But he was so nervous about taking the leap that he didn’t race that first year. In the spring of 1984, Elliston persuaded his mom to spring for a racing license. Also pictured is Dave Lieb, one of guys that I started racing with, kneeling in Peugeot hat and glasses.” Bill Elliston (second from right) at the 1983 Five Boro Bike Tour in New York City: “A local shop owner (on far left) took me in. He started hanging out with two kids his age who were into bike racing. “He was a lot older than me but he showed me the ropes, taught me a little about training and pacelining,” Elliston says.
His mom had a friend whose son was a bike racer, and he took a 13-year-old Elliston out for a couple of rides. But I stuck with it and got stronger.”Įven then, he had a pronounced fascination with racing. “I had to walk the bike up certain roads at first,” Elliston, now 49, recalls. He outfitted it with baskets and loaded them up with newspapers and grinded through the hilly neighborhood. That’s how he got the Concord, a steel 10-speed with Suntour components. Elliston convinced his folks to buy him a bicycle. The family home was in the steep and leafy College Hill neighborhood, and delivering newspapers on foot was slow. Elliston was 12 and living in the small Pennsylvania city of Easton, the longtime home of Crayola crayons and Lafayette College. Riding, racing, and escapingįittingly, the journey began with a paper route. I made the break, and ended up 12th, or something.” Photo: Ethan Glading. National Criterium Championship: “The first year they let amateurs in, our team was invited. This is a story of unglamorous toil, a journey of painful and rewarding discovery, a reminder of how beautifully the bicycle can help define our lives.
He is considerably faster than almost all of us will ever be, but he was not quite fast enough to meet the conventional standards of success for a pro cyclist.īut if you invest 10 minutes in this story, you might not forget Bill Elliston’s name.Īnd maybe you’ll come to see how Elliston represents much that is pure and good in the sport of bike racing, a sport with a shortfall of pure goodness in the modern era. He never made the European racing circuit or won a national title. The man with the long blonde hair has been racing bicycles at a high level for more than 30 years but never got the kind of results that lead to fame or six-figure contracts or profiles in glossy magazines. His greatest strength was helping other people - helping them to win or fall in love with bike racing. His greatest strength was not sprinting or climbing or time trialing. His biggest win came at a race you’ve probably never heard of. Don’t feel bad if his name doesn’t ring a bell.