- Pete Penseyres

“I started riding two days a week, then three. It was great to ride by everyone sitting in those long gas lines thinking, ‘These people got up an hour earlier so they could buy gas. And they’ll still be in line by the time I get to work’.”

Commuting wasn’t the reason Pete started cycling, but it became a lifestyle. Soon he was cycling every day. “I stopped driving my ’58 Chevy and from 1972 to 1991 it was unregistered and just sat in the garage.”

A temporary transfer to Chicago allowed Pete and Joanne to ride around seeing the sights; the Brookfield Zoo, the Elroy Sparta trail, and Green County in Wisconsin.

Pete also attended conferences and seminars around the country, and using a little vacation time, would go exploring with his family on self contained camping tours before or after his obligations.

4 year old Kristi

In the late 70s, the family returned to California and Pete continued his daily commute.
In 1978, as the couple drove their ’56 Volkswagen to the Grand Canyon for a rim-to-rim backpack, Pete made a life-changing decision. “I was reading John Marino’s story in Bicycling magazine. He had just set a trans-continental time of 13 days, and I said ‘I have to ride across the country.’”
That summer Schwinn was sponsoring a cross-country record attempt and two tandem teams would be formed to set it. Pete knew he had to be aboard. He contacted friend and fellow racer, Rob Templin, who worked for Adventure 16 in San Diego–and Rob had had the same epiphany! Two ultra-marathon cycling careers were thus launched simultaneously.

Burley Tandem Stage Race Combined age 90+ category. "We were off the front and won that stage -Rob checking the gap to the chasers as we were flying downhill toward the finish."

The above picture shows Pete and Rob in their ‘stars ‘n stripes’ jerseys which they earned for winning the US National Championships shortly before this stage race event.

Pete’s commute habits gave him a natural advantage over competitors who had to fit training around their car commutes. “Every hour you spend in your car is wasted. But if you ride every day the training is automatic, your base is taken care of,” he says.

In ’79, he was reassigned to Edison’s Rosemead headquarters and Pete tried riding 120 miles daily from Dana Point. “Too much!” he says. The couple moved to Huntington Beach and the round trip shortened to 65 miles.

Through the mid 80s Pete ranked among the world’s greatest endurance riders: Lon Haldeman, John Marino, John Howard, Michael Shermer, Jock Boyer, to name a few. ” Not all the RAAM racers rode to their jobs, but the most successful people did,” he says.

Arizona

Police escort - Indianapolis

Pete won the Race Across America in 1984 and again in 1986, riding 3,107 miles from Huntington Beach to Atlantic City in 8 days, 9 hours, 47 minutes. His average transcontinental speed record of 15.4 m.p.h. still stands today. Will his record stand against RAAM 2012? Today you’ll still find Pete riding in every RAAM start in Oceanside.

Arrive - New York

However, his greatest satisfaction now comes from opening others to the rewards of a cycling lifestyle. He and committed volunteers formed the Oceanside Bicycle Committee which, led to the city’s recognition as a League of American Bicyclists “Bicycle Friendly City.” It’s still the only town in San Diego County so recognized.

A League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructor since 2008, he teaches monthly Traffic Skills 101 classes through the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, cycling 30 miles roundtrip from his hilltop home in Fallbrook, his panniers loaded with books and material for each class. Soft-spoken despite his accomplishments most of his students have no idea they’re learning from one of America’s cycling legends.

All roads lead to Trestles, if you're heading south from San Clemente.

Hundreds of surfers, pedestrians, and cyclists who take the paved trail to Trestles daily also take it for granted. But the paved trail next to the Christianitos on-ramp was hard won by Pete Penseyres years before he won the Race Across America. Here in his own words is how it went down.

 I was commuting to San Onofre from Dana Point in about 1973/4 and entering Camp Pendleton daily at Christianitos to ride down a dirt road over the river bed (sometimes dry, sometimes flooded) and back up to Basilone. I had to sign a waiver each time and carry it with me, but couldn’t use it again. I contacted Caltrans and asked them it they had any plans to connect the old Highway 101 bridge and abandoned roadway to Christianitos and Basilone for cyclists. They said no. Then I asked them to open the freeway shoulder between those 2 locations. They said no.

Then one day I was riding on the dirt road with one of my co-workers when a speeding Marine MP came at us around a blind turn while joyriding by fishtailing his truck on the dirt road. He just happened to be fishtailing away from us as he went by, but that was the last time my co-worker rode his bike to work and the last time I used that road. I called Caltrans again to ask that they open the freeway shoulder until they got around to connecting Old Hwy 101. They said no.

So, although I avoided civil disobedience in my 2 years at Berkeley, I became a deliberate repeat offender of the CVC. The first ticket I got was on a rainy day overlooking the dirt road and the river crossing. The CHP officer refused to turn around and look at the alternate route to the freeway shoulder. Then I sent a subpena to the Caltrans District Director to be at the Courtroom to explain why they closed the freeway in violation of their own procedures when they cut off bicycle access between San Clemente and points south. They came to Laguna Niguel to see who this crazy guy was that was causing them so much grief, but the court appearance was moved to Vista, because the ticket was issued in SD County (by the length of the off ramp).
I sent them another subpena and got a call from the Director’s underling asking for him to be excused because he had a vacation planned for Europe. I said no. Then he said “Why don’t you just drive?” They got the subpena quashed and sent a young engineer instead. In the meantime, I was continuing my civil disobedience and the CHP made a game of citing me on most nights when they apparently discovered my schedule and didn’t have anything better to do. It never got to the point that they had the tickets ready, but I did manage to collect 25 or so of them before my court date.

There were a number of different CHP officers involved and most or all showed up in Vista. In the meantime, I contacted John Forrester and he agreed to help me with my defense, bringing with him the Caltrans procedure they violated. I brought in photos of the road (taken from the freeway shoulder) and the shoulder from one exit to the other. I submitted everything into evidence before a chain smoking judge who had to call periodic recesses to light up in his chambers. We agreed that not every one of the CHP officers had to identify me as the criminal and agreed that I was riding on the freeway shoulder so they could go back to work. I think they were disappointed not to be able to stay. When we questioned the Caltrans engineer, he read the procedure Caltrans was supposed to follow and agreed that they had not considered opening the freeway shoulder. At that, the judge called for a lunch break and we thought things were going pretty well.

When the judge returned, he immediately asked us to enter his chambers, lit up, and explained that he was going to find me guilty. When I said I would appeal, he offered to write the “Statement of Facts” that we could use for my appeal. John thought that was nice, but when the Facts came out, there was no mention of the Caltrans engineer admitting that they hadn’t followed their procedure. When I complained to the judge in a letter, he replied that he did not recall that part and we could just use that information in the appeal. The appeals court simply confined their judgement “within the 4 walls of the Statement of Facts” and let the verdict stand on a 2-1 vote. I had to pay a $25 fine and was on probation for a year to stay off the freeway, or else. Meanwhile Caltrans finally got motivated to complete the short extensions at either end of Old Highway 101 and everyone lived happily ever after…