A GABA Evolution - 40 Years
Harry Watson | Published on 5/4/2021
In 1978, a Frenchman by the name of Bernard Hinault won the Tour de France. A young American was soon to burst on the scene of International Professional Cycling. His name…Greg LeMond. Over the next few years, these two powerful cyclists would battle one another for that ultimate prize in Cycling, the Yellow Jersey of the Tour de France. By the time the Tour began in 1984, the young American would be primed to begin his journey to the pinnacle of cycling by winning the Best Young Rider jersey.
In our tranquil desert environment, we in Tucson would begin our journey in this same time period that would eventually lead us to become the Greater Arizona Bicycling Association. As Rich Corbett would eventually describe this evolution, GABA would become over the next 40 years, the hub for recreational cyclists’ intent on spreading the gospel of the joy of riding a bicycle. In the beginning a local cycling club known as the Tucson Wheelmen was on the verge of disintegrating in 1978 and several of those club members would go on to form a loosely knit bicycle club known as “Los Turistas”. This was a collection of friends who communicated with each other by phone and with simple mailings about their rides. At this point in time the group had a monthly meeting and they published their ride schedule which typically included one weekend ride. This group continued to be rather informal and avoided having bylaws or elections. They managed to put together some early big events which in 1979 included the Florence Century and the Tumacacori Century. Another early event was the Kitt Peak Hill Climb. By 1980 a “double century”, 200 miles, was organized as the first “Papago Desert Double”. Communication was still simple and relied on a newsletter that was then mailed out to the Club members.
There was a simplicity about this arrangement and it served the early members quite well. They cooperated with one another and shared ideas for weekly day rides and more elaborate events. This would be the model for this group for a couple of years but growth and popularity eventually required a little bit more structure. In January of 1981, a family of avid cyclists originally from the Phoenix area, and now members of the Tucson club “Los Turistas”, Clara Dow and her two daughters Carol Dow and Linda Kincade and grand daughter Jennifer proposed an affiliation with a Phoenix bicycle club. While living in Phoenix, they had been members of the Central Arizona Bicycling Association (CABA), an incorporated 501 C 3, tax-exempt, educational organization. Clara saw what was happening to “Los Turistas”. They were in need of some structure and she proposed to organize a "CABA Chapter" in Tucson. The Phoenix Club already had a newsletter so it was possible to get upcoming rides in Tucson into that publication. After several months with this arrangement the Tucson chapter of CABA, now a separate chapter of the original CABA, was renamed GABA. This name change more accurately reflected the composition of these loosely connected entities and it opened the door for other communities in Arizona to become affiliated with the original organization.
Our more formally organized club here in Tucson began to address the growing need of the group and so a set of bylaws and some leadership positions needed to be designated. Our early Tucson GABA now had a slate of officers and they included the following members:
President, Clara Dow
Vice-President, Leonard Baldoff
Secretary, Linda Kinkade
Treasurer, Gail Gawel
Tour Advisor, Rich Corbett
Newsletter, Carol Dow
Special Projects, Cathy Crandall
Publicity, Rosemary Ifflander & Joyce Compton
As our local club grew, ride information goes from telephone communication and simple mailings to a more formal monthly “Update” and membership expands. Rides are requested from club members one month ahead to give time to get them in the club letter. In 1981, the first Cross State Tour is organized and continues through the 1990’ s. There are those who believe that our Cross State Tour was not only a huge success but it laid the groundwork for many out of state participants to return to their states and begin the process of organizing their own Cross State Tours. Under the leadership of Clara Dow, the club continued to grow. There were more organized day rides. The calendar had multiple special events and multiday rides. The membership was increasing and The Tour de Tucson had its inaugural ride in 1983. Even though GABA was not the organizing entity, the eventual success of El Tour would have its impact on all things bicycle related in our community.
In 1986, the young American cyclist, Greg LeMond became the first American to win the “race of races” – the Tour De France. He would go on to win it a total of 3 times. We here in Tucson were busy organizing more rides and events: In the early 80’s many of GABA’s pioneers took on the job of exploring new multiday rides. Suzanne Couvrette, Cathy Crandall, Rich Corbett, and Gene Chapman as well as the other GABA officers would go on to be primary movers of activities for the growing club. Mt. Spirits, Salt River Canyon, El tour training rides, Tumacacori, Owls Head, Oak Creek Canyon, Grand Canyon bike and hike, Luna Lake and the Blue Loop all came into being over the next 20 years.
In 1986, Carol Dow was initially in charge of the newsletter. Communication continued to be instrumental in getting out the word that GABA was a recreational bicycling club with a strong calendar and dynamic leadership. Carol’s work had provided the push to get our monthly newsletter out. With the help of Suzanne Couvrette, an early member of 1980’s GABA who would eventually go on to take charge of the monthly GABA Update, Suzanne set up the monthly update party to assemble the newsletter. This was all done at her property on Allen street. It was mailed out to members and began to appear in the local bike shops. Suzanne continued with this ever-expanding job and stayed on for 13 years until 2013. The process of putting the “Update” together was like a bee hive with multiple GABA members showing up and assembling the multi-page newsletter. Ron McCormick took over and continued with this work. The software to put the paper together was now part of the process. Rides were still printed in the monthly update and ride leaders were still asked to have their upcoming rides with the particulars in to the Update director a month ahead. There was this ebb and flow to the number of rides posted. There were times when it seemed as if the club was “running on empty”. At one point, only Suzanne was posting rides. The “meetup” enters the picture in the early 2000’s and the number of rides and participants increases significantly. Pre Covid, there were often more than 6 rides posted for each week on “MeetUp”. The big advantage was the ability of ride leaders to post their rides and not have to do it 1 month out. Ride leaders who made this new system work for the club: Hector Melendez, Pam and Wayne Cullop, Bob Willman, handle bar mustache Bruce Tucker, newbie’s leader, Susan Reed, Doug Horn, Rich Rousseau and Ike Smith of R & I fame, Mark and Barb Sterling, Kathleen Bober, and Suzanne Couvrette. There are many others who have made all of this possible for our 40-year-old club. Let’s be sure to include all who are not named here when we think of what GABA has come to mean for all of us.
My thanks to Suzanne Couvrette and Scott and Peggy Jacobsen who all had a hand in putting this short GABA history together. And a special thanks to Rich Corbett who initially put together much of the information included in this retrospective. None of this would have been possible had it not been for the efforts of many of our departed friends who got all of this started.
HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY GABA