IRVINE : 70-Year-Old Couple Bike 240 Miles

Until Cupid struck, 70-year-old Dolores Alexander got along just fine without ever owning a bicycle.

Then, two years ago, she met Bob Alexander, now her husband, a retired engineering professor at Cal State Long Beach who loves cycling so much he used to pedal to work. It didn’t take long for Dolores to get hooked--both on Bob and on biking.

Last Christmas, Bob, also 70, bought Dolores her first bicycle--a folding Peugeot 10-speed. So began several months of training along the bike paths of Irvine, where the couple became a common sight to neighbors. The training culminated this summer, when the Alexanders, donning matching bicycle helmets, embarked on a 240-mile bike tour through Holland.

During the 11-day tour, the Alexanders endured narrow dirt paths, powerful head winds and rain, as well aches and pains.

Dolores Alexander spent most of the tour in the back of the pack, but she completed the tour, despite being among the oldest participants.

“It was difficult, but I tried to be as gung-ho about it as I could,� she said. “We’d get back to the hotel room (at night) and I just wanted to soak in the tub.�

Even though the tour was designed for people over 60, few riders had as little experience with bicycles as Dolores Alexander, a retired school secretary. The Alexanders trained hard during the months leading up to the tour, yet both were still a little apprehensive about how Dolores would fare in Holland.

She soon proved that she was up to the challenge.

She completed all but one day of the June tour, which followed the back roads of a rural region north of Amsterdam.

Among the most difficult challenges were the heavy winds and rain, conditions that Bob Alexander said were “worse than going up hills.� At one point, the riders had to maneuver their way down an unpaved path lined by trees. “That was scary,� he said. “It was very narrow.�

Dolores Alexander is most proud of her efforts on the longest leg of the tour, when riders had to pedal 41 miles in one day. With seven miles left, the tour organizer offered to let her ride in his van, but she decided to tough it out.

“He said that if I made it, he’d write me a certificate because my friends would never believe I did it,� she said.

Before Bob Alexander entered her life, Dolores held no special interest in cycling. Growing up in a congested section of Chicago, she said her parents prohibited her from owning a bike out of fear that she’d get into an accident.

Her husband, on the other hand, has a passion for biking that dates back to the 1940s, when he raced competitively.

The couple, both widowed, met during a folk dance at the Irvine Seniors Center. Much of their courtship was spent on Bob Alexander’s two-seat tricycle, which they often ride along the beach and around their Irvine neighborhood.

“I don’t know if I am ready to go back (on the tour) next year, but it was a great experience,� Dolores Alexander said. “I think this is a nice sport that helps the environment by getting people out of their cars. . . . It’s a wonderfully healthy way to live.