Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Old Wheelways
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/authors/robert-l-mccullough
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 94094322
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n94094322
HEADING: McCullough, Robert, 1949-
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100 1_ |a McCullough, Robert, |d 1949-
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400 1_ |a McCullough, Robert L., |d 1949-
670 __ |a The landscape of community, c1995: |b CIP t.p. (Robert McCullough)
670 __ |a Phone call to publ., 08-31-94 |b (Robert McCullough; b. 07-05-49)
670 __ |a Crossings, 2005: |b CIP t.p. (Robert L. McCullough)
670 __ |a Old wheelways, 2015: |b ECIP t.p. (Robert L. McCullough) data view (currently Associate Professor in the Graduate Program of Historic Preservation at the University of Vermont; has MLS in Public Policy Law from Vermont Law School as well as a PhD in Urban History and Historic Preservation from Cornell University)
670 __ |a Library of COngress/NACo in VIAF, 1 February 2017 |b (hdg.: McCullough, Robert, 1949-)
PERSONAL
Born July 5, 1949.
EDUCATION:Ursinus College, B.A., 1971; Hamline University School of Law, J.D., 1976; Vermont Law School, M.S.L, 1983; Cornell University, M.A., 1988, Ph.D., 1993.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Historian, educator, and writer. Title Insurance Company of Minnesota, MN, assistant counsel and assistant vice president, 1976-1982; Bragdon, Berkson & Mangones, Keene, NH, independent counsel, 1983-85; State of Vermont, Division for Historic Preservation, building preservation specialist, 1984-1992; State of Vermont, Agency of Transportation, Montpelier, historic preservation coordinator, 1992-98, co-manager of Vermont Historic Bridge Program, 1998-2002; manager, 2002-; University of Vermont, Burlington, adjunct faculty in graduate program in historic preservation, 1995-98, lecturer, 1998-2003, assistant professor of historic preservation, 2003-07, associate professor, 2007-; Also adjunct faculty member at Vermont Law School, South Royalton, 2002-08.
AWARDS:Theodore C. Blegen Award, Forest History Society, 1995, for article “A Forest in Every Town: Vermont’s History of Communal Woodlands.”
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Saving Historic Roads: Design and Policy Guidelines, edited by Paul D. Marriott and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, John Wiley & Sons for the Preservation Press, 1997; Stepping Back to Look Forward: A History of the Massachusetts Forest, edited by Charles H.W. Foster, Harvard Forest in collaboration with Harvard University Press, 1998; Reconstructing Conservation: History, Values, and Practice, edited by Ben Minteer and Robert Manning, Island Press, 2003; and Twentieth-Century New England Conservation: A Heritage of Civic Engagement, edited by Charles H.W. Foster, Harvard University Press for Harvard Forest, 2008. Contributor to periodicals, including American Forests, Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, CRM, Historical New Hampshire, and Vermont History.
SIDELIGHTS
Robert L. McCullough studied public law and history in college. He is a professor of historic preservation and previously was a historic preservation coordinator for the Vermont Agency of Transportation in Montpelier, where he performed regulatory reviews of transportation projects to ensure they complied with preservation laws on the federal and state levels. He is the author of The Landscape of Community: A History of Communal Forests in New England and Crossings: A History of Vermont Bridges.
In his third book, titled Old Wheelways: Traces of Bicycle History on the Land, McCullough delves into the cycling history of the United States with a focus on American bicyclists as explorers who, as they traveled though chartered and unchartered areas of the country, kept copious records via journals, articles, travel narratives, photographs, and illustrations. In the process, they also played a fundamental role in influencing the construction of roads and paths, from lobbying legislators for funds to funding and building bicycle paths themselves.
