History of the Rexburg TNR

     Rexburg has had an informally organized weekly club ride since the eighties, maybe longer.  Over the years, a surprising number of successful cyclists have come out of Rexburg. Dave Francis and Brian Williams were promising juniors at the time of those early group rides and Dave went on to race internationally as a member of the United States Cycling Team.  Only a handful of people are still left from those days (Brian, Tony Perkins, Steve and Kent Wasden).  Chad Plocher owned Eagle Bike Shop and Steve Slaughter had a shop for a while as well.

     By the early nineties, interest in cycling had mostly shifted to the relatively new sport of mountain biking.  This is about the time that I got involved.  Eric MacBeth was a mountain bike prodigy and a local cycling celebrity.  It was the golden era of mountain bike riding and racing.  Tony Perkins organized a Tuesday night mountain bike ride.  We crammed as many people and bikes as we could into Tony’s Party Van and headed for the hills.  Every week was an adventure and more than a few of them ended in a trip to the emergency room.  Along with Eric (and later Tarrah MacBeth), Tony, Jenny Willmore, Tim Meikle, and the Stone boys Paul and Robbie were racing most weekends.  Brian opened Sticks and Stones which he eventually sold to Joe and Charles Hill when he went to building Kelson Custom full time.

     As time passed, we began to incorporate more road rides into our schedule and by the late nineties the Tuesday night MTB ride had transitioned over to a weekly road ride.  This is the format that we have followed ever since.  This summer will be our sixteenth season of the revival of the Tuesday road ride.  Over that time we have ridden tens of thousands of miles with only a handful of serious accidents.  In a few days, I will be posting our annual Safety Letter, which emphasizes our commitment to making these rides as safe as they can possibly be.

     Over the years, generations of BYU-Idaho students have come and gone from the Tuesday ride.  I hate to start listing names which leaves out a lot of deserving people, but I will mention a few.  Joel Christopher, Clinton Mortley, and Tate Litchfield will always be honorary Rexburg locals.

     A while ago, maybe seven or eight years, Chris Huskinson started to do some cyclocross races.  He said it was the most fun he had ever had on a bike.  We were skeptical, but Chris was persistent and before long, we found ourselves at the start of a cyclocross race.  Although I am still not a big fan of a really muddy cross race, I have to agree that Chris was 100% correct.  Cyclocross is the most fun you can have on a bicycle.

     Cycling is always looking for the next big thing.  At the moment, that appears to be one-day mixed road and dirt adventure races like the Crusher in the Tushar.  Brian has built a RAD (Road, Asphalt, Dirt) bike specific for that application as well as pioneering a number of RAD rides in the Ashton area.  Tim Meikle is working on putting together a high quality local RAD race.  It is too early to tell if we are going to be able to pull this off for summer 2013, but regardless, we will plan to organize a preview ride of the course.  This is spectacular riding in the Ashton and Fish Creek area.

     As many of you know, the Tuesday Night Ride is a tradition in towns and cities across the country.  In a lot of those places, it has a pretty ugly reputation for big egos, ruthless riding, and lack of acceptance for newer riders.  If you are hoping for those things, this is not your TNR.  We expect all participants to ride responsibly, but the organization is informal and the governance very democratic.  We look forward to seeing you Tuesday evenings at six p.m.