eleven team and headed to Europe. He won the Trophy Laigueglia and stage 15 in Giro d'Italia. He would end up doing seven Tour de Frances, national pro champion, and win stages in the Coors Classic . In his career Ron raced for 7-Eleven, Motorola, Coors Light, and Saturn. In 1996 he retired and went to work at the family bike shop. The shop was sold in 2021. Now he's working on a cycling app, works on his four acres, and enjoys family time. 

Bill Clay got his first race bike when his grandfather took him down to Turin bike shop in Illinois. He eventually ended up at the Ed Rudolph Velodrome in Northbrook, Illinois. He knew right from the start track racing was his thing. In 1990 Bill did the Junior World Trials and did the fastest 200 of the competition. He then went on to win the match sprints. HIs win took him to Junior Worlds that year in England. The next year he threw down a 200 meter time of  10.49. In 1991 he competed in the Pan Am Games and was the second youngest athlete there. By 1996 he was selected to the Olympics to race the sprints. He was looking to get top 8 but was but ended up losing to Darryn Hill. After the Olympics he took a year off and went to school. Bill returned to racing but eventually realized he was up to his old standards and retired for a second time. Bill currently works for LG Electronics in sales. He's living in Illinois with his family.   

Danny Van Haute started racing at the suggestion of his dad. Being a midwest guy he raced Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. He loved racing at Northbrook and Kenosha velodromes. He made the junior worlds team in 1976, Olympic teams in 1980 and 1984. By 1996 he was a coach for the endurance track team at the Olympics. After the Olympics he moved on to running pro road teams. Danny got to meet with the Jelly Belly family about sponsoring a team. Till this day Jelly Belly is the longest running title sponsor, 19 years, for a team. Once that ended Danny went looking for another sponsor and found Wildlife Generation. And here they are 4 years later still racing with Wildlife Generation. Recently I spoke with Danny about organizing a team, sponsorship, riders and races. 

Shane Kline got the but to race because of his uncle. His uncle had a birthday party at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center. Shane says it was the speed that intrigued him the most. He credits Bobby Lea, Kyle Wamsley and Jame Carney as some of his shepherds through the sport of bike racing. As a junior his focus was on the track. He won a couple of national championships. He even went to junior track worlds in Mexico. By the time he began racing in the senior ranks his focus was changing to road races. At one point Shane literally stopped racing the track all together. Yet, he would return when he decided he didn't want to race full-time in Europe. That's when he began to focus on making the Olympic team first in the team pursuit and then the omnium. When he didn't make the Olympics Shane decided it was time to move on. Now he's working in the family business of woodworking. I hope you enjoy this interview because Shane is a treat to talk to. 

David Lipscomb got involved with the bike through his dad. Back in 1993 he began racing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He took his skills of martial arts and applied it to the bike. As a Cat 2 he won quite a few races. But the desire to coach was tugging at him. He eventually started CIS Training Systems while working in finance in April 2008. Lipscomb was one of the first to use Zwift as a training platform for CIS Training Systems. Recently we talked about some of the famous races in New York City like Grants Tomb, Floyd Bennett Field to Prospect Park. Currently David is working with USA Cycling with diversity, equity, inclusion, and organization development consultant. David is a gem of a guy with a great sense of humor. I hope you enjoy the interview.    

Marianne Berglund grew up on a farm in Sweden. She literally grew up by the Arctic Circle. She got involved with the bike because she had a crush on a hockey player who riding with a local bike club. She progressed quickly and began racing with the junior men. She won multiple national championships and began riding with her country's national team. In 1983 she won the women's world road race championship. In 1984 she rode the Olympics in Los Angeles but  failed to medal. Instead, she decided to miss her flight home and stay in the U.S. She would live in San Diego. Marianne raced in some iconic races in her time. She competed in the Tour of Texas, Tour of Nutley, and the Tour of Somerville to name a few. After a long career Marianne left cycling and moved into the corporate world and eventually went back to school to her doctorate. Currently she lives in Oregon and is working in Leadership development. Recently we spoke about her career, her love of education and family life.