I lived in Vail in the mid-1980’s and was lucky to see two stages of the Coors Classic: A criterium in Vail Village, and a mountain stage that finished at Copper Mountain. My records are fuzzy, so the date is +/- a year, which is barely rounding error these days. Aside from a few of the big names, my buddies and I didn’t have much of a clue about who or what we were watching, we just knew it was cool.
Davis Phinney, a blonde American in third wheel, and zee Badger in the background. Image by Dave Seifert.
To put things in perspective, I remember that a group of us rode mountain bikes to the criterium, and were preoccupied with the discovery that Grolsch beer bottles fit perfectly into water bottle cages. Staying hydrated is essential, especially at altitude. One could hypothesize that the evolution of mountain bike suspension systems was motivated by the need to keep those Grolsch bottles from breaking.
Coors Classic riders streak through Vail Village.
We were able to get close to the riders before the race and I remember that we gawked at the size of Eric Heiden’s 27-inch thighs.
Check out those 1986 hairdos in the crowd.
The racers indirectly inspired several of us to add road bikes to our toy collections. The mountain bikes were mostly Diamondbacks (I think some of us got a pro deal on them), but there was a highly-coveted Ritchey in the crowd. By the next season the road bikes started to appear: A Centurion Dave Scott, a Serotta, a Bianchi…
A determined racer in the Rockies.