McCullough writes that the story of these pioneering bicyclists has largely been ignored by historians. He also notes that these cyclists’ history is important today and can provide lessons, in terms of both sports and transportation, as a revival of cycling has occurred. As a result, there is a new struggle for rights on the road, a struggle that dates back to times when cyclists jostled with horses, carriages, trolleys, and pedestrians on the roads of America. McCullough begins with a discussion of the bicycle’s evolution and the once revolutionary idea of touring the countryside on a bicycle. McCullough notes that riding bicycles through the countryside was ideal for making accurate observations about the landscape along the way. Trains were too fast, and walking allowed most people to go only a limited distance.
As the bicycle became popular, a number of cycling publications appeared, often recounting significant treks made by cyclists. McCullough notes the trip of one such cyclist, Thomas Stevens, who circled the globe from 1884 to 1888. He did his traveling on a high wheeler, a bicycle with a large front wheel and a much smaller back wheel. McCullough points out that as bicycle designs became more accommodating to people and reached the basic design of all bicycles over the decades, more and more people began to go on their own adventures.
McCullough explains how the new enthusiasm for bicycling led to the creation of various bicycling organizations, including the League of American Wheelmen and the Good Roads Movement, both of which lobbied government to construct good riding surfaces. Noting that McCullough focuses primarily on the northeastern United States, Pez Cycling News Web site contributor Leslie Reissner wrote that, as a result, much of the rest of the bicycling craze in other parts of the country is not addressed. Nevertheless, Reissner remarked: “Old Wheelways is a delightful and thought-provoking look at a world that the bicycle changed—at least for a while.”
BIOCRIT
ONLINE
MIT Press Web site, https://mitpress.mit.edu/ (March 27, 2017), author profile.
Pez Cycling News, http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/ (January 10, 2016), Leslie Reissner, “PEZ Bookshelf: Pathfinders on Two Wheels,” review of Old Wheelways: Traces of Bicycle History on the Land.
Slate Picks, http://picks.slate.com/ (March 27, 2017), Rebecca Onion, review of Old Wheelways.
University of Vermont Department of History Web site, http://www.uvm.edu/ (March 27, 2017), author faculty profile and CV.
Robert L. McCullough
Robert L. McCullough is Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at the University of Vermont and the author of The Landscape of Community: A History of Communal Forests in New England and other books.
About the Author
Robert McCullough is a full time faculty member in the University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program. He was formerly the historic preservation coordinator for the Vermont Agency of Transportation in Montpelier, where he conducted regulatory review to ensure that transportation projects complied with federal and state historic preservation laws.
Robert McCullough pictured in his Wheeler 212 Office
Robert McCullough,
Professor
Ph.D., Cornell University, 1993
Area of expertise
Historic Preservation, Architectural History and Historic Preservation Law
Contact Information
Email: Robert McCullough
Phone: (802) 656-3180
Office Hours, Location and Class Schedule
Robert McCullough serves as a full time faculty member of the UVM Historic Preservation Program. He teaches HP 201 Architecture and Landscape History, HP 202 American Architectural History, HP 205 Historic Preservation Law, HP 301 Historic Preservation Contemporary Practice and HP 302 Community Preservation Project.
Bob was formerly the Historic Preservation Coordinator for the Vermont Agency of Transportation in Montpelier, Vermont, where he conducted regulatory review to ensure that transportation projects comply with federal and state historic preservation laws.
He holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning, a J. D. degree in Law, and masters degrees in historic preservation planning and public policy law. Dr. McCullough is the author of The Landscape of Community: A History of Communal Forests in New England published by the University Press of New England.
CURRICULUM VITAE
ROBERT L. McCULLOUGH
Department of History / Graduate Program in Historic Preservation University of Vermont
212 Wheeler House
Burlington, Vermont 05405-0164 Robert.Mccullough@uvm.edu www.uvm.edu/~rmccullo
January, 2015
EDUCATION:
Ph. D., City and Regional Planning, Cornell University (1993). Majors: Urban Planning History, Architectural History, Historic Preservation.
M.A., Historic Preservation Planning, Cornell University (1988).
M.S.L.(Master of Studies in Public Policy Law), Environmental Law Center, Vermont Law School (1983).
