Tracey Ingle

Greetings from New England! My name is Tracey Ingle and I have been running the Boston Brevet Series since 2002. By day, I am a self-employed attorney and active on several volunteer boards. On a daily basis I rely on and utilize communication and networking to perform my duties, and succeed in my business. As RBA Liaison, I would translate those skills to the running of a brevet series. We're all great at something, and each have something to share and contribute, whether we're long-term veterans or brand new RBAs. In the past 4 years, I have had the opportunity to interact with the Board. I look forward to the opportunity to be a voice for the RBAs to that Board. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I would appreciate your vote, and look forward to building on the foundation put together by the previous RBA Liaisons.

Jim Wilson

Growing up in northwest Arkansas in the early 1960's didn't exactly put me in the hotbed of cycling, but an article in "Boys' Life" describing a cycle tour of Europe intrigued me so much I decided to duplicate the feat after I graduated high school in 1965. I was lucky enough to find a French- made ten-speed bike with rotting sew-ups hanging up on the wall of a classmate's barn. I negotiated a price of $20, and began training for my trip.

It was a wonderful adventure prior to college, but upon returning, I was able to limit my cycling to occasional recreational use or commuting to class. Tragedy almost struck one day when my front brake cable failed and I ended up on the rear deck of the car in front of me. My $25 bike's down tube was crumpled beyond repair.

Sticker shock set in when I realized that a similar quality bike would now cost me north of $200, but I scraped together the funds to buy a new Bottecchia with the latest Campagnolo down-tube friction shifters. It was a great bike, but I was always curious why I couldn't ride it with no hands.

After flunking out of Purdue University where I was pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, I went to work for the professor who flunked me out. I spent some 10 years in Lafayette, Indiana and eventually ended up buying controlling interest in his company.

Although I'm a fair engineer, I'm a lousy manager, and I was getting very tired of shoveling snow to get to work. I solved both problems by acquiring a smaller company and installing its owner as CEO. This worked so well, I left the day-to-day operations in his hands and began telecommuting from Florida.

My descent into the seamier side of cycling began one dark night when my wife locked herself out of our car, and I pedaled off in a valiant attempt to rescue her. Halfway down our driveway, my Bottecchia threw me to the ground and broke my collarbone. A little research revealed the reason. The bike was designed with little or no steering trail. Not wanting it to happen again, I began the search for a less twitchy replacement.

Unfortunately, the search lead me to experiment with recumbent bicycles. After one test ride, I was hooked. I no longer even considered a conventional machine. Before, I was strictly a no-nonsense transportation cyclist. Now I began to ride for fun. I began to go on "club rides" and associate with other bicycle users.

The new-fangled internet didn't help either. I fell deeper into the cycling "culture". I learned, too late of PBP to qualify for the 1999 event, but my fate was sealed when I read Kent Peterson's description. I knew I had to do it the next time.

At the time, the only brevet series in Florida was put on by the West Palm Beach Club. It was a long drive to participate in these events. I got miserably lost on the 400K, and when the RBA, Jim Solanick, asked for help designing the route for his 600K, I volunteered, knowing if I laid out the route, I'd be less likely to get lost. I finished the series that year and went on to complete BMB 2000.

In exchange for my route finding, I convinced Solanick to hold a couple of brevets in Gainesville in the years leading up to PBP 2003. I rode his series, did BMB again in 2001 and finished PBP in 2003. Under Jim's tutelage, I became an RBA and ran my first series in 2004 in conjunction with the Gainesville Cycling Club.

Although I know of no 12-step program for cyclists, I may be on the road to recovery. I completed only the three shortest brevets this year; I was able to resist the allure of the 600K.