Photograph by George Sakkestad
The founders of the Cat's Hill Criterium, Lorine Dudley Tetzlaff (left) and Bob Tetzlaff, have devoted many long hours to the sport of cyling.
From Rome to Los Gatos-- it's a Cat's Hill connection
Tetzlaffs founders of local bike race
By Dick Sparrer
Bob Tetzlaff might have ended up anywhere.
He'd already seen much of the world after a two-year stint in the Army and nearly a decade of competitive cycling that included a trip to the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.
So he just happened upon Los Gatos in the early 1960s when he hitched a ride home with Army buddy and Olympic teammate Jack Hartman.
Some 40 years later, Tetzlaff is still here, married to Lorine Dudley Tetzlaff, now retired and living comfortably in a home off Los Gatos Boulevard.
Bob Tetzlaff is one of the many former Olympic athletes who have planted their roots in town. And like so many other Olympians, he's made an impact on his adopted home.
Tetzlaff recently retired from a 40-year teaching career at Daves Avenue Elementary School. But along with making an impression on countless young people through the years, he's also left his mark on the local sports scene.
Tetzlaff brought his love of cycling to Los Gatos, and in 1974 shared that passion with the town when he and Lorine teamed with Tom Moore of Moore Buick and the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce to found the Cat's Hill Criterium.
That was 27 years ago. And in 2002, the race is still going strong. The 28th annual Cat's Hill Criterium will return to the streets of downtown Los Gatos on May 11, 10 a.m., with world-class riders and local stars competing in the different divisions for male and female competitors.
The race, now produced by the Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club, rolls through the back streets behind Santa Cruz Avenue.
Riders will line up on Tait Avenue for the starting gun and race down for a quick right turn onto Bean. From there it's another quick right onto Massol before a sweeping left turn onto Nicholson, leading to the Cat's Hill. Cyclists take another right on Belmont and then turn right again for the long stretch down Bachman before making the final right for the finish line on Tait.
"I kept seeing that hill and thought that in some way it had to be part of a bike race," said Tetzlaff.
"I named the course, and Robert designed it," added Lorine.
"Tom Moore said the name would never stick," laughed Tetzlaff, with 27 races as proof positive that it's a name that will be around for a long time.
"It is the race," said Lorine of the name. "It defines the race."
The prestige of the annual race grew quickly and the event attracted more than its share of quality riders. Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond called the event his favorite. Olympian and U.S. Pro champion Eric Heiden, former national champ Wayne Stetina, Olympian Craig Schommer and world champ Karen Kurreck have all competed on the streets of Los Gatos.
What was the attraction for the world-class riders? Tetzlaff has his ideas.
"The prize list was good enough to attract the top riders," he said. "The riders came and the word got out that it was a good one to ride."
Lorine has another theory.
"It was because Robert was famous, and people knew he designed the course," she said.
Tetzlaff was a cycling icon, especially during his heyday of the 1950s and '60s. He won the silver medal at the Pan Am Games in 1963 and earned a place on the U.S. Olympic team in 1960.
And it all started with a $2 bike in 1950.
"I never had a bike until I was 13," he said. "I bought one for $2, and it had no brakes. It cost $2 to fix the brakes."
With the speeds he would reach on his bike, he would definitely need brakes. It wasn't long before he was winning neighborhood races against riders on faster 3-speed bikes.
It was about that time that he hooked up with a coach, Bob Berghino.
"He taught me a lot," said Tetzlaff.
"All these years I've heard Bob bring that up," said Lorine of Berghino. "He had a big influence on [Tetzlaff]."
Tetzlaff hung around Berghino's bike shop and "heard a million stories," he said. Then he rode in his first real race when he was 14 years old. He finished in the middle of the pack in a 25-mile time trial.
He rode in only one more race that year, but the result could have brought a premature end to his racing career. He crashed and suffered some bumps and bruises.
Photograph courtesy of Bob and Lorine Tetzlaff
Riders stretch out down the back streets of Los Gatos as they compete in the Cat's Hill Criterium.
It wasn't an injury that plagued Tetzlaff--it was that he was only days away from his junior high school graduation, and his parents didn't know he was riding competitively.
He tended to his own cuts and bruises without confiding in his parents.
"They wouldn't have let me ride again," he said. "So I walked across the stage with bruises all over my body."
He went on to run track and cross country in high school, recording a 4:56 mile (good for the era) before graduating in 1953. He earned his college degree at UCLA.
All the while, he concentrated on cycling.
He tried out for the Olympic team in 1952, but a flat tire stopped him in the first race and in the second race "I hit a dog."
It was more of the same four years later when he gave the Olympic Games another try. A 105-degree temperature hampered him in the first race, and "I rode stupidly" in the second, he said.
"It was really disappointing," said Tetzlaff.
He was drafted in 1958, but a tour of duty in the Army didn't keep him from making a run for the 1960 Games.
Tetzlaff rode for a military team, and won a tryout race in Central Park in New York City to earn an Olympic berth.
"I was very hungry," he said. "I really wanted it."
Bad luck struck again when a case of tonsillitis kept him from marching in the opening ceremonies, but he recovered in time to ride and was a member of the U.S. team, which finished 11th in the 100-kilometer race.
"That was a very good showing for the time," said Tetzlaff. "We beat teams like Belgium, England and other European teams."
Following the Games, Tetzlaff returned to Los Gatos with Hartman. He earned his teaching credential at San Jose State University and began teaching at Daves Avenue in January of 1962.
Still, he continued to ride. He won a silver medal at the Pan Am Games in Sao Palo, Brazil, in 1963.
"That was a great experience, going to Brazil," he said. "Those were very lively games."
A slipped disc suffered in a car accident kept Tetzlaff from trying out for the 1964 Olympic team, and he returned to the Games in 1968 as a coach.
He would make one more Olympic try in 1972.
"But there was a new wave of young, powerful guys," he said. "I could ride the tactics, but they had the power."
Tetzlaff and Hartman had teamed with Ed Steffani to form the Los Gatos Bike Club in the 1960s, and they staged a town race held on University Avenue near Old Town. The race lasted a few years, and it wouldn't be until 1974 that Tetzlaff would try again to start a race in town.
By then he had met Lorine, and the two would become the founders of the Cat's Hill Criterium. They met in 1971, and were married in 1976.
Cycling would remain a big part of life for the Tetzlaffs, especially around Cat's Hill time.
"It was hard work," said Lorine. "We would be up all night the night before the race."
They managed the race for 10 years before passing the torch.
And speaking of a torch--Bob Tetzlaff returned to his Olympic roots this past winter when he ran a leg of the Olympic Torch Relay.
Today Tetzlaff is relaxing in retirement, but he's still involved in the sport that's dominated his life.
"We both still do some officiating at national events," said Tetzlaff, referring to both he and his wife. "And I'm working on a project to rewrite the national rulebook, to make it comply with the international rulebook."
And it all started with a $2 bike.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
