Oregon Cycling Magazine

by Ayleen Crotty

Candi Murray, a 25-year OBRA volunteer, is now retiring. Along with her husband Mike, Candi has been a tireless contributor to the local bike racing scene. For 10 years she was the Oregon representative for USA Cycling until OBRA broke from that organization. At that time, Candi became exclusively and aggressively involved in the success of OBRA. Under her guidance, Oregon grew from just 700 racers to over 3,000 this year.

Candi says her involvement with racing was a natural evolution. “It was something that my husband did and I wanted to help and be involved. Mike, has been the director of the Alpenrose Velodrome for over 20 years and it just grew from that.”

Though Candi makes it sound simple, Candi volunteers 50-60 hours a week during peak season and “only” 20-30 hours a week in the off season.

It’s the riders, she says, that keep her going. “I absolutely love them. It is a real community and we all look out for each other. The other nice thing is that there are no age lines. One day I will be with people my age and the next minute I am with juniors and young adults. I always said that it would keep me young.”

But don’t worry, now that Candi is retiring, her youthful spirit won’t accelerate into old age and she wants to be very clear that she is definitely not going to disappear. “No, I am not” she says. “I just want to get out from under the burden of the administrative details. I will still be going to races. I will still be officiating. They are not going to get rid of me so easy!”

And the OBRA volunteers are not replacing Candi easily, either. Candi’s one-person position be being divided amongst three people, with Sal Collura from Eugene taking over a majority of the duties. Terri Camp will handle membership and Michael O’Hair will oversee equipment. Yes, Candi did all of that. And more.

Candi is rightfully very proud of the growth of the Oregon racing scene. It is something close to her heart. “I look at it like a parent. When Mike and I took over there were just under 700 racers in the state. We will top over 3000 this year. Velonews just did a survey and we were ranked first in the “Racers per Population Base” category and second in both “Total Number of Racers” and “Total Number of Events”. I feel that we are personally responsible for most of that growth. We made it inexpensive to join and tried to make the community very inclusive and accepting of all riders.”

With all this newly-found time on her hands, Candi is (surprise) going to spend her free time riding her bike. When asked about her position as a racer or a rider, Candi enthusiastically proclaims, “[I’m a] racer!!! I have one speed. Whether it is uphill, downhill, on the track or road. I used to say that I have never passed any rider in any event. While that is no longer true it is still pretty close! We live out in East County. I like to ride out by Rosalyn Lake and up to Lolo Pass. I like to ride the Springwater Trail on my fixed gear. I like to ride out to PIR via Marine Drive.”

So if you see Candi out there on the road, or at a fall Cyclocross race, congratulate her, thank her and wish her well in her new adventures. We here at ORbike certainly do. Thank you, Candi, for all you have done for Oregon cycling.

Ayleen Crotty is a daily cyclist living in Portland. She writes Blog.ORbike.com, a blog for Oregon’s largest clearinghouse bike calendar, ORbike.com.

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