Alastair is a local inspiration not only because he has cycled at a high level since the early 1980s, but also because of a dramatic comeback after a nasty neck/head injury 2 years ago. In Alastair’s profile below, his long relationship with bicycle racing will bring back memories for Masters riders, provide some background for younger riders, and a bit of inspiration for everyone.
Age: 57; Born October 29, 1952
Education: BS in Psychology from UW (1974). First 2½ years at Whitman College. Finished at UW (should have stayed at Whitman College)
Employment/Work/Career:
Remodeling contractor and designer of contemporary styled homes
Year started cycling?: 1983
A Cat 2 race at Volunteer Park in April 1988. Photo by by John Pratt.
What bikes are you currently riding?:
-Prime road bike is an Xplosiv (a Taiwan version of a Masi….built with their blessing)
-Quintana Roo Lucero TT bike.
-Look 461 for spring and fall transition.
-Landshark track bike with Russian team disc.
I also have a 1985 Rossin, 1998 Landshark, 1983 Guerciotti (track) and a 1989 Davidson Stiletto (the significance of this last one will become obvious later in this interview)
Any other cycling gear you love at the moment?
My Reynolds DVT46 carbon wheels.
What were your athletic experiences before cycling?
Ran track and cross country in high school. Alpine ski racing 1977 to 1982.
How did you get into cycling?
Will Fernyhough took me to a Tuesday night race at Seattle International Raceway. I think it cost $2 then. After one hour, I was hooked for good.
What does your yearly cycling schedule look like? Miles per week/year?
I don’t record my mileage or number of hours although I can guess that I probably ride about 8000 miles a year. Late winter and early spring features longer rides with not too much intensity. As the racing season nears (April for me), I add in some pretty hard tempo rides along with hills and perhaps some 10-15 minute intervals. I don’t train with any power meters and the like. It’s all by feel.
What other sports do you do?
Starting in 1993, I got into vintage auto racing with my 67′ Mustang. This was road racing, not drag racing. My races were mainly at SIR and PIR. Auto racing was something that I had always dreamed of doing since I was a kid. It is unbelievably fun and every bit as addictive as bicycle racing. Like bike racing, one feels VERY alive in an auto race. Because of widespread unhappiness within the vintage racing organization I was with, I moved to ICSCC (Conference as it is called) in 2001. While I loved that organization and the racing, my growing commitment to bicycle racing overshadowed auto racing to the point that I only did the last race of the year in October. My license has since expired a few years ago as I haven’t been out since about 2006.
Alastair in a 1990 Friday night Miss and Out. Also in the race: Paul Henderson (Canadian pursuit champion at the time, in the yellow jersey), Todd Gallaher (still racing very well today) and Terry Buchanan (retired). Photo courtesy Marianne McCoy.
You were in a serious accident in October 2007. What happened and what injuries did you suffer?
I was on a group ride with First Rate Mortgage heading down to Renton on Rainier Ave. Someone ran over a black stiletto shoe that was laying on the road (I would like to know how it got there…) It tumbled into my path. I had a split second to decide what to do. Rather than swerve and cause a crash, I opted to run over it.
In an instant, I was upside down grinding my head into the pavement very conscious of the many pops happening in my neck. This resulted in a trip to Harborview spitting blood all over the ambulance. As this was going on, I kept thinking about how Duane Allman (from the Allman Brothers Band) died from a basal skull fracture after hitting a peach truck with his motorcycle. I wondered whether this would be the way I would sign out.
After X-rays and CAT scans at Harborview, sure enough, I had a basal skull fracture along with a chipped C6, several broken ribs and multiple fractures in the side of my face.
I spent 3 days at Harborview Self Service Hospital.
12 days later, I had 3 titanium plates installed in my face to repair all the fractures. For about the next 8 days, the pain from the broken ribs felt like being stabbed with a knife randomly and without warning. Overshadowing the next 10 weeks was a severe lack of energy and endurance. The simplest tasks wore me out. Sleeping in a bed was out of the question. Instead, I slept on the sofa which had just the right softness and cant on the seat cushion. Katie, one of our two cats, earned her keep forever by keeping me company pretty much the entire time. To this day, I still have an “unhappy” neck (the mirror I ride with helps make up for the lack of mobility). I also have numbness down the left side of my face. As beaten up as I was from this accident, I feel very lucky to have no spinal cord/nerve damage. Riding my bike and racing after all this is nothing but a bonus in life for me.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to once again thank Martha Walsh for all her attention to me.
