On Sunday morning, May 28, 1978, bicycle racers set out from Indian Hills School on Pocatello's South Bannock Highway for a race the organizers called the Arbon Valley Road Race. The longest class rode 60 miles: out across Crystal Summit to Arbon Valley, then home again to the school. Eighteen years later an international women's race would also ride 60 miles, that time one way, from Pocatello to the valley. This 1978 race is the earliest bicycle race to the valley found so far in the papers read for this series.
A weekend of racing
The race was one of four cycling events that the Greater Pocatello Chamber of Commerce and the local cycling club put on together in May 1978. The Idaho State Journal listed them on May 14. There was a half-century tour from Ross Park on May 20, during National Transportation Week, and a free citizens' race at the Idaho State University Minidome parking lot the next day. The racing proper came over the last weekend of the month: a criterium, sanctioned by the United States Cycling Federation, around the Minidome lot on Saturday, May 27, and the road race to Arbon Valley on Sunday, May 28.
Unlicensed riders raced without charge, while anyone holding a federation license paid a $2 fee. Registration opened at 8 a.m. both days. The notice promised $400 in prizes, without making clear whether that sum was for each day or for the two days together. John Lowry and Tim Sawchuck took the inquiries.
On May 26 the Journal gave the fields a short preview. Larry Gahn, who belonged to the Portneuf Valley Bicycle Club, said Utah was sending riders and that two leading Idaho racers would take part. The two were Pocatello men, Ike Gayfield and John Lowry. Racers were graded in four classes, with newcomers in class four, and both men rode in class three. The criterium would go 35 miles around a short half-mile circuit. Sunday's road race was set to start at 9 a.m., a 60-mile ride from the school by way of Crystal Summit to Arbon Valley and back.
The results
The Journal printed the results on Tuesday, May 30, in a short item on its first sports page, beside reports on the Indianapolis 500 and the NBA finals. Salt Lake City riders took the first two places in the 60-mile senior men's race, and Pocatello women took the top two places in the 40-mile senior women's race. The other classes rode 40 or 25 miles. The winners came from Salt Lake City, Pocatello, Jackson Hole, Idaho Falls and Ketchum. Tom Webb's winning time works out to an average of a little over 21 miles an hour for the 60 miles.
What is not known
The papers name no one from Arbon Valley, whether among the riders, the helpers or the people watching. They do not say how far into the valley the riders went or where they turned back, what the roads were like, or whether the shorter classes used the same road. Because the start was on the South Bannock Highway, the riders most likely took the Bannock highway south over the mountains, the road that earlier posts on this site follow through Mink Creek to the valley, but the papers do not trace the route. Nor do they say whether this was the first Arbon Valley Road Race or whether it was run again. The spellings of a few riders' names are not certain in the scan.
On this site: the Women's Challenge comes to Arbon Valley, 1996; the road to Pocatello in the 1930s; Crystal; and the histories of Arbon and Pauline and West Fork. If you remember riders coming through the valley in the spring of 1978, the archive would welcome your memory.
The story as reported
Idaho State Journal, May 30, 1978, Section D, page 1. The original article is under copyright; this is our own report of what it said.
The fastest rider over the full 60 miles of the Arbon Valley Road Race on Sunday, May 28, 1978, was Tom Webb, from Salt Lake City, with a time of 2 hours, 48 minutes and 43 seconds.
Rich Clements, a second Salt Lake City man, came in next, so that city held the top two spots among the senior men. Mike Hamm, who had come from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, took third place.
The senior women covered 40 miles, and both of their top places stayed in Pocatello. Ann Gogenola posted the winning time of 2:42:15, with Janene Willer next behind her.
Places in the remaining classes, as the paper printed them:
- Veterans (40 miles): first, a rider named Bob of Idaho Falls, whose surname cannot be read in the scan, 2:22:02; second, Bob Kolenda, whose town was not given.
- Juniors (40 miles): first, Jeff Snyder of Ketchum, 2:22:17; second, Rich Weithorn of Ketchum; third, Dennis Botkin of Twin Falls.
- Novice men (25 miles): first, Tim Mulvey of Jackson Hole; second, Varron Johns of Pocatello; third, Bob Furman of Ketchum.
- Novice women (25 miles): Linda Lennon of Ketchum.
The item ran under the headline "Salt Lake Biker Wins Arbon Race" and, beyond calling the course a hard one for the legs, said nothing of the route, the weather or the size of the field.