To Bike Riders, with Love from Idaho, USA

William Averell Harriman was a rich guy, part of a wealthy family from upstate New York.  He was the son of the director of the Union Pacific Railroad, E. H. Harriman.  In 1913 young Harriman graduated from Yale and immediately became the wealthiest man in America.  William A. Harriman’s father died in 1909 and left a large railroading fortune to his eldest son pending college graduation.    

Harriman is a somewhat obscure figure in American history.  During his career he served as the 48^th governor of the State of New York and was twice defeated in Democratic Party primaries for the US presidency.  He would later become close friends with President Franklin Roosevelt who would appoint Harriman to be the US Ambassador to the Soviet Union and later Great Britain.  During the war years he was a close confidant to FDR and it was Harriman who helped broker the Lend-Lease agreement with the UK.

In 1932 at the age of 41 Harriman found himself enthralled with the Winter Olympics taking place in his home state of New York at Lake Placid.   It was just the third staging of the Winter Games with only 14 medals awarded in five sports.  Harriman was in awe of the spectacle and the grand scale (at the time) of Lake Placid and its ability to host the crowds of people.  He realized that destinations like Lake Placid would be the norm for future generations.  

Harriman, as a board member of the Union Pacific railroad, had access to the western United States which even in the 1930s was sparsely populated through the Rocky Mountains.  Harriman understood the coming westward migration of Americans from the east coast.  He realized his railroad could bring people to the Rockies, after all the Union Pacific was then--and is still today--the largest railroad network in the United States. 

   

Mr. Harriman, with Lake Placid still fresh in his memory, decided the Rockies could use a similar winter sports destination.  He purchased large tracts of land and Bald Mountain (pictured) in Ketchum County, Idaho.  He was assisted in his location search by an Austrian count who knew a bit about alpine skiing and mountains.  The count, Felix Schaffgotsch, was later killed on the Eastern Front during the Second World War.  In 1936 the area was named Sun Valley, Idaho and it opened for business in 1937.  Bald Mountain is the closest thing America has to alpine skiing and the resort is noted for a large celebrity population.  

In 1958 Ed Scott, an engineer by trade and with an avocation for tinkering and invention, was an avid skier and Sun Valley was his favorite retreat.  Scott was constantly trying to improve his skiing ability and the effectiveness of his equipment.  He decided older wooden or bamboo ski poles could be replaced with stronger and lighter aluminum poles.  Scott began to mass produce the poles and soon other ski equipment followed.   

By 1970 Scott USA was selling a wide range of products for skiing, motorbiking and bicycling.  In 1978 the company expanded into Europe.  In 1989, Scott USA developed a revolutionary aerodynamic handlebar that helped propel Greg LeMond past his rival, the late Laurent Fignon in the final time trial which led to LeMond’s overall victory in the ’89 Tour de France.  Scott USA is now Scott Sports, based in Switzerland.  This year’s Orica GreenEdge team at the Tour de France will be equipped by Scott Sports.   If Orica GreenEdge has success at this year’s tour they can thank Ed Scott, Sun Valley, Idaho, the late W.A. Harriman, and spider web of history dating back nearly 80 years.

Visit our website www.stickybottleteam.net (click on VIDEOS) for a video of the LeMond-Fignon dash from the 1989 Tour de France (en francais).