20-somethings: Fear this. Proof that old men know how to suffer. Alastair sporting the Miami J neck collar he wore for 3 months, 24/7 after his collision with the stiletto shoe on Rainier.
Members of the cycling community are inspired by your speedy recovery. What contributed to recovering so quickly?
Lots of sleep with Katie our cat. Nancy, my wife for 26 years, also came through with cooking all the dinners and basically did all the share that I would normally do.
Outside of cycling, tell us about some of your other interests.
One of my hobbies is photography (all film) with my main interest in doing black and white nudes. I flip flop between abstractions and frank expressions. It is always my intent to find a way to honor that person, or in other words, celebrate who they are. While many who see my work seem to “get” what I am doing, there are the unfortunate others who equate nudity with sex and therefore, misunderstand the content. For sure, there is an eroticism in pretty much all my images but rather than being an expression of sexual desire, I seek to show in a glimpse (that is by nature what a photograph is…a glimpse) of that person’s sensuality.
Aside from my photography, I have two wonderful boys (Stuart 16 and Davis, 18–named after Davis Phinney) who I am constantly checking on what they are up to. Stuart is very musical and plays a number of different instruments and listens to a lot of music. I encourage him as much as possible to keep searching and learning. Davis just bought a ’67 Mustang that will get a big make over. This will obviously be a great father/son experience. I also enjoy both of them being involved in competitive rowing.
Ever since tasting a bottle of 1971 BV Cabernet Sauvignon in 1974, I have been a wine enthusiast complete with a wine cellar and lots of fond memories of wonderful wines.
Another interest I have is a love for antique Caucasian rugs. Typically, these are made by tribal women with each rug replete with imperfections, odd little creatures and other symbols. I much prefer going to Oasis Rugs than any bike shop.
You have a particular interest in nudity…tell us about that.
I wouldn’t say so much that I have a “particular interest in nudity” but rather a “comfort with nudity”. Up until I was 11 years old, I was raised on a corn/pork farm in NW Illinois. In spite of my parents’ casual attitude toward nudity, I was obsessed with staying covered up. During the summer of 1963, our family went to England for several months with the idea that we might move there (my mother was English). They put me in a boarding school for the summer term that changed my life forever. After classes let out on the first day, everyone including the teachers went down to the swimming pool, took off their clothes and went swimming. Here I was fresh off the farm quietly freaking out by what I was seeing. Tracy Tynon (also 11 years old) came up to me buck naked and all wet. Realizing my distressed state, she said some words to comfort me. After about 10 minutes of intense deliberations within my head, I took off my clothes and jumped in. Ever since then, I have had trouble keeping clothes on.
Fast forwarding to August, 2008, I participated in a WNBR (World Naked Bike Ride) that started at Denny Blaine beach. After getting all painted up, about 30 of us rode down to Seward Park, did the large loop, rode back by Denny Blaine beach, through the Arboreteum, University Way, down Ravenna Blvd to the Burke Gilman trail and onto Magnuson Park. Being obliged to return home to help make dinner for some friends coming over that night, I split off from the group short of Magnuson Park. I rode back up the Burke Gilman trail, crossed over at Hec Ed, Montlake Bridge, Arboreteum and home. Interestingly, during the part when I was riding by myself, the only hoots and hollers I heard (I think they were positive) was when I had to wait a few minutes at the Montlake Bridge as it went up. After telling Chris Gulick of my day, I was sure he was going to have a hernia as he was laughing so hard. I’ve got to say that it is really fun to ride through the city for a few hours naked on an 80 degree day.
Other naked bike riding has included the Fremont Solstice St. Fair in 2008 and 2009 and streaking the last Tuesday nighter at SIR from about 1999 to 2007.
