While I didn't know him as well as a lot of other people I do have some Lawrence Malone stories. He died in an automobile accident this week - the true cause of it a mystery much like the life of the man himself. He was a bike racer of the first order but I don't think that he wanted that to be his total identity. His racing spanned a number of years and included no less than five national cyclocross titles but he was not much like those who he competed against. He raced at a time when American bike racers were very poor financially but none were poorer than Lawrence. He borrowed bikes , bummed food and rides to get to races-most of which he would win but the prizes seldom included much if any cash. He lived on almost nothing on a good day and less the rest of the time.
My first exposure to Lawrence was the cover of Velo News magazine. The cover photo was of Lawrence jumping a barrier on his bike at a cyclocross race. As far as I know, he was the first racer to do this and while he was in Europe racing he really made a name for himself by airing the barriers when nobody else had thought about riding that way- he was an original thinker. Seeing this made me , a lousy Cat. 4 beginner go out on my bike and jump every chuck hole in the county on my training rides. On one particular jump I came down ungracefully and broke a very expensive 3TTT saddle. It was at that point I realized how much skill that I didn't have and would never have- and I also realized how skilled Lawrence must be to be able to jump barriers that were more than a foot tall.
The first time I saw Lawrence in person was in 1978. I was on a ride with my bike shop boss on a popular route up Hwy. 1 north to Swanton road. When we were about 45 min. into the ride we were passed by a rider going very fast, followed by a pack of what must have been about 20-25 riders. My boss said that this group was the 'Friday ride" - a pack of most of the fastest cyclists in the county. The guy in front that they were chasing ? -Lawrence. My boss said that if I wanted to try my hand at that ride I would have to train as people like Lawrence ( even though he really was in a class by himself ) were going to leave me behind in short order if I didn't put in the miles. To see all those top riders working so hard to catch Lawrence impressed me- how could one guy hold off a whole pack ?
The next time I saw Lawrence it was a bit of a surprise. I was in my apartment with my girlfriend at the time on a Friday or Saturday night- not sure what night it was, actually. About 8:00-9:00 PM there was aloud and frantic knock at the door. I opened the door and in walked Lawrence with his bike. He closed the door and sat down on the living room floor and opened up a pack that he was carrying. Out of the pack came a gallon bottle of cheap Red Mountain wine- he offered us a swig , which we declined. He shrugged and took a drink. I'm not sure how he knew where I lived but my apartment was just what he needed that night for about 15 minutes or so. After a bit of conversation and a few drinks, Lawrence got up and took a peak out the front door. He looked up and down the street - after this he thanked us for our hospitality and got on his bike and went on his way. Before he left I asked him what was up- he just smiled and said that he needed to hide for a few minutes and now that the coast was clear he could continue on his way. I never fully found out who Lawrence was hiding from but knowing that would not make the story any better- it might even ruin it. It was just Lawrence being Lawrence.
Years would go by - Lawrence was no longer racing but he was still a bicycle rider, scrounger and always cobbing various old bikes into transportation. He came by my shop in the early '90's with an Italian frame with a broken chain stay. He asked me how much it would cost to fix it . I told him around $ 40. He said OK and left the frame. I would not see him again for maybe two years. I had fixed the frame but after two years I figured that Lawrence was not coming back for it- $ 40 was big money to Lawrence and perhaps he had forgotten about the frame or maybe had decided not to pick it up. I had the frame painted, assembled it into a complete bike and sold it. A few weeks after I sold the bike Lawrence came by. He asked me if I still had the frame and if it had been repaired. I told him that I had repaired it two years ago and that I thought that he had abandoned or forgotten about it. When I told him that I had sold it he didn't get angry- he didn't ask me for money or anything really- he just looked disappointed and shook his head a little. I apologized but said that anything left in my shop that long is subject to getting sold or disposed of. He seemed to understand and left.
The next time I saw Lawrence was in my back yard about a year later. Some how word had gotten out that I had a big pile of bike parts that I wanted to get rid of and they were in my back yard. Lawrence called up and asked if he could look through the pile. I told him yes and he drove up later in his Carmen Ghia and proceeded to rifle through the pile of frames and parts. I told him to just make a pile of what he wanted and we would come up with a price. He must have worked for about an hour looking carefully through all the bike stuff and eventually had a pretty large pile of what he wanted. He asked me how much for the pile, to which I said : How about $ 200.00 ? Lawrence looked at me blankly for a second and they broke into a bit of a smile. I think he was pretty happy with the price- he opened his wallet and produced 10 twenty dollar bills- I was in shock- this was Lawrence Malone buying $ 200 worth of bike parts in cash. While I knew that the parts were worth far more than what he was paying, I was still amazed that Lawrence was carrying that amount of cash for any reason. He carryed the parts to his car and whatever frames he got that would not fit inside the car he bungie corded them to a rickety rack on the back of the Carmen Ghia . After that he bid goodby and thanked me for giving him the good deal. I thanked him and watched him drive off.
The last time I saw Lawrence was over a decade later. I was at a cyclocross race here in Santa Cruz watching the elite race. A friend pointed to a taller older man standing with a road bike near the side of the course. He asked me :" Is that Lawrence ?" I really had to look for awhile- it didn't look quite like the same guy who had driven away with the load of bike parts- if it really was Lawrence, he looked much older . He had moved to New Mexico years earlier and I had pretty foggy memories of what he looked like. It turned out that it was Lawrence indeed - in town for a visit and taking in a cyclocross race as a spectator. I didn't talk to him- I just felt like maybe he might just want to watch the race and not have a bunch of people talking to him as a distraction. Maybe I just didn't feel that I was someone he would remember or want to talk to. I regret not talking to him- I really regret not fully giving him credit for the fact that not only did he remember about that frame he left for me to repair- he remembered people, places, events- he was outwardly a spaced-out seeming character but in reality he was very present. I am sad that I didn't know him better , that I never got to build him a frame and get his opinion on how it rode. Most of all I am sad that I underestimated his capacity for observing and remembering the people he came into contact with.
As I said in the beginning, I didn't know Lawrence that well and I can't really talk about his life other than the few times that I saw him. There are all sorts of Lawrence stories out there- not all of them happy. He didn't always leave people with a smile and his past is a mixture of all sorts of varying accounts- I'll have to leave it at that and suggest that other people will be able to fill in the vast spaces that I left open in this story. In Lawrence's memory I tried to stick to what I recalled the best and not pass judgement . It is ironic and quite sad that such a bicycle guy would have his life end in an automobile accident . I think that Lawrence had a lot more to give to this life if he had had the chance , but with the chance he was given he did make an impact on cycling history , even if the identity that people gave him for his racing exploits only tell a fraction of what he really was all about.
