Little Rascal
On the race track, 'Buckwheat' has a style all his own
By Leigh Ann Maze
Cyclocross racer Rob "Buckwheat" Meighan of Los Gatos sprints for the finish line on his cyclocross bike. It is the second race of the Surf City Cyclocross Series at Fort Ord in November 1998. He has been racing hard around the obstacle-packed cyclocross course for almost an hour now, and his body's tachometer is above the red line.
His bottom lip curls downward in Meighan's trademark racing snarl from the intensity of maximum exertion. He is so intent on being first to the finish line that he doesn't notice the drool streaming across his cheeks. "He looked like an animal," says Farid Abraham, Meighan's manager for the past two years.
Meighan, coming from behind, outsprints Anton McGready, his rival in the race, and crosses the finish line first with his hands raised victoriously in the air.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Meighan enjoys a laugh with daughters Merideth, 6, and Madeline (at right), 9.
Meighan's biggest fans, daughters Madeline, 9, and Merideth, 6, were there cheering him on.
"It was a total thrill to be able to come from behind and win. It was a nice way to start things off," says Meighan, 38, a lean and sinewy athlete with a seemingly endless amount of energy.
Just two months after separating from his wife, what Meighan was starting off was a new outlook on life, a reorganization of his priorities and a new intensity in his cyclocross racing.
Cyclocross is a fall sport in which riders race for an hour around a 1.25 to 2-mile course laden with mud pits, rocks, hills, barriers and other obstacles. The key to cyclocross riding is learning to dismount a bike at 20 mph, leap over barriers or run up a tricky slope while carrying the bike, and then hop back on all in one fluid motion.
Cyclocross is described by veterans of the sport as a steeplechase around an obstacle course on a 10-speed bike with knobby tires in all kinds of adverse weather conditions. It is certainly a sport all its own.
Cyclocross started more than 60 years ago as a fun way for road racers to stay in shape during the off-season. It has been especially popular in Europe, where die-hard fans travel many miles to stand in the rain and the cold, and eat sausages, drink beer and cheer on their favorite riders.
Today, a growing number of Europeans and Americans are strictly cyclocross riders, like Meighan. After decades of popularity in Europe, cyclocross is beginning to attract attention in the United States, where, since 1996, cyclocross races and racers have more than doubled.
For Meighan, winning that race in the Surf City Cyclocross Series in 1998 was particularly sweet, not only because it came at a definitive turning point in his life, but because it seemed impossible for him to win in the first place.
Halfway through the race, with Meighan about 10 seconds ahead of McGready and both of them battling for the lead, Meighan's derailer jammed in a crash. He had no choice but to run with his bike for almost half a mile to the next pit stop where he hopped on his second bike.
Meighan lines up with other competitors in the Surf City Cyclocross competition at Fort Ord in 1999.
© Farid A. Abraham
But by that time, McGready was well over 30 seconds ahead of Meighan, with less than half the race left to go.
"He shouldn't have won," says Abraham. "But his determination and willingness to put himself on the line enabled him to do it. It was mind-blowing."
Meighan knows firsthand that obstacles like mechanical failures, tough hills, mud pits and barriers are as much an integral part of cyclocross racing as they are in life.
Before his successful 1998 cyclocross racing season, followed by an even better 1999 season, Meighan says he didn't take life very seriously. "I was flying by the seat of my pants," he says.
A 1979 graduate of Saratoga High School, Meighan was born and raised in Monte Sereno. Since high school he has worked as a mason in the Bay Area; for many of those years he worked for himself. Since January of this year he has worked as a project manager for Walton & Sons Masonry. He is extremely skilled at his job and has done masonry locally for such locations as C.B. Hannegan's in Los Gatos, as well as for big-name clients such as Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
Meighan was an avid mountain biker for many years until he discovered cyclocross in 1985. He earned his cyclocross nickname, "Buckwheat," in 1986 when he was new to the sport. In his early races, the fun-loving Meighan wore a T-shirt with a big picture on the front of Buckwheat from the Little Rascals with his hair sticking up as if he had put his finger in an electrical outlet.
Meighan says his riding was unconventional and a little out of control then. People would notice him passing other riders in a race and say, "Who is that guy in the Buckwheat T-shirt? Go, Buckwheat!" That T-shirt became his cyclocross jersey for the rest of the year. To this day, many know Meighan only as Buckwheat.
