Freddie HOFFMAN, Ultra-ultra Cyclist --looking for 21st century update.
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Dan Lehman
May 17, 2020, 7:03:16 PM5/17/20
to Pedalers pedalers@googlegroups_com
"Old news", as the latest isn't so recent,
but the old stuff makes good reading.
(No indication of how/or whether Freddie lubes his chains.)
--dl*
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is a full but older account.
2013 is the latest I've come across, but short --to wit:
A Million Miles for Charity, River Edge Man Pedals On | River Dell, NJ Patch
community corner A Million Miles for Charity, River Edge Man Pedals On
Freddie Hoffman biked to the moon and back, three times, all in the name of charity.
Also, here, with more details, though 1996.
N.J. MAN FIGHTS A LONG, LONELY BATTLE * THE 'FORREST GUMP OF CYCLING' LOGS HIS MILLIONTH MILE WHILE RAISING MONEY TO FIGHT LEUKEMIA. - The Morning Call
On Aug. 8, down a lonesome stretch of U.S. Route 36 about 55 miles from Last Chance, Colo., Freddie Hoffman did something few human beings ever have, and perhaps ever will -- he rode his one ...
The Best Cyclist Ever - Freddie Hoffman | Cyclingnews Forum
I'm glad you guys liked it. There was a post in the racing forum about why not just
hand the Tour win to the rider with the best VO 2 Max, well, because sometimes
human beings like Freddie come along who probably have a VO 2 Max in the upper 90's,
that just aren't interested in racing. And he reminds me that there's much more to a bicycle than winning races.
A couple of 2009 comments from this last site:
[The OP writes, to readers' thanks, . . . ]
I'm glad you guys liked it. There was a post in the racing forum about why not just hand
the Tour win to the rider with the best VO2 Max, well, because sometimes human beings
like Freddie come along who probably have a VO2 Max in the upper 90's, that just aren't
interested in racing. And he reminds me that there's much more to a bicycle than winning races.
For a lot of people it is a way of life.
Just to give an idea how far Freddie has ridden, at my peak I rode and raced 8,800 miles in one year.
Pretty normal for an amateur racer or cycling die hard. A Cat 1 friend who did long rides, clocked over 12,000,
which impressed me at the time. Freddie was riding over 50,000 a year in the 1980s,
and "down" to about 35,000 a year in his 40s.
Here's another amazing stat : Daniel Chew is a former RAAM racer and bicycling endurance athlete.
He's hoping to hit 1,000,000 before he can't ride anymore, and thinks he'll get there in his late 70s.
Freddie had ridden that by the age of 33, and is now somewhere around 1.5 million.
He'll probably top 3 million by the time he's 75.
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However they left out a great part of the story that was in one of the other articles on him.
Freddie is a very nice guy and people really love him.
The story goes that a leading womens team was in his area and the coach called Freddie
asking him for a favor to lead the women on a long hard training ride early the next day.
Of course he would, but the next morning he was a no show. The women were wondering
what was going on with this guy when he rolls up late and apologizes.
Apparently his sister --who works late as a nurse-- called him at like 2am
because her car wouldn't start.
So he hops on his bike rides 25 miles to her car, finds the battery dead,
straps the battery to his bike rides 25 miles home,
charges the battery, puts it back on his bike, rides back to the car,
fixes it and then rides home.
By now it is daylight and he is late to the womens ride;
they expect him to tell them the route and go home, but no!
Even though he has well over a hundred miles in his legs and almost no sleep,
he leads them on the ride. They quoted a couple of the women saying he had
to keep backing off so they could catch up. Apparently he only knew one speed,
they said it was close to 25mph.
I wish they made a movie so he could receive the recognition he truly deserves,
what an inspiring person. A Big thanks for starting this thread,
I wish the cycling community would pay tribute to this amazing individual.
Maybe instead of a bike to work week it could be FREDDIE HOFFMAN WEEK?
Then instead of all the negative crap we see on tv every local station could do
a feel good piece on this individual who truly took lemons and made lemonade.
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[And this is a good one, noted in the old article I'd clipped,
re taking his bike to be fixed by Schwinn.]
"He's a person with an enormous heart, as well as an unbelievable cardiovascular system,"
says Richard Schwinn, whose family built the Schwinn bicycle empire.
He owns Waterford Precision Cycles, which custom-built Hoffman's bicycle.
He first made Hoffman's acquaintance 10 years ago, when Hoffman called
the business to say that his bicycle had developed a crack in the frame.
"Box it up, send it in," Schwinn briskly advised. A problem : Hoffman was
in Pennsylvania, in the midst of one of his marathon bike trips.
"Get back home, box up the frame and send it to me," Schwinn amended.
"Three days later," Schwinn says, "he rides up to our door."
Waterford Precision Cycles is in Wisconsin, more than 500 miles away.
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