J.D., Cum Laude, Hamline University School of Law (1976). B.A., History, Ursinus College (1971).
BOOKS:
Old Wheelways. Traces of Bicycle History on the Land. Cambridge: MIT Press, forthcoming.
A Path for Kindred Spirits. The Friendship of Clarence Stein and Benton
MacKaye. Chicago: Columbia College, Chicago and The Center for American Places, by the University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Crossings. A History of Vermont Bridges. Barre, Vermont: Vermont Historical Society and the Vermont Agency of Transportation, 2005.
The Landscape of Community. A History of Communal Forests in New England. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England (1995).
BOOK CONTRIBUTIONS:
“Bicycle Factory Remnants.” Proceedings of the 20th International Cycling History Conference. (Freehold, New Jersey: ICHC, 2010).

“Unspoiled Vermont. The Nature of Conservation in the Green Mountain State,” with Clare Ginger and Michelle Baumflek, in Twentieth Century New England Conservation: A Heritage of Civic Engagement, Charles H.W. Foster, ed., on behalf of the New England Natural Resources Council. Petersham, MA: Harvard University Press for Harvard Forest, 2008.
“A History of Town Forests in Vermont and New England,” in The Vermont Town Forest Stewardship Guide. A Community User’s Manual for Town Forests, compiled by the Northern Forest Alliance. Burlington, Vermont: Queen City Printers, 2007. Excerpt from previously published work.
“The Nature of History Preserved, or the Trouble with Green Bridges,”in Reconstructing Conservation: History, Values, and Practice, Ben Minteer and Robert Manning, eds. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2003
“Cultural Landscapes and Rural Historic Districts,” in National Forum on Assessing Historic Significance for Transportation Programs, Transportation Research Circular Number E- CO55 (August, 2003), Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, 2003.
“Town Forests – The Massachusetts Plan,” in Stepping Back to Look Forward. A History of the Massachusetts Forest, Charles H.W. Foster, ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Forest in collaboration with Harvard University Press (1998).
“Vermont: Historic Roads and Bridges,” in Saving Historic Roads. Design and Policy Guidelines, by Paul D. Marriott and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. New York: John Wiley & Sons for the Preservation Press (1997).
JOURNAL ARTICLES, BOOK REVIEWS, GRANTS & MISCELLANY:
“Wheels of Fortune: The Bicycle Boom, Trinity Cycle, and its Keene Factory,” Historical New Hampshire (Fall, 2013).
Review of On the Job. The Brattleboro Public Works Department, by Wayne Carhart and Charles Fish, in Vermont History 78 (Winter/Spring, 2010).
Review of Montpelier: Images of Vermont’s Capital City, by Paul Carnahan and Bill Fish, in Vermont History 77 Summer/Fall, 2009), 178-80.
“A History of Common Forests,” American Forests 111 (Winter, 2006), 7-10.
Review of Log Drives on the Connecticut River by Bill Gove (Littleton, New Hampshire: Bondcliff Books, 2003), for Vermont History 72 (Summer / Fall 2004), 189-190.
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Review of Forest Communities. Community Forests, edited by Jonathan Kusel and Eliza Adler (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), for CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship 1 (Summer, 2004): 99-100.
“A Forest in Every Town. Vermont’s History of Communal Woodlands,” in Vermont History (Winter, 1996).
Review of The Future of the Northern Forest, Christopher Klyza and Stephen Trombulak, eds. (Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1994), for Vermont History (Summer, 1995): 180-182.
“Historic Preservation and Land Use Control at the State Level–Vermont’s Act 250,” in 14 Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review (Fall, 1986), 1-29.
“Cedar Swamp and Pine Plantation. A History of Communal Forests in New England.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University (1993).
“Preservation of Historic Views. Two Models: Historic View Districts and France’s Landmark Perimeter Legislation.” M.A. Thesis, Cornell University, 1988.
“Eminent Domain.” In Underwriter’s Manual–Title Insurance Company of Minnesota, Gordon Lundberg, ed. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Title Insurance Company of Minnesota.
