# 4689 - 2012 First-Class Forever Stamp - Bicycling: Man Riding in a Road Race

 

Issue Date: June 7, 2012

City: Minneapolis, MN

Quantity: 10,000,000

Printed By: Ashton Potter

Printing Method: Offset

Perforations: Die Cut 10 ¾

Color: multicolored

 

The winner of the first bicycle race shot to victory on a wooden bicycle with iron tires in 1868.  Bicycle racing has evolved tremendously since that day.  Two-pound frames and aluminum wheels carry cyclists for distances and at speeds unimaginable to racers in the 19th century.

 

Competitions vary greatly in distance; the most grueling is the annual 3,000-mile Race Across America.  Athletes begin in California and bike to the East Coast, almost nonstop. The race began in 1982, when four men rode from Santa Monica, California, to the Empire State Building in New York City.  By 2011, over 300 racers with support crews set out to overcome the heat of the Mojave Desert and the altitude of the Rocky Mountains.

 

Riders average over 250 miles each day, sleep less than two hours at a time, and climb over 150,000 feet of mountains.  More than half of participants drop out each year from fatigue or injury.  After more than a week on their bikes, the physically and mentally exhausted competitors finally reach the East Coast.

 

It takes a rare combination of training and determination to join the elite group of athletes who accept the challenge of a long-distance bicycle race.