Bob McDermand Story
By Steve Sloan©
June 01, 2001
http://www.stevesloan.sjsu.edu/personal/essays/bob_m01.htm
Bob
McDermand, of San Jose
California, turned 60 this year. He
plans to celebrate his birthday in a way many cyclists just dream of.
Bob will ride his bicycle across America.
He isn’t planning to go on a supported tour.
Bob plans to do his ride solo. He
will be carrying his own gear. And,
Bob plans to average 150 miles a day.
If I didn’t know Bob I’d say he is nuts. But, I know Bob. Bob can do it and Bob will do it. In 1990, shortly before turning 50, Bob made his first solo cross-country trip. He left San Jose on May 26, 1990.
Carrying about 50 pounds of gear, on the first day of his ride, Bob rode 126 miles to Stockton. His route took him over the top of Mount Hamilton. By day six he had climbed over the Sierras and was in east Nevada headed toward the Utah border. That day he had already climbed five passes. He was headed toward the climb up the sixth pass.
Bob was then 49 years old. He kept a journal of the trip. In it he wrote, “at the valley’s end I could see lightning and I kept trying to will the road to turn before I got there. I began climbing the sixth and last pass of the day, as I did the rain began.” Bob is no stranger to riding in the rain. He is a year-round bike commuter, riding in all weather, in addition to his long distance rides. On this day he saw many storms in the Nevada desert. Until now he had managed to skirt around them all.
He recently described what happened. As he climbed the pass the thunder was so intense it was a constant roar he could feel in his skull. He was inside the storm clouds. There were no trees. At one point a bolt of lightning passed directly in front of him, horizontally. There was no place to hide if he got off the bike, he figured he was safer on the bike. He hoped he was insulated from the ground by his bike’s tires.
In his trip journal Bob wrote, “by the time I reached the top it was a cloud burst with constant claps of thunder and lightning bolts that seemed closer than any I had ever seen anywhere.” Bob reached the Utah border that day. As he continued his ride across the country, he wrote, “Every day is filled with all kinds of adventures and events I can never anticipate. Just like trying to predict how the road is going to turn next.”
On his 1990 trip Bob averaged 135 miles a day. He had 7 flats and some broken spokes. Twenty-nine days into the ride, near Skaneateles, New York, his crank fell apart on a climb. He was able to coast downhill to a café and called a bike shop back in Cupertino. It was a Saturday. They said they could Fed-Ex a replacement crank to Bob, but the soonest Bob would have it would be Tuesday. Then, by a stroke of luck, a cyclist training for a triathlon rode by. The cyclist stopped and talked to Bob. He had a crank at home just like the one that broke on Bob’s bike. The cyclist rode home and then returned in his car. He brought the crank plus the tools to fix Bob’s bike.
While working on Bob’s bike they discovered the bike’s frame had a severe crack in the bottom bracket all along the base of the seat tube. Bob had only two days of riding left. Despite taking the time to do the work, Bob rode over 104 miles that day. The next day, despite the failing and cracked bike frame, he rode over 143 miles!
On the final day of the ride the frame broke completely. Bob finished his ride sitting down so the loose seat post wouldn’t come out of its socket in the bottom bracket. He ended up in Weathersfield, Vermont. Even with the broken frame he rode over 103 miles on that last day. He said in his journal, “it was a day of slow uncomfortable riding, frustrating because I could have made such short work of this ride.”
Years later, Bob said of his ride, “the thing that it did for me was it really re-introduced me to the country. I had lived in the country, in New Hampshire, before I came to San Jose. The trip reintroduced me to real people from coast-to-coast. I threw myself on the mercy of the country and everybody I met, without exception, was great. Nobody gave me a negative reception. It renewed my faith in our country and the American dream. This really is a great country!”
Bob started cycling in 1972 when he was 32 years old. In 1975, at 35 (an age many cyclists are ending a racing career) Bob started racing. He won in his age group in the Maine – New Hampshire district road race and time trial in 1979, 1980 and 1981. He rode in the Nationals in 1980. Bob has been in the San Jose Bike Club since 1987 and regularly races in their winter series, he said, with mixed success.
Besides his 1990 cross-country trip, Bob has made many other cross-country trips. In 1994 Bob rode the Pacific Coast from Vancouver, BC to San Diego. In 1995 he rode the coast again, from San Jose to San Diego. In 1996 Bob rode the length of the Alaska Highway. In 1998 he rode from San Jose to Boulder Colorado. In 1999 he rode through Yellowstone and the Teton national parks, along with his wife Nancy, on a tandem. In addition he and Nancy have been on three cycling trips in France on their tandem.
This year, before he makes this year’s cross-America trip, Bob and Nancy are again going on a cycling adventure in France. On this year’s cross-country trip Bob plans to follow the same route as his 1990 trip. It is not an easy route. It crosses the Rockies over Trail Ridge. At 12,100 feet Bob said the road over the ridge is the highest paved road in the continental United States.
This time Bob will have the advantage of technology. Nancy is making him take a cell phone. He is planning to do the trip on his Klein Quantum 2 racing bike. He has a rack that clips onto his seat post and he hopes to travel light, with only 20-25 pounds of gear.
According to Bob, to prepare for a trip like this you need to be sure your equipment is not going to let you down. You can be in the best shape, and can have the best weather, but if your bicycle is not up to the trip it can be a real pain in the butt. He said he has passed a lot of cyclists on the side of the road on his trips whose equipment wasn’t working and wasn’t up to the task.
Bob said the physical side of riding cross-country is not that demanding. He said, “Anybody can do it. Your body works into it. While on the trips I can eat as much and whatever I want. Every day is an adventure. It feels like being a pioneer. On my ride cross-country I could just imagine how it must have been for the people who walked across the plains alongside their wagons.”
Bob works as head of outreach in the library at San Jose State University. Bob and Nancy have a son, Michael. Bob is a natural born cyclist. He has that certain genetic thing some are born with that training only augments. I met Bob one morning while cycling to work myself. Now, Bob and I regularly bike commute together. We also have gone on recreational rides together.
On one rainy ride up the steep backside of Mount Hamilton, Bob said to me, “When I am riding I feel like a whippet. You know, those dogs with incredible lung capacity who are born to run?” I said, “right now I feel more like a beagle.” I gave up trying to keep up with Bob and told him I would meet him later in San Jose. Bob quickly disappeared in front of me climbing up the mountain. Bob is 15 years older than I am.
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This page last updated:
October 08, 2001
Steve Sloan, San Jose, CA, USA