Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

By EMILY WILKINS, THE GAZETTE

In a suit and tie, he looks like any other businessman. But when he gets on a bike, Norman Alvis transforms from white-collar worker and father of five to a force on two wheels.

A former professional cyclist, Alvis beat Lance Armstrong to win the CoreStates U.S. Pro Cycling Championships in 1995. Two years later, he broke the U.S. record for the farthest distance biked in an hour. He’s competed in the Olympics and the Tour de France.

But the Colorado Springs resident, who rarely has time to ride these days, sees a special challenge in Pikes Peak.

And on Aug. 28, he’ll get into the saddle again for the second Assault on the Peak, a 24.5-mile race from Manitou Springs to the top of “America’s Mountain.”

“I look at that mountain every day,” Alvis said. “I thought, ‘What a challenge.’”

Photos from the inaugural ride up the Peak

Alvis grew up harvesting fruits on a California farm. The work molded him into someone who could not only handle physical challenges, but thrive on them.

“His personality is that of an overachiever, intellectually and athletically,” said Dean Golich, his former coach.

There were open roads to ride, and Alvis discovered the joy of cycling as a child. Speeding along with the wind in his face, Alvis imagined that riding his bike was like flying a jet.

For years he simply rode for fun. Then he turned pro in 1989, riding for Team 7-Eleven and racing throughout the United States and Europe. There were luxurious hotel rooms and people who washed and prepped his bike before every ride.

In 1990, Alvis competed in the Tour de France, the hilly, challenging three-week stage race.
“When you ride in the Tour de France, you’re one of the best in the world,” Golich said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Alvis has fond moments of the race — wind whipping his face at 40 mph, pushing his bike to the edge of the road.

But there’s another, darker draw to Alvis’ passion and his success — the torture of the ride, the feeling that you had to suffer a bit to achieve success.

“It’s the people who like beating themselves up that race,” Alvis said.

One of his professional successes came right here in the Springs: In 1997, he rode slightly more than 32 miles in an hour at the 7-Eleven USOTC Velodrome in Memorial Park, setting a U.S. record. A year later he retired.

“It’s a neat lifestyle, but it costs a lot physically,” Alvis said. “I enjoyed my career very much, but I had to focus on something else.”

At 40, Alvis went to college for a degree in advertising and marketing at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. In class he applied the same focus that had taken him to the top of elite cyclists. That didn’t surprise his coach.

Golich remembers Alvis’ precision while training on a stationary bike. “I’d say, ‘You’re doing 350 watts,’ which is very hard,” Golich said. “He would say, ‘Did I do 351 or 352?’ He was always very exact in his training and in his life.”

That drive paid off. Alvis graduated in 2001 with a 4.0 grade-point average, first in his class.
Thomas J. Zwirlein, a professor of finance at UCCS, remembers Alvis as a “bright, inquisitive, intense” student.

Now a senior portfolio manager with U.S. Bank, Alvis returned to cycling for fun. When he was a professional, he rode his bike about 20,000 miles a year. Now he rides about 1,000 miles a year.

“What’s neat is that he really did kind of step away,” said Pat McDonough a former professional cyclist who organized the Assault on the Peak. “A couple years ago he just out of the blue showed up at a race and said, ‘You know, I kinda just want to race again.’”

The cycling world had changed since Alvis left it — a local bike shop’s $1,300 “beginner” bike was more advanced than those Alvis used as a professional — but he knew success could be found with focus, a bit of pain, and perseverance.

Using Climbbybike.com, he compared Pikes Peak with climbs along the Tour de France route. The website scores each mountain climb based on its height, incline and length. The higher the number, the greater the difficulty. The worst of this year’s Tour de France was Italy’s Col Agnel, with a score of 161.52. By those standards, Pikes Peak would score 212.77.
Alvis knew the Assault would be three hours of riding as hard as he could.

There were plenty of times during the climb last August that he almost stopped. Above treeline, the wind was at his back one moment and threatening to tip his bike the next.
And the mental aspect came into play, as it had during his professional days.

“When it gets going really hard like that, typically on a mountain, your world gets smaller and smaller,” Alvis said.

Alvis’ focus was so intense he didn’t realize he had finished the climb until the view opened up at the summit. He made the ride in just under three hours, the 21st cyclist to the top.

“For me it was basically a fun outing,” Alvis said. “I enjoy riding my bike.”

He didn’t start training for this year’s ride until a few weeks ago. “I hope two months is enough,” he said with a smile.

Looking up at Pikes Peak every day, he knows what awaits. “I’ve been all through mountains of Europe and smaller mountain chains. There are no roads that compare to this.”