"I always had a lot of talent, but I didn't capitalize on it. I took a lot of things for granted," Meighan says. "I was not committed to cycling. I did a lot of things half-assed." After separating from his wife in 1998, Meighan says he realized he had made some poor decisions in his past, and after a rough period, he decided to make some major changes
He and his former wife share custody of their children. His daughters are his first priority. He participates in local community theater and attends church with them on Summit Road in Los Gatos near their home. Birthday parties take precedence over cyclocross races without a second thought.
Meighan is also focused and dedicated more than ever before to his racing. While the nickname Buckwheat has stuck for the last 14 years, he traded in his old Buckwheat T-shirt at the local races to sport the jerseys and products of his sponsors--such as Jogmate, Steelman Cycles, Oakley sunglasses, Gyro helmets, Clif Bar, Lake Shoes, Tufo Tires and Spokesman Bicycles--in major national races.
"When we first met [Meighan] about four years ago, he was really good, but he wasn't doing national races at that point," says sponsor Brent Steelman of Steelman Cycles in Redwood City. "Now he is one of the top guys in the country. He's a great rider to have representing us because he's a total showman all the time, and he always races hard. He's really gregarious and friendly; he'll talk to anybody."
'Buckwheat' Meighan competes in the Central Coast Cyclocross competition at Manzanita Park in 1999.
© Farid A. Abraham
Meighan was also extremely proud to represent the U.S., wearing the stars and stripes jersey at the Cyclocross World Championship race in 1999. "I feel like I've got my soul back," says Meighan. "I really did give up all hope. Now, life is good."
Meighan competed in the U.S. National Cyclocross Championship race in 1986 when he first came to the sport, and didn't compete in the race again until 1999, placing sixth. Meighan attempted to race in the seven-game Supercup National Series in 1997 and 1998, but only made it to a few of the races. In 1999, however, he completed all seven races in the series and placed second overall in his age group, behind his rival, Tim Rutledge of Seattle.
"He was pushing me all year long," says Rutledge, adding that Meighan's rate of improvement over the last three years has been impressive. "He pushed me to be a much better rider."
Also in 1999, Meighan represented the United States for the first time in the UCI Masters Cyclocross World Championship race in Belgium, where he placed 14th in his age group.
At the world championships, Rutledge and Meighan raced as part of the same team, although in different age groups. The friendly competitors worked in each other's pit crews and even used each
other's bikes, says Rutledge.
"Rob Meighan is out there every weekend giving his heart for the sport and pitching in and helping out. To me that's true athleticism. His spirit for the love of the sport is just terrific," says Rutledge.
Meighan's goals for the upcoming 2000 season are to win the seven-race Supercup National Series in the 35-to-44 age group, to win the U.S. National Cyclocross Championship race in the 35-to-39 age group, and to win the UCI Masters Cyclocross World Championship race in the 40-to-44 age group in January 2001.
Abraham and Rutledge agree that Meighan has what it takes to reach his goals.
"I think it's awesome," Abraham says. "He has come back to do better than he ever has in his life. And he's having the time of his life."
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
In order to become the best cyclocross racer in his age group in the country--and the world--Meighan has a lot of conditioning to do between now and the start of the racing season in October.
To prepare his body for four months of intensive riding during cyclocross season, Meighan trains year-round.
During the off-season, Meighan is allowed to have fun with his conditioning, as long as he develops an endurance base, says Abraham. Meighan will do three-hour bike rides, triathlons, 12- and 24-hour endurance races and running. As the season draws near, Meighan will specialize his training toward cyclocross, often doing very intense two-hour workouts, after which he can barely stand, Abraham says.
But for Meighan it is all worth it when he feels the challenge and intensity of the race, masters the grace and skill necessary to navigate a difficult course, sees his two girls screaming, "Go, Dad!" from the sidelines, or steps onto the podium after a win.
Meighan has a lot of obstacles to navigate both on and off the cyclocross course this year before reaching his lofty goal. But if he shows the same determination that he displayed in the 1998 Surf City race, Abraham says, it's possible. Borrowing a line from an REM song, Meighan says his approach to racing and life this year is to "live with joy and thunder."
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
