Nelson Vails Documentary

August 13, 2013 by Steve Tilford 8 comments 145 views

I was forwarded a link and it led me to a short trailer of a documentary of my old team mate, Nelson Vails. It turns out they are making a video of his life and need some contributions. Nelson is one of the good guys. I always enjoyed traveling and training with him. Always smiling, always happy. Here’s a link to the site and there is a place to click to contribute to help make it possible.

Indiegogo Campaign - Cheetah: The Nelson Vails Story trailer from stephane gauger on Vimeo.

Nelson is on a poster heading down to my basement. This was a Raleigh poster from 1984. Pretty great results from our team. Doesn’t even show Thurlow and Roy who won Olympic Bronze medals. That would be a total of two gold, one silver and two bronze Olympic medals from one domestic team. Pretty stellar.

Comments (8)

Seis_pendejos

2013-08-13 23:35:02

Actually 2 gold (Carpenter, Hegg), 2 silver (Vails, Hegg), and 2 bronze (Thurlow and Clarence).

e-RICHIE

2013-08-14 08:41:31

Man, if Lenny were only still alive to see this day atmo.

Daniel Russell

2013-08-14 09:19:25

I rode with him on the Gimbel’s Ride in ‘81, quite the character. He would always ride ahead and stop at Dunkin Donuts on Central Avenue, every rider deserves a good breakfast. Word was that he broke the bottom bracket on his Sachs, any truth to that e-RICHIE?

e-RICHIE

2013-08-14 09:53:02 In reply to Daniel Russell

Daniel - News to me. He had four of them before leaving Toga/Tempo, And, Lenny also had a rack of spares painted green and yellow to match the frames I supplied when we had the liaison. The spares were a range of brands that the shop sold at the time, and all of the frames (the RS included) were raced, repainted, and recirculated among newer riders as the seasons changed.

Daniel Russell

2013-08-14 10:52:34 In reply to e-RICHIE

That was always the buzz on the ride, I didn’t think your brazing would fail like that. I miss riding with Otto, great ride, great guy.

Kerry Stockwell

2013-08-14 17:50:06

Thurlow was left off the 100k team in 84.

Steve Tilford

2013-08-14 20:38:31

Kerry-My memory is muddled. I forgot Andy Weaver “took” Thurlow’s place. Or maybe Davis, Roy or Ron took it, I don’t exactly remember the deal. I’ll ask Thurlow next time I run into him.

Wildcat

2013-08-15 10:28:14

Every time I’ve ever seen a black guy at a road race they are NEVER slow.