A little known Hopkins fact: Vic Hopkins - Vic was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1904. His mother, a single woman, gave him up when he was only a year old and the Hopkins family adopted him. At age nine, both of his adoptive parents died, and he ended up in a Davenport orphanage. While delivering newspapers by bicycle, Vic came across the Davenport Cycling Club, and joined the team for a ride. Vic, a natural talent, and strong from delivering papers in stiff Iowa headwinds, crushed most of the club on his newspaper bike! Worthington Mitten, the club coach and a famous cyclist from an earlier era, asked Vic to join the team. In less than a year, Hopkins went on to set a new Amateur World Record for the five mile time trial (11:22). The chance to compete in the 1924 Paris Olympics inspired Victor. He trained by riding across the country to the qualifying races. For the preliminary Olympic road trials, Vic pedaled his single-speed bicycle from Davenport, Iowa, to Milwaukee, where he raced the 116-mile time trial and qualified for the final three weeks later. Hopkins then rode back home to Davenport, packed again, and proceeded to pedal the 1,000 miles (over mostly dirt roads) to reach the Olympic trials final in New Jersey. He won the race by 20 seconds. In late June of that year, Hopkins and his six teammates set out for the Paris Olympics aboard the U.S.S. America. The 1924 Olympic games were romanticized in the film Chariots of Fire, but the U.S. cycling team experience was a little different. They slept on the floor of a horse barn during their stay in Paris. The Olympic road races of the era were long (117 mile) individual time trials. Hopkins had the third-fastest time at an intermediate checkpoint, but he crashed into a down railroad crossing gate on a descent, breaking his wheel. After a slow wheel repair Vic continued, but could only manage 59th at the finish, with the win going to Armand Blanchonnet of France. In 1932, Vic returned to Paris, with the intention of racing the Tour De France, which would have made him the first American to do so. While Victor did get a racing license, he isn’t on the official Tour roster, and there is no hard evidence that he participated. We speculate that Vic abandoned the race early, or that he changed his mind and competed in other French races that were going on that summer.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 00:03:36 +0000
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