From the President

by Earl Jones

Well, the Rally is over. The folks who attended the League American of Bicyclists National Rally have gone home. They left singing Louisville’s praises and those of LBC. Based on the evaluation sheets they enjoyed the routes and the sights, but the most consistently favorable comments were for the club members who served as volunteers.

Over 50 club members helped with route development and marking, registration and information, workshop presentations, ride captaining and sag support. You were always gracious, even in the stifling heat. I had to spend a lot of time at League board meetings and didn’t get to do as many fun things as I wanted to. But I did go to the ice cream social to introduce Tom Owen who gave a wonderful talk about Louisville’s history. I also did the RiverWalk ride led by Bill Herron, Louisville’s Director of Public Works. What a treasure this is for our community. And I attended a seminar on a topic that has fascinated me since I was a kid: Lewis and Clark’s journey of discovery from the Falls of the Ohio to the Pacific Ocean. Jim Holmberg, curator of the Filson Club Historical Society, made the presentation.

Saturday evening’s Town Meeting took us back to Louisville in the 1890’s when the League held several events here, including biannual conventions in 1894, 1896 and a racing meet in 1897. Courier-Journal reporter Joe Ward, the Club’s historian who has posted a lot of information about those days on the LBC website, gave a very funny talk that included excerpts from contemporary news accounts of turn-of-the-century cycling events.

The Town Meeting also included a tribute to Marshall “Major” Taylor, the African-American racer who overcame racism to become the sprint world-champion in 1896. The tribute commemorated the League’s return to Louisville, where, at the League of American Wheelmen 1894 convention, a color-ban was adopted that stripped African-American cyclists of membership. Although the ban has not been observed for many years, no record of formal record of revocation has been found so the League board passed a resolution to do so.

I was proud that the League staff decided to hold the Rally in Louisville. But I was even prouder of you. Only a club as good as ours could have done it. Thanks to everyone who helped out. But special thanks to Jim McDonald and the Touring Committee for pulling the rides together and Jim Tretter for pulling everything else together.

Now on to the Old Kentucky Home Tour.

o o o o o

[We received the following e-mail from Jody Newman of the League of American Bicyclists thanking the LBC for a job well-done — Editor]

From: Jody Newman
Organization: League of American Bicyclists
Subject: Thanks for the great Rally!!

To the Louisville Bicycle Club, for making the National Rally such a great success.

Thanks to all of you for all the hard work and wonderful choices that resulted in a really terrific Rally! The biking and routes were great, the waterfront a terrific location, the hotel rooms bigger than my apartment, the special things to do in Louisville fascinating, the workshops interesting. And all of your volunteers were friendly and helpful -- I got lots of positive feedback from participants about how nice the “local club” was.

We know that it takes months and months (or years) of effort on the part of many to make a weekend like this a great experience for so many Rally goers. So on behalf of all of the participants and of the League of American Bicyclists, thanks to all of you!!

-- Jody Newman
League of American Bicyclists

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