November 3/10 16:00 pm - 60 Cycles Brings Back Memories

Posted by Editoress on 11/3/10
 

We received a number of responses to our posting earlier today about Jean-Claude Labrecque's film on the 1965 Tour du St-Laurent (see Daily News: 60 Cycles - Historic Canadian Racing Film).

We asked if anyone knew the name of the title song, and who was the overall winner that year, which brought out some old timers (which, sadly, now appears to include me...). A number of people got the song title - Pipeline - but only one also got the winner, who was Rik Pauwels of Belgium.

Congratulations to Randell Butler, who correctly identified both, and gets a copy of Michael Barry's On the Postal Bus. Even though he didn't get the winner, Mike Gorman of Spokes For Folks in Lindsay, Ontario, will also receive a copy of Michael's book for his prodigious knowledge of the Canadians in the race and on film:

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I must have seen this film 100 times in the early seventies as we went from shopping mall to high schools in Ottawa with the OBC [Ottawa Bicycle Club] recruiting would be cyclists into the sport.

The opening strains of Pipeline by the Ventures always floods my imagination with the images of this film. There are brief glimpses of well known personalities in Canadian cyclesport who helped keep alive this sport we love. You can see Peter Tyler on a sprained ankle, hobbling back to the big black Mercury service car after a wheel change. Chrome fork tips, with lots of bend, 52-46 front rings with 14-22 5 speed cog sets, Legnanos, Peugeots, long wheelbases and tall fitted frames...