The following article are memories of one of the "old school" racers from the early 80s/90s.  These are his memories on how racing was "back-in-the-day"-before $100 race entries and the demands of racers to get "paid" for showing up and doing there hobby.  Sadly, a lot of this grassroots, go out and beat each other up for fun, racing has gone by the wayside.

In the south there was good and bad in Gene Dixon's first Twilight Criterium.   Keep in mind that these are my (the author of this article) memories.  

Gene Dixon(Athens, GA) had put on races for a number of years. There was a spring race and a fall race. The fall race was called The Student Campus Open and was for students ONLY, but there were USCF races in and around the student races.

Breaking Away, the movie, was a mild (very mild) hit in 1979-80...but television producers thought it would have some television value. They needed a campus to replace IU that was not snowed in, so UGA became the production location. Producers needed race footage...they put up big money for a race and wanted the country's top racers to be there. There were 15,000ish spectators there the first year...not to see the bicycle race, but to see the television stars that were supposed to be there...Barbara Barrie and Shaun Casady left town for the weekend, leaving only Jackie Earl Haley...but the combination of the speeding blur of riders and outdoor beer bash caught on...now where are they...31 years later?    

We used to race almost every weekend in Alabama.  Races would start early on Sundays...6 or 7am...before church traffic was on the roads.  A couple of times there was a motorcycle to lead the way. Maybe somebody's wife would drive a wheel van.   I learned to open a mailbox along the course and sit my waterbottles on the downed lid-that was my feed station.   I would ride by and grab a bottle each lap.   A big race might have a poundcake or a pair of jumper cables as first prize.  Most weekend,  all we got for winning was a handshake.  These races became known as HANDSHAKE RACES.   

I began to promote similar races.  I would put white duct tape across the road as a start/finish line.  My races became known as DUCT TAPE RACES.  Then began all of the glitz of the TWILIGHT CRITERIUM.  Lee Walls (Walls New Media, Inc.) declared, "No more duct tape races."   

From that point bicycle races have been more about the production and being seen at the production than the race itself.   Race production cost more and there are fewer races now.

The good is obvious: big, fun races, where we get to pay $85 per day entry fees, and rarely win anything. The bad is that we lost, serious, grass roots, racing.