Recipient, Lattie Coor Endowment, Faculty Development Award ($2,500) from the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Vermont (2009 and 2013).
Winning Project Team, NCHRP Project 25-29A (Transportation Research Board), Guidelines for Design and Management of Historic Road Corridors, as consultant to TranSystems Corporation and CH2M Hill. 2008.
Grant ($26,000) from the University of Vermont National Transportation Center to underwrite a national conference titled: The Road to Affordable Context Sensitive Solutions, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the first graduating class of the University of Vermont’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, June 7th and 8th, 2007.
Grant ($1,000), New England Conservation History Project (Summer, 2006), shared with the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.
Nominated for Maurice-Kroepsch Award for Teaching Excellence, Spring, 2006.
Grant ($15,000), Clarence Stein Institute (Fall, 2005), for costs related to the publication of A Path for Kindred Spirits. The Friendship of Clarence Stein and Benton MacKaye.
Grant ($1,000), Service Learning Course Planning and Implementation Grant, Community- University Partnerships and Service Learning (Spring, 2005).
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National Trust for Historic Preservation, Trustees Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Policy given to the Vermont Agency of Transportation for the Vermont Design Standards and the Historic Metal Truss Bridge Study (1997).
Theodore C. Blegen Award, Forest History Society, for “A Forest in Every Town. Vermont’s History of Communal Woodlands” (1995).
Inaugural Recipient, Bell Grant, Forest History Society (1991).
EMPLOYMENT:
Associate Professor of Historic Preservation, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, University of Vermont. 2007 to present. Courses: American Architectural History; History on the Land; Historic Preservation Law; Seminar in Historic Preservation Practice Methods; Interdisciplinary Seminar in Cultural Landscapes and Community Preservation Projects.
Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, University of Vermont, 2003 to 2007.
Lecturer, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, University of Vermont. 1998 to Spring, 2003. Acting Director, Spring, 2002.
Adjunct Faculty, Vermont Law School. 2002 to 2008
Co-Manager, Vermont Historic Bridge Program, Vermont Agency of Transportation. 1998 to 2002; and Manager, 2002 to present.
Historic Preservation Coordinator, State of Vermont, Agency of Transportation. (July 1992 to August, 1998). Responsible for regulatory compliance.
Adjunct Faculty, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, University of Vermont. 1995 to 1998
Building Preservation Specialist, State of Vermont, Division for Historic Preservation (June, 1984 to July, 1992). Managed the environmental review program and the federal rehabilitation investment tax credit program.
Private Practitioner (Independent Counsel), Bragdon, Berkson & Mangones, Keene, New Hampshire (December, 1983 to August, 1985). Practiced title and property law. Combined work for this firm with work for the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation as a field architectural historian.
Assistant Counsel and Assistant Vice President, Title Insurance Company of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota (October, 1976, to August, 1982). Experience as counsel included work in all areas of real property law with particular emphasis on title examination, legal
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descriptions, and land conveyances. Supervisory experience included managing a legal department consisting of 40 people, among them attorneys, para-legals, and support staff.
ADMITTED TO PRACTICE LAW:
Minnesota, 1976; United States District Court, District of Minnesota, 1977. Vermont, 1984; New Hampshire, 1984. Currently registered as inactive in Minnesota, Vermont and New Hampshire; retired in New Hampshire, 2008.
BOARDS, COUNCILS & COMMITTEES:
Member, Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Council, 1995 to present. Vice President, 2003 to 2005; Member, Executive Committee, 2001 to 2007.
City of Burlington, Zoning Review Committee. Spring, 2003, to Fall, 2004.
Fellow, the Center for Research on Vermont, 1998 to present.
Member, University of Vermont Environmental Council, 2000 to 2004.
Member and former Chair, Kellogg-Hubbard Library Building Committee, Montpelier, Vermont. (2000-2001)
Member, Montpelier Design Review Commission, 1993 to 1998; Chair, 1995-96.