In conclusion about all this nudity stuff, all I can simply say is that it is not about sex but more about just being comfortable in my own skin and having the freedom within myself to not wear clothes if the weather and other circumstances seem right. In looking around me, my wish for society (Americans) is to lose its’ shame for who we are without clothes and gain an acceptance of who we are as sensual beings.
Alastair as the sole WSBA representative in the 2008 Fremont Solstice Parade.
Tell us about some of your cycling highlights:
After 19 years of racing (there was an 8 year hiatus between 1991 and 1998), I am fortunate to have a lot to choose from. While I was a very solid local rider, I was never national class. In the mid 80’s however, I did race in a few NRC criteriums (at least the first half of the race anyway) with the likes of Tom Broznowski, Davis Phinney, Kent Bostick and Ron Peirce. In the late 80’s I got pretty good at the track and went on to being seasons points champion in ’88 and ’89, and was the elite men’s points race champion in 89′ and 90′. I won a few Cat 2 criteriums (there were no Cat. 1’s then as there were only about 100 in the entire country.)
After returning to racing in 1999, I dedicated myself more to the road and only raced track when it fit the road schedule. Since that time, I’ve won the BARR 6 times (4 times as a Master D and the other 2 times as a Master B). Thanks in part to the inspiration of Glenn Bunselmeyer, I have become an OK time trialer. I won the state Master D TT in 2006 and 2007. In 2007, I won both TT’s at the national senior games in Louisville and then just this year, I won the senior games 40K road race near Palo Alto. I did that in a two up break and then came in all by myself to the finish…the best way to win a race. Back in 2002, I came back from track nationals in Colorado Springs (with altitude enhanced blood) and won the elite men’s state points race at the age of 50. I’m fairly sure that no one has won the state points races spanning 3 decades (89,90 and 02) in this state. Other notables are a few medals at track nationals in 99, 02 and 03. Enough of all these results.
More interestingly I think is what I’ve seen in how the sport has evolved since 1983. Racing is definitely on a much higher level now than back then. Equipment has changed right along too. In 1983, everyone had 5 speed friction shifters (no indexing…you had to tune the chain to be quiet on the selected cog), wool shorts (with just a piece of leather for a chamois), steel bikes, toe straps, helmets were just being mandated but that could include the leather strap helmet, tubular tires were the only racing tire choice, a light bike weighed about 21 pounds. Two of the neatest innovations that came along soon after in about 1985 were Lycra shorts and indexed down tube 6 speed shifting (Shimano). The only thing from back then that is missing now are silk-cased tubular tires. There is nothing as nice to ride on (to my knowledge anyway) as a Clement Criterium Seta Extra.
Tell us about your most memorable ride:
Probably winning the state points race in 1989. It was a very hard won race in which only two of us finished two laps up on the pack.
What’s your favorite Seattle-area ride?
May Valley. But where I really like to ride is in Maui. We have a condo there and we usually go there in February for 10-12 days. I would be out the door by sunrise and return by about noon. Pack up the bags and the family would head off to Little Beach (clothing optional) until after sunset. Come back to the condo, BBQ some fish, drink wine, sleep and then repeat the process the next day. Yah!
As the 2009 road season winds down, what’s on your radar for 2010?
Oddly enough, I don’t really have any goals for next year. I just want to race and cause as much trouble in the peloton as possible. Ski to Sea is always one of my favorite races during the year.
What keeps you excited about cycling?
All the training and racing keeps me feeling healthy and vital. Also, without intending to, I guess I’ve been an inspiration to others that one can keep racing after 50.
What obstacles get in the way of cycling?
Stiletto shoes lying in the shoulder of Rainier Blvd. are a big obstacle. Joking aside, I hate to admit it but age is taking chunks out of me in terms of maximum heart beats and strength. It is pretty disappointing how easily I go into the red zone now compared to even just a few years ago.
Do you have any advice for folks getting into cycling?
It’s a far more dangerous sport than auto racing (I’m not kidding) so beyond getting fit, learn how to ride your bike both in traffic and in the peloton. In addition, keep the sport fun and let the results fall where they do. Many riders become disillusioned with the sport if they are too focused on just results.
The Velocity Blog’s “Rider Profiles” highlight the accomplishments of some of our amazing local cycling athletes, and provides insight into their lives that may inspire us all.
