Bill Humphries first competed in the World Championships 50 years ago when he competed for Team USA in the 1973 Road World Championships in Barcelona. Gold medals that year went to Italy's Felice Gimondi and Belgium's Eddy Merckx.

Twenty-six years later, in 1999, Humphreys represented the World Championships for the second time, this time at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Mont-Saint-Anne, Quebec. At the same event, he placed third in his age group.

This year, Humphreys finished in Leuven and won a gold or silver medal at the Gravel World Championships. Humphreys qualified for Saturday's 88km event at the Highland Gravel Classic. [He's Belgian,” Humphreys said. I want to come over here and race with this guy. He lives here. He's been running this course for a year. He'll beat your ass. Well, he's been following me on Strava,” Bill Humphries told Cycling News three days before race day.

As in 1999, Humphreys will be joined by his son Ian. This time Ian is in his mid-20s and serves as his father's support crew.

“Yes, I'm on the podium. It was a dream. I put him [Ian] on the podium and put the metal around his neck,” Humphreys said of his second attempt at a first place medal to share with his family.

“I told Ian, there's only one more. There's no other way; I'm 80 years old, playing tough guy, playing macho, and I'm going to start playing games with that guy? What kind of nonsense is that?”

Shimano, Lightspeed, and Bike Fitting Ireland are among the 13 corporate sponsors and 56 individual donors supporting Humphreys' trip to Belgium with financial and equipment support. But he has not always been hooked on gravel. Until just a few years ago, he was finding new exhilaration in another form of off-road racing near his home in New England.

“So I did some exploring and found a dirt road near my house. It was only three miles from my house and I still didn't know where I was. That was the adventure. It's like being a little kid again, even though I'm 80 years old.”

Humphreys started road racing at a young age, and just a year later, he finished in the top 15 in the national championship road race, the third rider from his Century Road Club to do so. His performance earned him a spot in the Tour of Ireland, where he will be supporting team leaders, three-time Olympian John Howard and two-time Olympian John Aris. Howard won a stage and placed third overall in the Tour of Ireland.

Humphreys described Allis as “a true pioneer of road racing in the United States in the early 1960s,” and it was Allis who asked the U.S. Cycling Federation to put Humphreys on the world championship team.

“It was unheard of for all three of us to compete in the World Championships with all three of us having done stage races. The team just flew in, got their asses kicked and flew home.

The selection process was not as streamlined as it is today, he says, and “it was about being in the right place at the right time and never giving up.”

“Athletes back then raced for years to learn what you learned and never gave up on it. I finished every race I started and wasn't afraid to be a domestique for a lot of big egos. And when I finally made the team, my job was to be a total domestique. “

He had been away from racing for a while and had moved into sales at Lightspeed and then into race promotions. When he moved to Connecticut, he got a mountain bike and started racing again. When he learned that the Masters World Championships in mountain biking would be held in Quebec, a short drive from Connecticut, he was ready for the challenge.

“A bunch of young guys, married with kids, used to go out together, and that's where I learned. I had the skills in the woods, I had the skills to handle the bike, and I loved it. I went to a lot of races, from local races to big races. I was always in the top three or four in my age group.”

Humphreys rides a Litespeed gravel bike in Belgium.

“The challenge is to finish the race, that's the goal of participating in this sport. That's why I'm not in the race. I just finished the race and put down some gravel. That's all right. I barely ran the course. My coach told me to rest, and rest is even more important when you're 80 years old. I've never rested so much in my life.”

His Competitions Randeluth was ready to compete and also to face the unknown. He told HLN.com this week, “Sports is my passion now and always has been, and I prove that age doesn't matter.”

The two can certainly agree. As Humphreys put it, “We're both 80 years old, so I'd like to know him, but that's after the race is over.”

Editor's note: Randles won the rainbow jersey with a time of 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 29 seconds, while Humphreys took the silver medal a little over 27 minutes later. Said Randeluth: “It was a brutal race today, I'm so proud of myself. I'm very proud to have finished and the Belgians are great people,” Humphreys told Cycling News.

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