For general information on American cycling greats, track and road, go to the "US Bicycling Hall of Fame" site and double click on the "all inductees" option.
Michael Murphy
PO Box 6
Paige, Texas 78659
512 825 2048
On Sunday, November 10, 2002, at 09:55 AM, David Feldman wrote:
> Carl Leusenkamp was highly regarded in the Northwest where he lived
> through
> the 1970's and 80's. He coached riders in the Alpenrose Cycling Club
> at
> Alpenrose Velodrome (built on land of the locally owned Alpenrose
> Dairy; if
> you live in the PacNW and want to passively support track cycling,
> drink
> Alpenrose milk!) raced until moving from the area in (I think) 1985
> and was
> a general man-about-bike-racing at various events. Was also an
> entertaining
> and informative public speaker.
> David Feldman
> Vancouver, WA
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Poore" <rauler83@yahoo.com>
> To: "michael butler" <pariscycles@yahoo.co.uk>;
> <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2002 10:45 AM
> Subject: Re: [CR]American Track Stars
>
>
>>
>> Just a quick summary and then I will put the mind to its test for
>> dates
> and such later.
>> Jackie Simes was the top sprinter of the early to late '60's. He was
>> from
> NJ I believe and won the Sr. National Sprint title at Flushing Meadows
> in
> 1964. I have a photo of him with his trophy, but have misplaced my
> scrapbook. When I find it I will post that photo and others to my yahoo
> photo page so you can have a look. Jackie had some success in Europe as
> well.
>> Jack Disney was a 5 time, maybe more, National Sprint Champion from
>> Ca.
> He, I believe won the National Sprint for the last time at the
> Northbrook,
> IL track in 1965. At that National Championships Tim Mountford used
> every
> trick in the book to beat or make sure Carl Leusenkamp did not win the
> title
> that year. One tactic that was used, and there were many, Tim and Carl
> were
> matched up and Tim led out the sprint coming off, I believe turn two,
> bank,
> when Carl went to go around-Tim wasn't at full speed Tim bumped or
> brushed
> Carl or made contact and when Carl was pass Tim well Tim raised his
> hand in
> protest. This was before the last 200 meters and the rules were if
> there was
> contact before the last 200 meters and a rider wanted to protest he
> would
> raise his hand and the race would be restarted. So the riders went
> back to
> the line and restarted the race and of course Carl just road a full on
> sprint. There was other incident that envolved a fake crash. I forget
> exactly what happened, but it involved Tim and Carl again and Tim put
> his
> bike down so the race had to be restarted again with Carl having just
> completed a full on sprint to the line. Many of us that were there
> thought
> Carl was the fastest sprinter there that year, but he lacked the
> experience
> and knowledge of track racing to prevent this sort of thing from
> happening.
>> Jim Rossi was a 5 time National Sprint Champion that won his last
>> title,
> again I believe, in 1963 at Northbrook. Jim was a very tall fellow
> that was
> a gentleman in every sense of the word. At that time he worked at Oscar
> Watsyns in Chicago. We paid him a visit after the Nationals as well as
> the
> Schwinn factory before heading home.
>> Carl started out in our club, the Rockville Cycle Club, Rockville, MD.
> Carl won a Bronze medal at the Pan Am games as well as many titles.
> Carl
> married Rita Hiltner, Mike Hiltner's sister. Carl passed away about 10
> years
> ago from cancer. If you watched the '84 Olympics you saw Carl holding
> Nelson
> Vails in the matched sprints. Carl was the sprint coach. Carl was
> humble and
> a gentleman in every sense of the term.
>> Jackie Simes, Jack Disney and Jim Rossi road Schwinn Paramounts, as
>> many
> of the top sprinters did at that time. Carl Leusenkamp rode a W.B.
> Hurlow, a
> chrome one, that he ordered from Ray Betts in 1964.
>> michael butler <pariscycles@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:Can anyone please
>> tell me
> anything about the following riders Jackie Simes, Jim Rossi, Jack
> Disney and
> Carl Leusenkamp, titles won, what years and make of frames used.
>>
>> Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK