Delores Franzen is cyclist extraordinaire

Delores Franzen could give Lance Armstrong a run for his money. At 81 years young, Franzen makes her way around Washington exclusively on two wheels. She rides her bicycle to the grocery stores and transports her goodies in a basket on her steering wheel. Her greatest cycling exploit was riding to Keota and back on the Kewash trail in 2009.

Delores grew up on a farm outside South English. Her parents died at a young age. Her father, Vincent Becker, died when she was only 9 and her mother, Leona, died six years later. Delores and her brother Robert, who was two years older, then lived with their uncle George Lutz and his wife Clara.

Delores and Robert went to a one-room country school through eighth grade. She remembers that she and Robert walked two miles to their school.

?School in those days didn?t start until 9 o?clock and then it ended at 4 o?clock,? said Delores. ?In the wintertime, we got out earlier because otherwise it would be dark when we got back home.?

At the age of 10, Delores took an interest in riding a bike after seeing Robert ride one.

?I had more problems learning to ride the bike than my brother,? she said. ?He got on and rode it right away. It took me a long time to learn how to do it. We didn?t have bikes at a really young age then. Now the kids get them when they?re practically babies. And we never had training wheels, either.?

Delores and Robert shared a bicycle. They even rode it together when they went to school. Robert pedaled and Delores sat behind him, hanging on for dear life.

Robert worked on the farm full-time after eighth grade while Delores continued her education at Wellman High School, from which she graduated in 1948. She married Charles Franzen in 1950 and moved to Washington. The two of them enjoyed riding their bikes around town.

?He had an old bike just like me,? said Delores. ?He biked quite a bit. He sometimes rode his bike to work at Iowa Southern Utilities.?

Delores and Charles had five children ? Gary, Diane, Cheryl, Dennis and Gerald.

?On Sunday afternoons, when it was nice, we and the kids liked to go on bike rides in town,? she said.

Charles died in 2002. Delores continued cycling, in part for the exercise but also out of necessity given she didn?t own a car.

?I?ve never driven in my life,? she said.

Delores rode her bike two or three times a week, often going to and from local grocery stores. She was in such good shape that she even rode a leg of RAGBRAI in 2006. She met her son-in-law Gary Spurgeon (husband of Diane) in Muscatine and the two of them made the three-mile trek to the Mississippi River, dipping their front tires in the waters of the Mighty Mississippi.

Delores set her sights even higher in 2009. She vowed to bike all the way to Keota and back on the Kewash trail, a trip that measures 27 miles. On Nov. 23 of that year, Delores made the journey on what she calls a ?regular bike? ? a bike with only one gear.

?The regular bikes were always good enough for us,? she said.

Delores rode by herself. She stopped at a convenience store in Keota when she got there. She called her son Gerald when she arrived so he wouldn?t worry about her. She ate a meal, rested for an hour, and then got back on her bike. Gerald thought his mother called him as she was leaving, so he expected her in Washington sooner than when she arrived. His mind was put at ease when he finally received a second call from Delores, this time from her house.

?The next day, I couldn?t even tell I did it,? said Delores. ?I didn?t feel sore at all. That was the funniest part.?

Delores said she was glad she rode to Keota but doesn?t plan to do it again.

?I always said I wanted to do it, and I did it,? she said. ?I wanted to do it once, and that?s it.?

Delores has slowed down in the past year, although she still rides her bike on a weekly basis.

?It?s getting harder and harder for me to get on because I?m so short,? she said. ?I need to have the pedal in just the right place.?