October 12, 2007 (Las Vegas, Nevada) - Until the early 1980s professional cycling was primarily the domain of Europeans, and major road races were held mainly in Europe. Sure, some Americans such as George Mount, Jonathan Boyer, Greg LeMond and Mike Neel had flown over the pond to race for European teams, but cyclist and speed skater, Jim Ochowicz, wanted to change that recipe.
With the help of 5-time speed skating gold medallist Eric Heiden and Dutch sports agent George Taylor, Ochowicz enlisted the Southland Corporation, parent company of 7-Eleven, to make his dream come true in 1981, creating a major professional North American squad.
Later that decade, 7-Eleven went where no North American team had ever gone before, competing at European race monuments such as the Giro d'Italia in 1985 and the Tour de France in 1986. The 7-Eleven team was a central player in the peloton until 1991, when it was succeeded by Motorola. The outfit helped change pro cycling from a European-based sport to one in which an American-based squad gained respectability in the worldwide cycling scene. The team members also became role models for many North Americans, who began to think of cycling as a possible avenue for their athletic achievements, rather than only the "Big Four" - baseball, basketball, football and hockey.
One of 7-Eleven's shining stars was Vancouver, B.C. native Alex Stieda. He raced with the squad from 1982 through 1990, providing one of the team's all-time highlights - in 1986 Stieda became the first North American to ever wear the coveted yellow jersey at the Tour de France. He later competed for Evian-Miko & Coors Light, retiring in 1992, but will forever be emblazoned in people's memories as a member of that 7-Eleven team.
As a central character of the team's wonder years, Stieda was an important part of the 7-Eleven Victory Lap marquee event, a "class reunion" of sorts held on Wednesday, September 26, after day one at Interbike 2007, at the Tourneau Time Dome in Las Vegas. The Canadian star was joined by fellow star American alumni including Davis Phinney, Ron Kiefel, Tom Schuler, Bob Roll and Chris Carmichael. Proceeds from the evening benefitted the Davis Phinney Foundation to fund research and improve the lives of people living with Parkinson's disease.
That September evening a few hundred cycling fans listened intently as the 7-Eleven members swapped stories about the good old days. Former racer and current race promoter John Eustice moderated the event, making sure all the riders had their turn at the front to tell their tales. For over an hour the crowd was fueled by hors d'œuvres and Fat Tire Ale, all the while transfixed by the colourful recollections delivered by the pioneers of North American cycling.
After the guys signed posters and jerseys, Stieda was kind enough to break away from his teammates for a while to grant us an interview. We sat down at a bench in an indoor courtyard in the Forum at Caesars and began by talking about the reason we were in Las Vegas that night.
How did the 7-Eleven Victory Lap go?
Alex Stieda: Well, you know, whenever we get together and tell stories about the old days it's kind of sad in some ways. When you're reminiscing and then you realize that was 20 years ago, or sometimes over 20 years ago - time has gone by so fast! You want to try to remember as much as you can, but at the same time it's kind of shocking that it was that long ago.
Does that mean you're getting old then?
AS: Ha ha, you know I don't feel like I'm getting old, I don't feel like I'm in my mid-forties. I think I've got a lot more things to do in my life... but again, it's kind of an awakening going wow, that was a long time ago and a lot of things have happened since then that have been just really fun to follow - how the development of the North American riders has gone.
Listening to some of the stories all evening was fantastic, especially the one about how you ended up wearing the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France. Talk about how that came about, starting with your choice of attire.
AS: (Laughs)... Well you know it was the first stage of the Tour de France after the Prologue. It was a split stage, which they don't do anymore (two shorter stages in one day,) so it was 85k, and I figured well, you know, it's just like a crit, I don't need to have any food in the pockets so I just put on a skinsuit. But apparently no one else really liked that, especially the guys on our team because we were trying to fit in and be one of the guys, one of the teams in Europe and wearing a skinsuit in a road race was not on.
