40th annual Octoginta ride dedicated to late KU Athletic Director Bob Frederick / LJWorld.com

Archive for Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bob Frederick served as Kansas University athletic director for 14 years. He died earlier this year.

September 23, 2009

Registration for the Octoginta events costs $35 and is available online at www.lbc-cycling.com. Registration will also run from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 3 and from 7 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. Oct. 4 at the South Park Recreation Center, 1141 Mass.

The main ride begins at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, at South Park.

Other Octoginta events are also scheduled for Oct. 3, the Saturday before the main ride:

• A 6.2-mile time trial, 7 a.m., east of Lawrence at the intersection of Noria Road and North 1400 Road or Old Kansas Highway 10. The entry fee is $20, and it is a fundraiser for the Free State Racing Team. Pre-registration is available at freestateracing.com.

• Tour de County, 9:30 a.m., a 30-mile casual ride through Douglas County, which starts and begins at South Park. Registration costs $5.

• Swap meet, 2 p.m., at the South Park Recreation Center.

It will still be Bob Frederick’s Octoginta.

The former Kansas University athletic director and avid Lawrence cyclist earlier this year took on the job as tour director for the 40th annual ride that brings hundreds of bicyclists to the area.

Frederick, 69, died after he suffered injuries in a June 11 bicycle accident at the intersection of Kasold Drive and Sixth Street.

Organizers for the ride will make the entire weekend of Oct. 3-4 a memorial, calling it Bob Frederick’s Octoginta.

“Bob’s dream, I think, was to make this a very special and different Octoginta,” said Michelle Joest, the co-tour director with Lee Merrill.

The ride, organized by the Lawrence Bicycle Club and which attracts about 750 cyclists to Lawrence for the weekend, will include several tributes to Frederick.

He had originally chosen the route for the 8:30 a.m. Sunday ride that will begin and end at South Park. It will trek through Douglas, Franklin, Osage and Shawnee counties for 80 miles. The club will also include a longer option to ride 100 miles as a tribute to Frederick.

“Bob loved the long ride. He loved the challenge of pushing himself to the distance,” Joest said.

The other tributes include the event’s crimson and blue T-shirt with a rendering of Frederick in cycling gear. The bicycle club will also have commemorative crimson and blue bracelets available.

Frederick’s widow, Margey Frederick, will also join bicycle club members in greeting riders that Sunday morning.

The Five Star Jazz Band will play “I’m a Jayhawk” and other songs at South Park before.

“Bob was the ultimate friend and the ultimate supporter. We miss him,” Joest said.

More information about registration is available online.

Discussion

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23 September 2009
at 7:15 p.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Nice.
23 September 2009
at 7:21 p.m.

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Informed (Anonymous) says…

What a fitting tribute to Bob. I'm sorry I will have to miss it this year.
23 September 2009
at 10:50 p.m.

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sustainabilitysister (Anonymous) says…

Coach Bob will continue to touch and change many peoples' lives!!!! He truly has made the world a better place and his legacy lives on.