To all - just got back from Utah - where my father won his 18th National Age Group Championship as a competitive cyclist!  The course was actually out at Antelope Island - hilly, windy and hot.  He did very well, finishing the course with a smile on his face and to the cheers of all present.  At the awards ceremony he received a standing ovation - both for his age (the oldest competitor licensed by the United States Cycling Federation, by over 10 years, at 91 years old), and for his lifetime of achievements in the sport of cycling, which include:  18 national age group championships, Olympic cyclist in 1932 and 1936 (Los Angeles and Berlin, Germany), holder of the national 100 kilometer individual time trial record of 2 hours 25 minutes that stood for over 50 years, and inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1997 - where the likes of Major Taylor, Jackie Simes, John Howard and Greg LeMond were also inducted.

 

A recent book by Roy M. Wallack and Bill Katovsky  "Bike for Life:  How to Ride to 100" has a 9-page interview with my father.  Roy calls him "The Grand Old Man of American Cycling", and apparently that moniker stuck - as the announcers kept coming back to him by that tagline throughout the event.  Most of the cycling community has simply called him "The Legend" for years - also an apt name.

 

At 91, he still rides quite fast - but the hilly course in Utah took its toll.  Even so, he did very well - and the national cycling community embraced his ageless enthusiasm and spirit.

 

We are back home now in St. Petersburg, Florida - where he is tending his garden, and riding with his friends and family once again.  Back to the routine - 30-40 miles a day, five days a week, 7,000+ miles a year - and he'll be 92 in October.  Not too shabby!

 

 

The gentleman with my father is Robert Bergen, from (San Diego Bicycle Club), California - a relatively young 80 years old.  They raced against each other back in the late 1930's. 

 

 

The woman with my father is Barbara Buchan (Eugene, Oregon), an elite athlete in her youth who survived a horrific accident and now competes as a disabled athlete.  She is the current World and National champion for her category, and actually beat some of the able-bodied women at this year's national cycling championships! 

 

 

The black and white picture is of my father on the SS Manhattan on his way to Nazi Germany for the 1936 Olympics.  He's the muscular guy standing on the right side of the picture.

 

 

By the way, if some of you are wondering, he won his first bicycle race in 1928 at the ripe old age of 15.  Four years later at the age of 19 he participated in his first Olympics held at Los Angeles in 1932, and in 1936 (age 23), when he was over in Berlin, Germany - at what became known as the Hitler Olympics -  "...he hob-knobbed with Frank Wykoff and Jesse Owens and the other track athletes (even talking several  of them, including Owens, into taking a ride on his bicycle for the press!)"

 

John Sinibaldi, Jr.

 

PS:  John Sinibaldi's secret to a long life:

1. Eat your vegetables. 

2. Work in the garden.

3. Listen to classical music. 

4. Walk barefoot whenever possible. 

5. Avoid TV as much as you can. 

6. Read the paper front to back every day,

7. Work the crossword puzzle. 

8. Eat red meat sparingly. 

9. Don't smoke. 

10. Hug all the girls at every opportunity. 

11. And ride your bike like crazy.  :)

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http://www.sptimes.com/2003/10/03/Floridian/Nine_decades_of_wheel.shtml

E-Mail John Sinibaldi, Jr. concerning questions regarding his incredible father.