It was 50 years ago when Bill Humphreys participated in his first world championships, riding for Team USA in Barcelona at the 1973 Road Worlds. He was a domestique back then and did not even try to contend for a medal, the gold that year taken by Italian Felice Gimondi and Belgian Eddy Merckx finishing one spot off the podium.
In 1999, 26 years on, Humphreys made his second world championship team, this time representing the US in mountain bike cross-country in Mount-Saint-Anne in Quebec. There he finished third in his age group.
This year Humphreys is looking for a gold medal at the Gravel World Championships in Leuven, Belgium, where he qualified at the Highlands Gravel Classic for the men’s 80-84 age division. Across the 88km event on October 5, a Belgian, this time Roger Landeloos, is the one rider he has to beat for his world title.
“So what if there’s only two of us? He’s a Belgian. I want to come over here and race this guy. He lives here. He’s ridden the course for a freaking year. He’ll whip your ass. Well, he’s been following me on Strava,” Bill Humphreys told Cyclingnews three days before race day.
Like 1999, Humphreys is joined by his son Ian, who was a toddler when his father received a bronze medal in Mont-Sainte-Anne. This time Ian is in his mid-20s and an active part of dad’s support crew.
“Yeah, I got on the podium. It was a dream, and I got him [Ian] on the podium, so I got the metal put around his neck,” Humphreys said about another try for a championship medal that he can share with family.
“I was telling Ian, there’s only one other guy and he’s a Belgian. I wouldn’t have it any other way. And, you know, I said to him, I’m fucking 80 years old, am I gonna start playing tough guy, start playing macho games with the guy. What are you nuts?”
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Shimano, Litespeed, and Bike Fitting Ireland are among 13 corporate sponsors and 56 individual contributors who helped Humphreys make the trip to Belgium, with financial and equipment support. But he hasn’t always been addicted to gravel. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that he found new exhilaration with a different form of off-road racing near his home in New England.
“So I did a lot of exploring, and I found dirt roads near my house, and you’re going only three miles from home, and you still don’t know where you are, wow. So that was it, the adventure. It’s like, you know, you’re a little kid, you’re 80 years old, but you’re a little kid again.”
With just one year of road racing under his belt as a young man, Humphreys finished top 15 at the US National Championship in the road race and was the third rider from his Century Road Club to finish. Based on that performance, he was asked to go ride the Tour of Ireland to support his two team leaders, three-time Olympian John Howard and two-time Olympian John Allis. Howard went on to win a stage and finished third overall at the Tour of Ireland.
Humphreys described Allis as, “a true pioneer of road racing in the United States in the early 60s”, and it was Allis who asked the US cycling federation to appoint Humphreys to the Worlds team since they were all familiar with each other and would already be overseas.
“All three going to the Worlds with a stage race in our legs, it was unheard of. The team used to just fly over, get their ass kicked and fly home, OK? And so that was the landmark breakthrough,” he recalled.
The selection process was not as streamlined as the present, as he said “I was it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and never giving up”.
“In those days these guys raced for years to learn what you learned, and you didn’t give it up. You were finishing every race you started and not being afraid to be a domestique for a lot of big egos. I worked my way up the list, and when I finally made the team, my job was totally a domestique.”
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He had been out of racing for some time and had worked in sales for Litespeed and moved into the race promotion business. With a move to Connecticut, he picked up a mountain bike and began racing again. When he found out Masters Worlds for mountain bike would be in Quebec, a car drive from Connecticut, he was up for the challenge.
“I learned from a bunch of young married guys with kids that used to go out together, and they didn’t know me, and it was no pressure. I had the skills in the woods, I had the bike handling skills, and I loved it. And we used to go to a lot of races – local races and big ones. I would always be in the top three or four in my age group.”
Humphreys will ride a Litespeed gravel bike in Belgium, and just wants to enjoy the experience, but he could not hide his intent to compete too.
“The challenge is to finish, and that’s the participation end of the sport. So I haven’t really raced. I’ve just gone and finished and gravel. That’s fine,” he said. “I have hardly ridden the course at all. My coach has got me on resting. Rest when you’re 80 is even more important, you know, it’s like you’re an invalid. I’ve never rested this much in my life.”
His competition Landeloos is ready for the competition and also faces the unknown. “Sports is and remains my passion, and I prove that age does not matter,” he told HLN.com this week.
The two can certainly agree on that. As Humphreys put it,”We’re both 80, so the approach is, I want to get to know the guy, but not until after the race.”
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