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Old Wheelways: Traces of Bicycle History on the Land
(by Robert L. McCullough)
This one has a bit more text than some of the other books in this collection; it’s really a large format book with a ton of pictures, rather than a coffee-table book. I’m including it because I think anyone who’s interested in the history of cycling, or the history of infrastructure and landscape, will find the images McCullough has collected fascinating. (I wrote about this book on the Vault in October; you can see some of its images in that post.) Late-19th-century American cyclists were catalogers of the land, writing long travelogues; they also advocated for their own “wheelways,” and these, which are mostly gone now, made up an alternate network of transportation options, before the ascendancy of the automobile swept all in its path. Etchings, prints, and maps from this time period capture some of that sense of possibility.
Recommended by Rebecca Onion
PEZ Bookshelf: Pathfinders on Two Wheels January 10, 2016 by Leslie Reissner
It is undoubtedly one of the great joys of cycling to admire the passing landscape, whether discovering unknown byways, observing the Tour de France on television or noting the change of season on your commute. The introduction of the bicycle in the 19th Century opened up new possibilities to the average person that we can scarcely comprehend more than 100 years later. A recent scholarly book from the MIT Press is the result of a great deal of digging in the archives to produce a picture of a cyclists' world far different from ours yet we face many of the same issues today.
oldwheelways-cover-920
“Old Wheelways: Traces of Bicycle History on the Land” by Dr. Robert McCullough of the University of Vermont is an impressive attempt to bring back a lost narrative, of a time when cyclists were keen observers of the countryside, adventurous travelers and shapers of the landscape itself as they sought to build roads and pathways for their passion. Their stories have been overlooked for the most part by historians but are instructive as the revival of cycling, as sport and transportation, has meant re-engagement in the struggle for the right to the road. As the author points out this conflict was present from the beginning as this new form of locomotion appeared in a world of horses, carriages, trolleys and, as always, pedestrians.
After a brief recounting of the technical evolution of the bicycle, we move into the revolutionary concept of bicycle touring. Travel by train was at high speed and did not allow for much detailed observation, while going on foot meant limited progress. The bicycle, coming of age at same time as popular illustrated magazines and photography, captured a new enthusiasm for travel and tourism.
Sports, Bicycling, 5th Ave. & 125th St.
“A self-powered cyclist charting an unknown course is forced to observe land features that other travelers, those reliant upon shared, route-bound transportation, are unlikely to notice. Moreover, attaining a sense of escape did not depend upon traveling great distances, and a day's round-trip of fifty or sixty miles, common in 1885, could place a cyclist in territory fully as unfamiliar as far-off destinations—and just as adventuresome.”
This era of travel adventure is marked by an impressive number of quality cycling publications and accounts of riders making heroic treks, such as Thomas Stevens' circling the world on a high-wheeler, starting in 1884 and completed in 1888. The advent of the much more practical safety bicycle suddenly meant that those not as bold, athletic or tenacious as Stevens could undertake their own adventures and the book speaks of these new cyclists and their experiences. The great enthusiasm for cycling that swept America—and this book focuses almost exclusively on the northeastern United States—led to new organizations, whether for lobbying, such as the mighty League of American Wheelmen (LAW) and the Good Roads Movement, or for actual construction of suitable riding surfaces.
wheelways-statue-920
The middle section of the book is devoted to a detailed account of the construction of “sidepaths” in a number of regions, particularly in New York and Pennsylvania. These were narrow paths specifically constructed for bicycles on either side of a road leading out into the countryside. The book has many charming illustrations including period photographs and one can quickly see that the smooth sidepaths, usually cinder-surfaced, would have been preferable to the rutted dirt cart roads next to them. To a modern viewer the images are odd because it shows a world without automobile traffic, a place where bicycles occupy some kind of utopian landscape, a place where you could go for a ride without risk of being flattened by an uncaring motorist.