But anyway, I had it on so I had to wear it, so I got away in an early break on my own because I just figured I'd try to get some time bonuses, I was only down 15 seconds on GC after the prologue (behind leader Thierry Marie). So I went for a solo break and was able to get away, just sort of sneak away, and once I was out of sight, because of the small streets outside of Paris I was able to really put the hammer down and had four minutes really quickly and went through two time bonus sprints, got six seconds each time. And then (directeur sportif) Mike Neel comes up in the team car and says, "Alex, you gotta keep going, you gotta go faster," and I was like, "I'm already going as hard as I can," but I just kept going and got the next time bonus sprint. By that time I was leader on the road on GC.
When the break caught me, Phil Anderson told me (Alex putting on an Aussie accent,) "you're in the jersey, Alex." I was just so amazed that Phil Anderson actually talked to me, you know? And then the next 20km were just brutal. I had to chase and keep the break going because I knew if it got caught Eric Vanderaerden (Belgian sprinter 2nd in the Prologue) would get a time bonus and take over the overall lead so my mission was to keep the break away and I did! I was able to help keep the momentum of the break, guys kept attacking and I kept keeping the pace going when it slowed and gave the guys a great leadout at the finish and just finished second to last in the break but we stayed away and I was able to retain the yellow jersey!
The first North American team to race in the Tour de France and you end up with the yellow jersey on the second day. How much of a dream was that for you?
AS: Well, we had no idea that we could wear the yellow jersey. I mean, personally I hadn't shared my strategy with anyone on the team before the stage. I was just, "hey, I'll just try to get in the break." In the States when we do that we don't even really talk. It was just like one guy's gonna attack and if that break doesn't go we'll make sure another guy from our team's in the next attack so we always have someone from our team in the break. I happened to be successful the first time, which doesn't usually happen. And the guys just supported me by trying to neutralize attacks, neutralize any breakaways that went across. When we had it (the yellow jersey) it was an amazing feeling of elation. It quickly soured because we had to do this Team Time Trial in the afternoon and we just were horrible. We didn't know how to ride a team time trial, we'd never pre-ridden the course, we had crashes and made complete mistakes. I really basically bonked and could not even stay with the guys in the Team Time Trial, so I got dropped and it was just crazy seeing the yellow jersey get dropped during the Team Time Trial. I was hiding my head in shame.
Phil Liggett interviewed you at the finish of Stage 1, right?
AS: Yeah, he called me an American and I said, "no, no, no, no, Phil, I'm Canadian!" So Phil Liggett quickly coined the term (this time Alex using the classic Phil Liggett accent,) "First North American to wear the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France," he was pretty sharp on it and it was kind of nice to hear that from him, he was very quick to acknowledge it. You know, Phil has always been such a great ambassador for the sport. Even now of course, it's just a pleasure to hear his voice over and over and over.
Even if in the Team Time Trial he was saying (my turn to put on the Liggett accent now,) "It looks like Stieda's in a spot of bother?"
AS: Yeah, we didn't hear that until afterwards, looking at the tape way after. But what could he say? Actually, he wasn't very derogatory at all, he was trying to be sort of supportive of our efforts by just saying that we had some trouble. He could have made worse comments but he didn't, he was very, very graceful.
Getting the yellow jersey also earned you so much respect from the Europeans in the peloton, talk about that.
AS: Well, the Euros were really kind of shocked at first at what we did - the yellow jersey is coveted - and we'd won some other races, different guys from the team had won some other races earlier in the season. But at the Tour getting that jersey and then losing it was a real reality check for us and the Euro guys were like, "Yeah, ok, that's how it works over here" and "see, we told you so." But then the next day Davis (Phinney) won the stage and that kind of put them back on their heels again, and then it was more like, "well, we'll see if you guys can finish the Tour, alright?" And five of us finished the Tour of the nine riders that started, including myself, and that really was a crowning achievement for me, to finish the Tour and I think we gained a lot of respect from the Euros after we finished the Tour.
