Grewal makes Flandis look sane......

Seriously.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

I was there that day he won in Mission Viejo in 1984. Really hot day...

I was not there, but lived in Escondido at the time. I could not imagine how that area has changed. I then moved to Mira Mesa, and Mira mesa blvd did not go through to the coast.

I was also there at the top of the climb, and I just found out that Dan was there too that day. I bet a lot of us were lined up on that course, it was quite excitiny to have the actual olympics come to our home turf, and it was free!!

It is cool if he is coming back, but my guess it will end up being more a masters thing. The real story that no one has written, is about another guy that was on our team that day, Thurlow Rogers. He is also over 50 and never quit racing. He still races pro, AG. and whatever race he can get into. There are so many stories of him doing the AG race, then running to the pro start, and finish in the winning breaks, if not winning out right. I would guess that he has done more pro races than anyone alive, and last I heard he is still pitching up every weekend. that is a story that I would like to know more about for sure.

Grewal's story is a little more sane. Personally, I think it's disgraceful that a former Gold Medal Olympian representing the United States in cycling has to practically beg for some support "from" the cycling community. He was training in his work boots, he's selling autographed t-shirts on ebay to raise funds. The fact that he's in Colorado with all the support there he should need right in front of him; former team members, multi-million dollar mail order bike shops, USA cycling, USA Olympic Training Center, etc. These stinkin' bike shops give away more free stuff to no name Cat 3's and Masters class riders!

I just feel at some point, no matter how weirded out he's become over time, he just "deserves" some respect. Hell, I'm just a working stiff and I contemplated the idea of forking over some dough for a decent bike for him. My wife cleared my sensibilities on that though. :)

Anyway, he's getting some help now and has a full racing calendar ahead. Let's just see what he can do @ 50 y.o. "dope free".

Alexigrewal.com

I watched the Olympic Road race live while I was touring through Germany as a college student....at the time, I did not even know who Steve Bauer was:



This was a classic race!

I watched the Olympic Road race live while I was touring through Germany as a college student....at the time, I did not even know who Steve Bauer was:

I was at a Christmas Party back in December that both Steve Bauer and I happened to be at. I had not seen Steve or talked to him for a few years, so it was good to catch up. Of course we talked SpiderTech and the great success that he and the team are having, but we also got onto the topic of Grewal some how and that hot afternoon in 1984 in Mission Veijo. To this day, Bauer thought that he had him, as Grewal was never known much for his sprint. It was a Pro career launching day for Bauer, even though he finished second on the day. Grewal went onto some modest success beyond that in the Pro ranks( Pros were not allowed to race in the Olympics at the time), but never reached the heights that Bauer did racing Professionally - Steve really was one of the Hard-Men of the Pro Peleton and one of the most respected riders of his era.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

A lot of Grewal's circumstances are down to the choices he made, not being neglected by anyone. If you read up on the last decade of his life, you'll see that he is a pretty strange duck.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

He looks a lot better now that a dentist donated time and replaced his two front teeth.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I have a memory of running from the street after they passed on each lap into a pizza joint to watch the TV feed and then coming back outside for the next pass - probably near Marguerite and La Paz - here's a map of the circuit:

http://www.bikely.com/...ic-Road-Race-Circuit

The finish line is still prominently marked on the road and with a monument, you can see it in Google Maps street view:

Olympic Road Race finish line

What a great day of free entertainment.

My other recollection of Grewal is reading some quote from him back then about early season training, where he described "walking" up climbs (riding standing in a very low gear at a very easy pace) to avoid thrashing his knees as he got in shape. At least I think that was him, could have been Hampsten but I'm pretty sure it was Grewal. I still do that from time to time, imagining wearing a 7-11 jersey, mainly as an excuse for climbing slowly :)

Steve Tilford is still racing Pro in his 50s as well. How soon they forget Mr. Grewal was lucky to get an Olympic ride as he had a positive drug test a couple weeks out. Unlike Cantador and his" tainted meat", Alex was taking "herbs" with Ephedra. Oops. But that is ok cause most of the other guys in the peloton were "blood packing". The stories of the bad job the Americans did with the transfusions, it is a wonder nobody died. Those were the days.

Skip, thanks for that. I wasn't able to get close to the finish line, but did do a lot of walking that day between the mens & womens
road races. Both races could've gone either way, Steve Bauer (who worked a lot harder that day) or Rebecca Twigg, who was in
fantastic form as well.

As an aside, another vivid memory I have is at the Velodrome in the mens Individal Pursuit, Steve Hegg racing against some guy
who fell right at the start line, and there he lying on the track, trying to get up and Hegg unknowingly coming around with his head
still down....at the very last moment saw him, and was able to jump his Huffy over him doing 35 mph...Amazing!

