Geoff Drake and Jim Ochowicz (Och) were at The Bike Trip in Santa Cruz, California signing their book Team 7-Eleven: How an Unsung Band of American Cyclists Took on the World and Won. Geoff is a cycling journalist and has covered events like the Olympic Games and the Tour de France, and Och is the guy who co-founded the first American cycling team. “I’ve been a bike commuter, I’ve toured the world, I have worked in bike shops and I was editor at Velo News and Bicycling Magazine,” said Geoff, who also races for the Bicycle Trip. He currently is the senior web editor at the Monterery Bay Aquarium. And Och, now living in Palo Alto, California, directs the BMC pro cycling team. He was also inducted into the US Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1997. Inspired by his skating background and tight-knit Midwest community, Och co-founded Team 7-Eleven in 1984. Co-founding the team with Eric Heiden, a speed skating Olympic medalist, they secured other mid-west notable athletes like Roger Young. The team inspired the movie American Flyers, with Kevin Costner before changing their designation to professional status. Team 7-Eleven then went on to be the first American team to win the Giro d’Italia in 1988 and stages of the Tour de France, while collecting world championship medals along the way. Team 7-Eleven also launched the careers of American cyclists like Andy Hampsten, Davis Phinney and Bob Roll. The global landscape of cycling was forever changed when Och snd his compatriots charged the European cycling scene. Both Och and Geoff sat down with me for some questions.
Why should we read your book?
Och–Geoff did a great job outlining an historic moment in American cycling, a moment that took 10 years to mature, one that changed American cycling.
Geoff-It’s a human interest story, and I would hope that someone could pick this book up off the coffee table, regardless if they know cycling, and would say this is interesting. These guys are going up against great odds, doing crazy things, and sometimes succeeding despite sometimes really screwing up. I get inside the guys’ heads a bit to paint a more intimate portrait of them. M ost people know Lance Armstrong and his accomplishments, but 7-Eleven is the pro cycling team that laid the foundation for Lance. American cycling was not prominent in Europe. This was the first all-American team to go to Europe.
What do you think you’ve brought to the sport?
Geoff-Changes have been profound. It’s highly unusual for Americans to be racing professionally in Europe. What Och and Team 7-Eleven did was lay the foundation for what was to come, more pros, more wins, but somebody had to go over there with an American team and create sea change. That’s what Och did with the team in 1985. They were heralded in their own time, but now we can look back and see how they paved the way for many American cyclists and for the sport of cycling.
Any fitness advice for the average cyclist?
Och-The thing about cycling, unlike other sports, is it does require a lot of training, a lot of time on the bike. Pretty simple math, in cycling it’s not so complicated, if you ride an hour, you race like an hour, if you ride for 4 hours, you race like you rode for 4 hours. You gotta put in the time on the bike.
What’s in your future?
Och-I dropped off the scene after the Motorola team. Now I’m back with where I was with Team 7-Eleven, but this time I’m at the helm of BMC. There was a 15 year gap between those two teams. Many people continued on while I had stopped. I had moved to California, and started working for a financial wealth management business, hung my shingle on a whole new business, but now I’m back. I met people in that career change that showed me that the passion for cycling is beyond racing, it’s about being on a bicycle, it’s the endorphins, the speed. People love riding a bike. I don’t think I quite got that as much before because I was around paid athletes. I bring that with me, as general manager of BMC now.
Anything either of you’d like to add?
Geoff-Och understates what he’s accomplished. He’s heading up the team that won the Tour de France, so he’s at the absolute pinnacle of the sport, so it’s not like he came back and just tipped his toes in, he went to the top, make no mistake about that. As for me, I’m always up for writing another book.
Copies of the new book “Team 7-Eleven
How an Unsung Band of American Cyclists Took on the World-and Won” by Geoff Drake with Jim Ochowicz are available now at the Velopress Website here .