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In the late sixties, a young American military dependent started racing bicycles in Germany with a local club.
The club coach was former World Cycling Champion Rudi Altig.
One day, the young American went up to his coach and asked,
"Rudi, all the other riders go faster than I do! What do I have to do to keep up?"
Rudi looked at him and replied, "Push down harder on the cranks!"
In the early seventies, that young American founded the Hearts Racing Club in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
His name was Bob Anderson, and even though he has moved on and more than twenty five years have gone by,
Hearts Racing Club is still "pushing down harder on the cranks."
One legend has it that the club was named after an Scots Football Club, Heart of Midlothian,
more commonly called Hearts, which is still in existence today.
The football club, founded in 1874, was itself named after a popular dance hall frequented by
the club members in the Royal Mile of Edinburgh, Scotland.
In the early seventies, Hearts was one of the only USCF clubs in North Carolina.
Its members came from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennesee.
At the 1976 Nationals, there were more Hearts riders there than from any other club in the nation.
Eventually, the club based itself in Winston-Salem, NC, thanks to the efforts of the Mills brothers, Curtis, Tom, and David.
Tom was the first person to break an hour in the twenty five mile time trial.
Curtis took six out of seven gold medals at the State Championships one year.
David is still active in cycling and the club, and is a licensed USCF coach.
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