Bob, The Hoods, and Bill

Had a great ride on Sunday.  The usual groundhog parcours.  John and Camille Hood were in town visiting from Franklin, NC.  We picked them up on Winner-Foster and they rode with our group through Fulshear and Simonton and back to Winner-Foster.   Really nice to ride with them again.  John half wheeling me all the way from Simonton to our turn off onto Pool Hill road - speed increasing all the way.  Just like his Dad, it is in his blood.

Not far past the turn off of Winner-Foster heading North onto FM 359 we ran into Bob Parnell and Xena riding south.  Bob is a Houston cycling legend. The Natural - natural ability to ride the bike.  They turned around and road the last 10 miles or so with us back to Katy.  Bob was diagnosed with brain cancer around a year and one half ago.  Has had surgery to remove the brain tumor, initially looked like it was staying away, but it came back.  Underwent experimental chemo treatment, but, he is losing the battle.  It turns out it was his birthday and a bunch of people came to his house on Saturday and he loved it.  He said it was the best birthday ever and that he was so "amped up" he couldn't go to sleep for quite awhile.  He pulled out his Calfee and donned an Al Wahley world championship jersey, that Al had signed and given to him, and went for a ride - first time in quite a while and maybe the last.  His muscles have atrophied and he has lost a lot of weight.  It was really nice to see him.  Bob is/was one of the good guys of the west Houston peloton.  He lived for the Kirkwood Ride/race.  Always working on the front of the pack, or off the front in a breakaway.  Yet, for such a clique-ish bunch of elite cyclist, and Bob being one of the best, he was always the kind of guy to provide encouraging words and support to the new guys/outsiders such as me 20 years ago.

Bill Edwards, another, older, cycling legend from Houston passed away yesterday after a long bout with cancer.  Bill spent a lot of his time training and coaching young riders using a classic training method emphasizing an intensity building pyramid method.