The industriousness of cyclists in cities such as Lockport, New York, is remarkable in the rapid construction of sidepaths, building up extensive networks that have more or less disappeared without a trace in the intervening years. Committees were formed by individuals, and then formal municipal and regional organizations came into being. As one leafs through the detailed account of the sidepath battles there is a sense that people were building for the future, recognizing that their towns and cities would spread out further and further. There were surprising conflicts not just between those wanting space on the roads for carriages or sidewalks for pedestrians but also between the cyclists behind the Good Roads Movement and the sidepath people, the former believing that if good roads were built there would be no need for sidepaths and the latter wanting to ensure a space suitable for safe transit by cyclists. The argument for separate bicycle accommodation has returned in modern times.
wheelways-cyclepath-920
The sidepaths were constructed inexpensively and quickly. As rapidly as they were built in the 1890s so they disappeared less than a decade later as the bicycle craze evaporated, victims of uninterest, lack of affordable maintenance and prey to widening roads and development.
From the sidepaths that took riders into the countryside, the book moves into cities and the attempts to incorporate the new craze into traffic planning in the booming cities of the day. The most celebrated achievement was the bicycle path to Coney Island in Brooklyn but there were other notable efforts, including the ill-fated attempt to build a route alongside the aqueduct to the Croton Reservoir.
Moving off the streets brought cyclists into city parks, the development of which seemed to be undertaken in every major city in America at the time. Cyclists pursued their rights to ride in Central Park in New York, Fairmont Park in Philadelphia, Delaware Park in Buffalo and numerous other green areas, all of which appear to have been designed by the firm founded by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Olmsted people were not particular fans of bicycles as they believed that their parks were meant for quiet contemplation of the green landscape, something unachievable by “scorchers” racing by on their two-wheelers. These landscape architects seemed more amenable to helping develop paths between parks, another topic in the book. Interesting plans to allow passage of trolleys, pedestrians, automobiles and bicycles were considered and are illustrated with the original plans.
wheelways-women-920
By 1905 bicycles had plummeted in popularity and except for a few fleeting moments nobody paid much attention to what was eventually seen as a child's toy. There is a fascinating coda as efforts to develop bike paths in New York resumed in the late 1930s under the unlikely leadership of Robert Moses, one of the most important figures in urban planning and who, to a very large extent, is responsible for the car-focused world we live in today. Moses felt that no bicycle should ever be on a highway and made some effort to ensure safe cycling areas directed at children. Dr. McCullough relates a fascinating story about how in 1956 Moses, as Chairman of the State Council on Parks, received a letter suggesting that abandoned railway rights-of-way might be turned into cycling facilities. He dismissed the idea, which in our time has become the very successful rails-to-trails concept, an idea which has spread beyond North America to Europe as well.
wheelways-racers-920
“Old Wheelways” is a thoroughly-researched academic work. You cannot (and should not) scorch through this as the degree of detail suggests it should be considered carefully—and the rather tiny font MIT Press has chosen does not help in the reading! The source material is extensive and the Notes and the Bibliographic Essay deserve your attention. The illustrations, as noted, are very charming and include reproductions of site plans, maps, photographs and period engravings.
The book's narrow regional focus means that consideration has not been taken of other areas. One cannot help but wonder if the bike craze had not died so suddenly and the sidepaths had not become overgrown and the broad boulevards with their multi-lane sections for each conveyance had been built as planned the northeastern United States might have become a model for sustainable transportation. Cities today renowned for their clean and efficient infrastructure using public transport, pedestrian zones and elaborate cycling networks have made a conscious effort to do this over the last decades. “Old Wheelways” reminds us that the fight has not yet been lost in our time but it would have been so much easier to build this world decades ago so that today we would be speaking of Rochester or Buffalo or Lockport in terms we reserve for Amsterdam or Copenhagen.
mixed-sketch-920
“Old Wheelways” is a delightful and thought-provoking look at a world that the bicycle changed—at least for a while. And any book written by a university professor dedicated “to Montpelier's indomitable cyclists, and to its noon peleton” is our kind of book!