Berthoud man becomes world record holder
The Berthoud man who, less than a year ago, rode his bicycle across the length of the United States has now been recognized as a world record holder.
Bill Wallace, who rode his Kona Jake bike nearly 3,200 miles last summer, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest man to cross America by bicycle. Wallace left for his trip May 1 as a 74-year-old and returned July 7 as a 75-year-old.
Wallace said a month before he left for his ride, when he was doing a great deal of preparation, he decided to see if the record for oldest person to bike across the country had been set. He said when he saw the record was held by someone who was 70 years old, he decided to apply to become the new record holder.
While he did not read through all that it would take before he left, Wallace said he decided to look back into being named the record holder once he returned. After contacting Guinness, he learned he needed to submit a number of pieces of evidence to prove he did it, including proof his bike is commercially available, GPS evidence and video evidence.
After sending in proof that his bike was available and videos that his significant other, Diane Kelley, had taken while he was on the road, Wallace said he thought it would be better to send in pictures of the mechanical odometer attached to his bike instead of just GPS evidence.
“Which I said I think is more accurate,” he said.
All of this proof was enough, he said, and he received a letter in the mail from Guinness. He said while he initially thought it was the organization denying him the title, he was excited to see the news that he was now a Guinness World Record holder.
“When I opened it … it brought me to tears,” he said.
Kelley said she was incredibly proud of Wallace for the ride and now this title. She added that achieving the official title was similar to Wallace’s hope to do the ride in the first place, saying “he set a goal and he met it.”
“He’s blown us all away,” she said.
Wallace has had to take it easy on the biking since last fall after suffering a crash during a fundraising ride that left him with a broken femur, broken clavicle and three broken ribs.
He looks back on his recordsetting ride with pride and joy for what he had done. He said that he took the many blog posts he wrote while on the road and compiled then into a book, one he will often crack open just to relive his journey.
But, when describing his ride across mountains and flat terrain, through storms and hot weather, Wallace looked back with great fondness on what he had done.
“It was well worth it,” he said.