Thousands gather for a hot time in Wichita Falls, Texas

After "The Star Spangled Banner,” a military flyover and a cannon blast, 14,000 of us go for a bike ride. The Hotter’n Hell Hundred, the largest single-day 100-mile bicycle event in the country, held nine days before Labor Day each year.

With so many involved, you see a little of everything out here, from recumbent bikes to riders towing large boom boxes. And to think we could have been sitting in one spot instead. Before all this began in 1982, that was a consulting firm’s recommendation for a main event to celebrate the town’s centennial, Roby Christie said.

"The suggestion was a rocking chair marathon,” he said.

Christie, who had just joined a bicycle club at the time, thought a bike ride sounded better. Mark Davis, another member of the local centennial planning committee, noted that in late summer down here, "it’s going to be hotter than hell.” And so, they had found a name.

Some objected. A couple of local ministers preached against the name but relented, Christie said.

Page 1 of 2

12Next