Good on ya for mentioning the women's race and the Carpenter-Twigg duel. I want to say it was less crowded and I actually watched that sprint coming up the hill from somewhere beyond the finish line in person, but I suppose I could be transplanting a memory of seeing it from the TV shot. I can't solidly remember if I took a bike up there, which would make it more likely that I actually roamed as far north as the finish line at that earlier point in the day. But looking at the large bleacher crowd in this picture I'm going to guess I was further south on the course in the pizza joint and I'm just imagining that I saw it in the flesh.

Photos of the restoration of Carpenter's bike, with a small snapshot of the finish

Edit: doh! That's not a photo series of a restoration, it's a series showing the progress of a painting of the bike!!

I was 7 years old in 1984, and my family and I lived right off La Paz/Olympic. We watched the race go by, and I don't think I could've cared less. Now some 26 years later, I'm very interested in Grewal's comeback. Crazy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tWg_CR43rg

Love those head tubes and long chain stays.. Thanks for posting

But that is ok cause most of the other guys in the peloton were "blood packing". The stories of the bad job the Americans did with the transfusions, it is a wonder nobody died. Those were the days\\

First of all, it was legal back then, not sure if you were inferring that it was not. And secondly, they were using whole blood for a time, so not much chance of hitting a Pantani 60+% HCT. I don't know when they figured out to just use the red blood cells, but I remembering hearing that guys would put away entire pints of blood and tranfuse that. There was a video of one guy getting a direct tranfusion from his mother I think, or some other relative with the same blood type. My guess is that type of blood packing did'nt do much more than training at very high altitudes. Not til EPO was it easy to jack up the HCT % to dangerous levels, and guys started dying left and right. Probably the worst thing back then was getting a dirty needle or the wrong blood type.

I think it was about a year ago Twiggs hooker sold on e-bay. I would love to have it.

You are correct Monty, blood boosting at that time was not against the rules but was certainly against the spirit of the rules. My biggest problem was the bad job they did with the transfusions. No medical testing was done at all about compatability and contamination. Even though most of the transfusions were of the same type blood and a blood relative there are a whole bunch more things that can go wrong with doing a blind transfusion. Transfusions can have the receiver develop antibodies to proteins in the other persons blood, and good things like Hep C and HIV can be in a relatives blood as well as a stranger.. In females this can be pretty important in childbearing later, and can complicate your future transfusions should you ever need them.

Actually Monty, we were doing about half the hospital transfusions with whole blood in the early 80s. Around 1990 was when it was almost universally accepted to use PRCs. It is lucky for them they were using whole cells because you sort of have to have some skill to spin blood without damaging the cells. You can actually raise the htc pretty well with whole blood if the subject can handle the volume. The blood I hung today said 450cc Whole blood used to get 350 cc Packed cells. Most healthy adults can get a couple liters of fluids without the fear of fluid overload. So in theory they could get 900cc whole blood for 2 units paacked cells pretty easily. So you could probably raise your hct 5-10 points that way. I am usually at 45-47 so I could be easy mid 50s with a couple units..

It is scary to me that there was no QC done on the temperature, storage, sterile techniques, or duration of the transfusion. We have to document temp, time, match numbers and monitor VS during the transfusion. I was not there, but I am thinking with what Les Earnest wrote in his report that it was pretty backroom stuff. I hang blood 3 or 4 days a week and believe me when I say hospitals do a much safety testing as we can possibly think of and still have an occasional transfusion reaction. They easily could have killed someone. I suggest everyone to read Les Earnest 's Article about Vampires at the 1984 Olympics and see the crap that came down the pipe in the USCF shortly after.

Like I said those were the days.

HI, my name is Ricardo Ricco and I am a complete a$$hat!!

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Thurlow is still in the middle of it and putting the hurt on fields. I've raced against him a couple times recently and I think nlsckevin was a teammate a few years ago. He's a remarkable rider and still brings it.

I'm doing the Merco stage race next week, which is reported to be Grewal's next race. Will be interesting to see him go against some other domestic pros. It won't be an Olympic-caliber field but not a bunch of patsies either.

I wish him the best. Short story.
I was 19 and living in a small town in Zomergem,Belgium on my way to securing my first Pro contract. An English family, the Deans had a house in the same town and put up foreign racers for like $100 bucks a month. The house was right up the street from where I lived and I got to know the racers that they took in.
Alexi moved in with the Deans. I got to know him pretty well since we would ride 1-2 hours to a race...do the race 110-130km....then ride back to Zomergem.
He had a very difficult time adjusting to the Flanders style of racing. Bluntly...he was so bad that the Belgians called him names and told him to go home.
I felt really sorry for him but he stuck it out. I believe that the Belgian experience made him tougher for the best.

I sincerely wish you the best....Alexi !

His own recollection (posted in a prior thread) http://alexigrewal.com/...a-the-olympics-in-la

Careful on disgracing an Olympian stuff. I was a big fan but even Alexi admits that much of the grief he's endured was self imposed. I'm glad he's doing better. That image of the Olympic finish is iconic. It's up there with Lance's finish at Sestriere.