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Participant Profiles
Curt and Gavin RobeyFather and Son L.A.T.E. Ride Veterans: Curt and Gavin Robey
In 1995, seven-year-old Gavin Robey became the youngest rider ever to bicycle the 25-mile L.A.T.E. Ride on his own! He and his dad Curt have continued to bike the ride every year since. Gavin's younger brothers Ryan (9) and Brendan (6) want to ride too. Gavin says, "I feel fortunate that my younger brothers will join us. I think they'll be able to do it. I'll stay back with them."
The year Gavin set the record Curt told his son "If you think you might not make it the whole way we can always catch the sag wagon." Gavin had bragged to all his friends that he was going to ride 25 miles after midnight. "You're not going to ride the whole 25 miles," they said. When he and his dad were driving into the city, Gavin started to doubt it, but he wasn't ever really that nervous.
Gavin loved riding with the crowd on Roosevelt Road over the Kennedy Expressway, then north to Greek Town. In Greek Town some people yelled to Gavin "Hey buddy, you're out past your bedtime!" Others cheered him on. He and his dad always managed to stay together.
Gavin kept pedaling his purple and shocking pink Huffy with no gears. Way up north, on Elston Avenue near Foster Avenue, Gavin looked over at his dad and said "Daddy, I think I'll make it tonight!"
On the lakefront path just south of Diversey, the riders are supposed to stay on the upper-level bicycle path. Curt and Gavin ended up on the lower-level walking path and Curt forgot that there were steps that went down. He dropped a couple of steps but didn't fall, and Gavin stopped short of the steps. They laughed and kept riding the lakefront path under the moon, watching the sun rise over the lake. "We always laugh when we get to that section of the route, remembering what happened the first year. Now it's our favorite stretch of the 25-mile course."
That first year it took Gavin and his dad about 5-6 hours to finish the ride. At breakfast, they got their breakfast bags and sat under a tree watching other riders return. Then when they came home, Gavin's mom had taped TV coverage. When the TV reporter mentioned that the riders' ages ranged from 7 to 77, Gavin said "Hey, Mommy, that was me!"
In 2001, Gavin rode his mountain bike with 15 speeds. He and his dad took a nap at about 7:00 or 8:00 p.m., then arrived at Buckingham Fountain at about 11:00 p.m., picked up their stuff, and took another nap on the grass embankment facing Lake Shore Drive and the lake. Curt set his watch alarm for about 12:15 a.m., and they slept for about 45 minutes to an hour. They completed the ride in about four hours, and Gavin probably could have finished even faster. They took another nap when they came home on Sunday, and Gavin was fine for school on Monday.
Gavin and Curt live in Wilmette, and Curt works as an accountant in downtown Chicago. They ride their bikes as much as they can during the summer.
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