And you felt that respect while you were racing the Tour, too.
AS: Yeah, (Dutchman) Gerrie Knetemann (1978 World Road Racing Champion and winner of 10 career Tour de France stages) was very gracious and he was a guy that was sort of wanting to help us do the right thing. I think he just wanted to make sure that we weren't a danger to the other riders in the race. So he would tell us when the grupetto would start, when we would go hard, when we could back off, and it was just kind of neat to be under his wing. And some of the other guys, too, sort of took an interest in us and said, "we're going to help you guys do the best you can do."
When you were a kid growing up there were no real North American role models in road cycling. What gave you the thought that you could race bikes, that you could be in the Tour de France one day?
AS: It was never really a dream of mine to be in the Tour de France or to be a pro bike racer, I wanted to be a pro hockey player so badly! Tony Esposito was my hero, the goalie for the Chicago Blackhawks. I was always trying to be a goalie but I couldn't play goal in hockey because I could skate, so...you know, when I started bike racing it was as a junior, racing on the track. I had some early success on the track because of my hockey career and I still contend to this day that they are many athletes who are finishing their hockey careers when they are 14-15 years old and who should be track racers because of all the anaerobic power. But anyway, that's another story (laughs.)
So it was more like an evolution, I figured, well, I could make the Olympic team in 1984 so that was a goal, and then I saw the other guys from my team from 7-Eleven turn pro in 1985 and race in Europe and I was like, "Hey, I want to do that, too!" So it kind of just evolved - it wasn't really something where I'd actually set the goals and written them down and worked toward them, it was more just, "Hey, what do we do next year? Which races are we doing? OK, let's do that!" It's amazing, but that's the way it happened!
Wow, the Tour de France! Ooh, the "yellow jersey!"
AS: Yeah! Yeah! Wow! And there was no internet back then so we didn't know what the course was like, we couldn't pre-ride the course, we had never ridden these mountains in Europe, and there were just figuring it out, looking at the profile (in the race Technical Manual) going "now what?"
And at that moment, although we were inside, we heard thunder emanating from the ceiling and a roaring sound coming from a statue a few feet away.
AS: (Laughing) Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, yeah!!
Apparently it was the time of the evening where the statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, in the Festival Fountain woke up and decided to throw a party for himself... we heard the sounds of pouring rain, music, sound effects...if I had read the Las Vegas Technical Manual beforehand I would have been warned about the "seven minute special effects fantasy spectacular" but I hadn't...
AS: Is this gonna work?This is crazy? It's not gonna work...
Time to go look for another location...we wandered a bit in the Forum at Caesars and found a quieter place to sit by the Fountain of the Gods. A guard assured me we'd have no weather or noise issues here, so we continued.
Ok, what does it feel like knowing the 7-Eleven team members were role models for an entire generation of North American cyclists and how cycling in North America has boomed since that time.
AS: You know, I don't think we really realized what we were doing back in the '80s. We were just racing, going from town to town and doing the best we could and trying to win, and win money and that was it! But people still come up to me now, twenty-odd years later, going, "Alex, I remember watching you race, this race or that race or on TV and it inspired me to start cycling." And to me that is the guts of it all, you know, that people are riding their bikes now because of something that we did back then, and we were inspirational at getting people on a bike. I mean that's been such a big part of my life for so long and having them inspired is very heart-warming.
One guy I wanted to ask you about is Ron Hayman, another Canadian who was with 7-Eleven from the beginning. What influence did he have on you?
