Racing to Qualify

Cyclists pedal hard as they take a hill in a qualifying race for the 1960 U.S. Olympic bicycle team in Manhattan. “At 10:15 A.M. yesterday a man fired a cap pistol and 120 bicycle riders began a 112-1/2 mile battle against the heat, blind curves and stomach-wracking cramps on the baked asphalt roadway of Central Park,” The Times reported on July 25, 1960. “One hundred seven didn’t finish.”

Of the 13 cyclists who finished the race, only four qualified for the Olympics. The winner was Cpl. Robert Tetzlaff of the U.S. Army with a time of 4 hours, 40 minutes, 48.4 seconds. His average speed was 24.1 mph. Tetzlaff would go on to become a giant in modern American cycling, nicknamed the “King of the Road” for his ability to win every kind of race on roads and tracks.

The bicyclists, starving three hours into the race in 85-degree temperatures, approached a feeding station at 100th Street “like a pack of hungry wolves” with outstretched arms. “Dangling from strings held by trainers or friends were fresh canteens of water or plastic bags filled with fruit and, in one case, cottage cheese,” The Times wrote.

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