College Bicycle Racing in Santa Barbara in the 1990s

For a while when starting my photography career, I worked in a bike shop. I served as the team mechanic for UC Santa Barbara’s Cycling Team and unofficially for a handful of others who went on to race at higher levels, including two who went to the Olympics. But much more my claim to fame were the regular Wednesday night race events I hosted … including Cruiser Cross, The Coaster Brake Classic, Bike Path Timetrial, and Cruiser Crit (all of which required the bike to be at least 30lbs and have a u-lock mounted on it somewhere. Kickstands were zip-tied in place and handicaps were given for various altered states. Prizes included home-made iron-on t-shirts, completely invalid coupons for horrible beer, actually good beers brewed by one of the racers (Black Mud Chewy Stout was a favorite), and elaborate homemade trophies for first as well as last place that reused bike parts left behind from previous races. More than a few of these images also ended up in BIKE magazine where several of my first assignments and many of my early nationally published images showed up.