AS: Well, Ron was really my mentor growing up in Vancouver as a bike racer. Ron was the senior guy in the peloton and he went to Europe in the late '70s as a pro and them came back to race in America for 7-Eleven starting in 1981. Ron was the guy who, in the fall of 1980, sat me down and said, "look Alex, if you want to do this you've gotta go to Europe and test yourself against riders in Europe." So he set me up with a guy named Luc Eysermans (a long time directeur sportif) in Ghent, Belgium and had me fly over there and I got put up in Staf Boone's place (a Belgian who has housed aspiring cyclists since the '70s) for two months. I raced kermesses and I won some races. I came back and that was the impetus and that helped me get on the 7-Eleven team because of him having me go to Europe and sort of schooling myself on my own about what you needed to do to be a professional bike rider.
So it was then great having him as a teammate on 7-Eleven, right?
AS: Yeah, I mean, he showed us that you needed to take an afternoon nap before an evening race. Showed us how to eat properly - when we were in a restaurant what to choose off a menu. How to train - when Ron was training, he trained hard. And that was like "wow, that's what it takes." And riding with Ron - he was at the front, he stayed at the front, he didn't try to duck in and hide behind the wheels, he stayed at the front and pushed. And it became very apparent that that's what we needed to do, is really train hard and look after yourself as best you can.
So you wore the yellow jersey and Steve Bauer also wore it at a couple of Tours in the early 90s, yet historically Canada's top international riders since then have not been on the road - Curt Harnett (track), Roland Green (mtb), Alison Sydor (mtb), Marie-Hélène Prémont (mtb) - why haven't there been more?
AS: Well, first of all, you have to realize that in Canada it's hard to be a road racer. To be a road racer you have to be able to ride your bike all winter long outdoors, riding indoors doesn't cut it so anything east of the Rockies is just really, really tough. It's possible in Vancouver or Victoria, but it's really not fair to expect a rider growing up in Edmonton, or Calgary, or Winnipeg or even Toronto or Montreal to be a road racer and expect them to be world-class. I think there's some new talent coming up and we're going to have to look to the next generation of guys who are juniors or graduating from the junior class right now as the future of cycling as opposed to the guys who are pro now, like Michael Barry or Ryder Hesjedal. There's a young rider from Edmonton, for instance, named Spencer Smitheman. He just got back from the Junior Worlds and did pretty well. He didn't win like Taylor Phinney (Davis' son), but he did really well. Subsequently he's been offered to ride with an Under-23 team in France for next year and he's really seriously considering going over there and racing as an Espoir and giving it a full-time shot. Those are the kind of guys that we need to support and help them grow.
You mentioned Taylor Phinney and your son is also riding - where is he in the racing scheme of things?
AS: My son is thirteen and I pinned a number on him for the first time this year but he's not particularly enamoured with the sport. It's a hard sport and you need to be mentally able handle the stress of that physical punishment. So we keep it fun. We have a group in Edmonton called the Lori-Ann Muenzer Program, LAMP, where we teach kids how to ride on the track. Fortunately we have a velodrome in Edmonton and we're trying to get a new indoor velodrome built there as well. We do a month of track riding and racing, a month of road riding and racing, and a month of mountain biking and racing. It's 10 to 15-year-olds. It's not the only program of its kind in Canada but we started that in Edmonton and I'm deeply involved in it and want to make sure that it's successful in getting young kids involved in the sport.
Talk about Stieda Cycling, what else you do in your "real life" besides go to reunions?
AS: Ha ha! Well, I have a bike touring company, I take people on trips to different parts of the world. You know, it's about sharing the passion for the sport. I help people with their skills, to help them improve their cycling so they can be better cyclists. I'm working on a DVD video to help new road riders get over that learning curve so in a short period of time they can quickly and safely gain that knowledge that it took me years to learn by trial and error, and get that confidence so they can start being a road rider that's more like a 'cyclist' than a 'biker.'
I read about Project Rwanda on your website, tell us about that.
