It seems that growing up in Lander, Wyoming in the 1980s (population then around 7,000, much as it is today) one way to be a teenage rebel was to go in for alternate music and bike racing. “Saddling Up to Ride in Cowboy Country” is a memoir by Dave Campbell describing those impressionable years when the ripples made by the 7-11 Cycling Team, the International Coors Classic and ultimately Greg LeMond in professional bike racing would reach as far afield as Wyoming and change a few lives. As did apparently Echo and the Bunnymen.
Forty plus years ago bike racing in America was a real niche sport and the further one moved culturally from either coast the more distant it became. Growing up in Lander, Dave Campbell did the usual Wyoming things, including hunting and fishing. Besides outdoor life, his athleticism brought him success as a swimmer but it was the bicycle that really caught his attention. The road began with modifications to make a homemade BMX out of the usual hardware store banana seat high handlebar job, then switched gradually to domestic 10-speeds. Campbell was inspired by the new American sporting heroes, notably the US Olympic hockey team’s unexpected win over the Soviet at Lake Placid. But it was the new cycling pros breaking into Europe that really caught his attention.
In the days before the Internet, information about bike racing overseas was hard to come by in Lander but he worked his contacts at the local sporting goods store and learned about Phil Anderson, the first English-speaker to wear the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France. But now there were Americans appearing on the scene as well, along with the expansion of Colorado’s Red Zinger Race to international level plus what looked to become a very strong American presence in bike racing at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Christmas 1981 – Bertin C-70
Young Dave became something of a Eurosnob. Prized possessions included a cycling cap marked with the mysterious words “Colnago,” and a Campagnolo t-shirt. No crummy Schwinn for him but someday a classic Euro bike, preferably Italian. Visiting relatives in Denver, he had the chance to try out Uncle Jim’s Raleigh Team Professional, a high-end bike with actual Campagnolo parts, and loved it. In 1981 Campbell, aged 13, received the bike of his dreams, a Bertin C-40, for Christmas and the die was cast. Of course, this being rural Lander, the deal he made with his parents was he had to ante up half the cost of the $350 bike. To do this, he and his father set up a worm-collecting enterprise to supply local fisherman, probably nothing like how Greg LeMond started off.
Also in 1981, he had the chance to see the film version of “Breaking Away,” noting that things came slowly to Lander. While he had seen the short-lived television series, it was the movie that thrilled him as he saw many parallels between his own life in a small town and that of the coming-of-age teens in “Breaking Away.”
Lander boasted a bike racing club and Campbell took advantage of this to develop his talent. Although he and his fellows did not know much about training–it was only in 1985 that Coach Eddie B.’s famous book “Bicycle Road Racing: The Complete Program for Training and Competition” was published to massive impact in the United States–he learned quickly and did well in the admittedly-limited world of Wyoming bike events.
There is much to entain in this well-written book. Reading about junior-level races is fun when viewed, as here, from the inside. There is a good deal of hero-worship but the idea that Americans would win gold at the Olympics or stages at the Grand Tours must have seemed amazing at the time. Other changes were afoot too–Campbell’s enthusiasm for alternate music, so different from the Country & Western playing on Lander’s radio station, and those exciting new-fangled MTV “music videos” is clear. Although half a century since their founding it is a bit odd to think of Ireland’s U2 as “alternate!”
1983 Red Zinger Mini Classic
Campbell’s racing nets him considerable success at the state level but one of the most interesting sections is a about a multi-day race for juniors, the Red Zinger Mini Classic. Participation in this race in Colorado was a huge goal for the young Campbell and in 1983 he had the opportunity to race it. It sounded like quite an education for young teens.
1984 Nationals
1984 Nationals
Interspersed with his own racing, including at the National level, he also saw those American pro riders, early in what would become huge careers. Colorado was THE hotbed of American racing at the time and attending the Coors Classic in 1985 he had the chance to meet his idol, Greg LeMond. In these early days, pro riders were approachable and make a positive impression on the boy from Lander.
Greg Lemond at the 1985 Coors Classic
Campbell’s cycling life even included a stint at the Olympic Training Camp in Colorado Springs, something made available to potential young stars. His test at the end of the session did not reveal impressive numbers but he seems to have been happy enough to have had the experience. While he continued to race through high school, and then at university in Oregon (where he was rated a 1989 Collegiate All-American), life took him in other directions as he became a teacher. He did manage to combine his old swimming skills with the cycling ones and became a triathlete. And in 2007 that kid who was so proud to have a Colnago cap came to Italy and visited the Colnago works and met Ernesto himself.
The promised land of Colnago
In cycling and triathlon Dave Campbell competed in some 900 races over 35 years and has even learned to appreciate Cowboy Country much more than he did as a quasi-rebellious youth upsetting church ladies in Lander. “Saddling Up to Ride in Cowboy Country” is an affectionate look back at his coming of age at the same that American bike racing was doing the same.
Author Dave Campbell
“Saddling Up to Ride in Cowboy Country” by Dave Campbell
255 pp., softbound
Powder River Publishing, Thermopolis, Wyoming, 2026
ISBN 978-1956881660
All images from the book
*** Available at AMAZON.COM HERE. ***
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