Medina County Bicycle Club

It's a little known fact that former Medina resident and volunteer firefighter, Dell Voss, had been working during 1981 to get a bicycle club started in Medina to serve the county as a whole. Dell's interest seemed to come from his interest in the July 4th bicycle race held at one of the counties parks each year. Then in the summer of 1982, Dell Voss placed 64th with a time of 66:14, and Lou Vetter placed a close 67th and posted a time of 66:35. The close proximity of these two riders made for a bond that would be both competitive for the race and comradarie for the forming of what came to be known as the Medina County Bicycle Club. Then in 1982 Dick DeLombard moved to Medina County and one of his first interests seemed to be the starting of a local bicycle club. Both Dick and Dell had individually contacted Lou Vetter for assistance in starting of such a club. During the summer of '82 the three of them met a couple of times to share ideas and information about what our new club should be and who we could contact to form such a club. Later that summer Dick DeLombard sent out an invitation to several Medina county residents who had been identified as a potential or possible bicycle club members. The invitation included a questionnaire to be completed by the proposed members of the future bicycle club forming in Medina County. It was requested that responses to the questionnaire be returned to Dick DeLombard in Medina, Ohio. By this time the group had decided upon a name for the local bicycle club and that it would be the "Medina County Bicycle Club". The first club ride was in 1982 with Del Voss, the United-Airline-Pilot guy (I can't recall his name), and Dick DeLombard rode from Medina through Hinkley to Brecksville park area and then returned to Medina. The first organized club ride was the moving of the ride known as "A Bi-Cycling Dandy Excuse For Getting Hybernated In January" (ABCDEFGHIJ) from Huron, Ohio to Public Square, Medina, Ohio. That occurred on January 1st 1983 and preceded the clubs first newsletter published in February 1983. The organizational meeting was announced in that newsletter with the meeting to be held on March 9, 1983 at 8:00 pm in the upstairs meeting room of the Montville Branch of the Old Phoenix National Bank at River Styx Road. The club was officially started and during the winter of 1983 there were two bicycle shops that were also interested in the successful start-up of the Medina County Bicycle Club. They were the Brunswick Schwinn Shoppe and the Brunswick Bicycle Shoppe in K-Mart Plaza. Both shops referred their customers to the club for bicycle rides and possible membership. Other organizational help came from the "Crankmail" and a dear friend of bicycling in Ohio, David Fortier. Dave was the General Editor of the Crankmail and involved with the bicycling display at the "Sports Show" held in Cleveland every winter. The election of the club's first slate of officers was announced in the May 14, 1983 issue of the Medina County Gazette as follows: President; Lou Vetter, Vice-President Scott Elligott, Secretary-Treasurer; Dick DeLombard, and Ride Chairman; John Jeandrevin. To be continued: