Author Peter Joffre Nye's latest work is his updated and revised Hearts of Lions: The History of American Bicycle Racing. It is available in hardcover and Kindle eBook.

If bicycle racing matters to you, you will love this book. Hearts of Lions is a colorful, exciting, classic work on the art of bicycle racing over 140 years against a backdrop of social, political, and technical changes.

Just click on the Amazon link to the right to get your copy of this terrific book.

Also on this site is Mr. Nye's story of one of cycling's toughest-ever racers, Reggie McNamara. McNamara won over 700 races and was one of the greatest-ever six-day racers. Oh, and there's more! Nye's story of Joseph Magnani, the Illinois rider who challenged Coppi and Bartali.

Enjoy!

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U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame Announces Four 2020 Inductees

DAVIS, Calif. (July 1, 2020) – Four legends of American cycling have been voted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. The Class of 2020 inductees are: Jeff Pierce (Modern Road & Track Competitor), Marianne Martin (Veteran Road & Track Competitor), Leigh Donovan (Off-Road Competitor), and Joe Breeze (Contributor to the Sport). There are now 161 Inductees in the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame.

Normally held each November, the 34th annual USBHOF induction ceremony has been postponed until coronavirus restrictions have been lifted for large gatherings.

The Class of 2020 Inductees include:

Jeff Pierce - Modern Road and Track: Jeff Pierce is the only American besides Greg LeMond to have won (in 1987) the final stage of the Tour de France. Pierce began racing in 1975 with the Wolverine Sports Club in Detroit, Michigan. He raced for three teams in his career: Schwinn (Schwinn Wolverine, Schwinn National Team, Schwinn Icy Hot), Team 7-Eleven and Chevrolet LA Sheriffs. Pierce raced in seven Grand Tours, all with the legendary Team 7-Eleven.

Pierce won multi-stage bicycle races such as the 1985 Berliner Etappenfahrt, the 1986 Vuelta de Bisbee, and the 1987 United Texas Tour and finished second overall in the 1987 Coors Classic and the 1994 Redlands Bicycle Classic. He also won the 1985 Nevada City Classic and the 1986 La Jolla Grand Prix.
Pierce teamed with Steve Hegg to win the 1995 U.S. National Championship in the Madison race category.

Jeff Pierce in 1986. Photo: Philippe Huguenin

Marianne Martin - Veteran Road & Track: Martin remains the only American woman to win the Tour de France Féminin or succeeding versions of the road race. The 1984 Tour de France Féminin covered about 1,080km of the 4,000km for the men’s race due to strict UCI rules about how far women could ride in stage races. The women’s course followed the men’s, including all the climbs. Martin earned the polka-dot jersey as the Tour’s best climber by winning the 45-mile 12th stage that took riders over two Alps mountain passes. Two stages later, Martin nabbed the race leader’s yellow jersey and held it until the finish in Paris.

Leigh Donovan - Off-Road: Donovan was a champion BMX and mountain bike racer from 1992 to 2001. When she retired from racing in 2001, Donovan was the most decorated U.S. cycling downhill and slalom rider after winning nine National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) championships and a UCI world title. Leigh was elected to the BMX Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2014. She is the only woman to be elected to both.

In 1995 Leigh won a cycling triple crown by winning the U.S. national slalom championship, the national downhill championship and the UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in downhill – an accomplishment that has never been repeated. She was a 3-time UCI World Championship medalist

Donovan won the 2001 World Cup Dual slalom championship in Vail, CO. In UCI World Cup competition, she earned 5 overall wins and finished on the top three podium in 39 races.

Joe Breeze - Contributor: Joe Breeze was an early pioneer in the development of mountain bikes and is widely considered to be one of its inventors. One of the group of riders in northern California’s Marin County in the 1970s to take balloon tire bicycles to the trails in the hills, he used his frame-building skills to create the first prototype modern mountain bike (Breezer #1) in 1977 and rode it to victory in its first race. Breezer #1 has been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

Joe is a founding member of NORBA (National Off Road Bicycle Association), which later became the mountain bike racing division of USA Cycling. Joe is also a charter member and manager of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame into which he was inducted in 1988. His industry innovations include the Hite-Rite seat post spring and the Apex disc brake mount as well as development of early lightweight off-road frames utilizing modern tubing.

About the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame:
The Hall of Fame has been located in Davis, Calif. since 2010 and it boasts 8,000 square feet of displays and exhibits that tell the story of American cycling history along with a collection of bicycles from the 19th and 20th centuries. For information, visit: www.usbhof.org