AS: I was introduced to Project Rwanda through a gentleman named Tom Ritchey, who was one of the guys who pioneered mountain biking way back. Tom introduced me to Project Rwanda, took me to Rwanda last year and I just fell in love with Rwanda and the Rwandans. The spirit of the people is absolutely amazing. They've started this whole program of helping people - helping them to help themselves. Tom has designed a bike called the Coffee Bike to help transport things, for instance when they pick the coffee cherries off the trees they can transport the cherries to the washing stations so the cherries can be washed and dried very quickly, which conserves the quality of the coffee. We're going to see Rwandan coffee coming out soon that's going to be really, really high quality because of what Ritchey has initiated and I'm just glad to be a part of it and help in any way I can.
So how exactly are you and your company helping?
AS: Well, we're really trying to promote it and really get people to go to Rwanda and take part in the annual Wooden Bike Classic. Also just lending my name to it and spreading the word, just like we're doing now in this interview. ProjectRwanda.org (www.projectrwanda.org) is the website and there are some amazing stories on the site and some great pictures. There are also ways that anyone can help - by just donating, buying coffee on-line, buying the jerseys and just putting back to the sport. People may have helped you in the past, and this is a great way to put back.
You and I worked together at Hamilton 2003 on CBC's coverage of the Road World Championships - have you been doing much television work?
AS: Not really as it doesn't come up that often, but I've done some web-tv (for WCSN.com) at some races in the U.S. recently, the Tour of Missouri, and the Tour de Georgia. It's fun to do it and I really enjoy it, I enjoy sharing my knowledge and passion for the sport. If the opportunity comes up I'll try to fit it into my schedule (smiling.)
So if they call you for Beijing...
AS: I'll make sure there's room in my schedule, I'd love to be a part of it. You know, and it's going to be great because BMX is part of the Olympics coming up and I raced BMX for a number of years when I lived in Edmonton. I've done some Cruiser Class racing, my son raced BMX, so I've got some interest in that and I'd love to see that sport grow because that's the nature of the sport, it's two wheels, you pedal, and there are so many different things you can do on a bike.
Let's see how good your memory is. I spoke to my old friend Robby today and told him I was going to interview you. He said he'd met you in 1986 in Colorado Springs when he was on a ride and you told him that if he took any pictures of you at the Road World Championships to send them to you. So he did - do you still have those pictures?
AS: From the road race at the 1986 Road World Championships? Yeah, I got away with a German in a two-man break, sort of a suicide-break at the start because I was focusing mainly on the track in those days, and someone did send me a picture of us while we were away in the break. I don't know who it was from, but it was probably your friend.
Robby also had dinner last night with Marion Clignet (former Road World Champ) who has worked with you on Project Rwanda.
AS: He's in France now?
No, she's in Maryland for a few weeks.
AS: This world is waaay too small!
And with that it was time for Alex to head off and rejoin his 7-Eleven teammates for dinner at Spago's , and no doubt, renew their nostalgic trip down memory lane.
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Photo: John Pierce/Photosport International
In 1986 Stieda became the first North American to ever wear the coveted yellow jersey at the Tour de France.
Photo: John Pierce/Photosport International
Photo: Amy Smolens
Ron Kiefel (l) and Alex Stieda...
Photo: Amy Smolens
Photo: Amy Smolens
The group listens to Stieda...
Photo: Amy Smolens
Photo: Amy Smolens
Davis Phinney (l) and Bob Roll...
Photo: Amy Smolens
Photo: Amy Smolens
7-Eleven Victory Lap group hold court...
Photo: Amy Smolens
Photo: Amy Smolens
Fat Tire ale brought smiles all round.
Photo: Amy Smolens
Photo: Amy Smolens
The view from above...
Photo: Amy Smolens
Photo: Amy Smolens
Alex signing a 7-Eleven Victory Lap poster...
Photo: Amy Smolens
Photo: Amy Smolens
Alex Stieda in a Vegas state of mind...
Photo: Amy Smolens
Photo: Amy Smolens
Jonathan Boyer, director of the National Rwandan Cycling Team, on a Tom Ritchey-designed Coffee Bike, at the Project Rwanda display at Interbike 2007.
Photo: Amy Smolens
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