The 1960s were a decade of many changes for the Tour of Somerville. Fixed-gear racing bikes gave way to multi-speed machines thanks to derailleur shifters. The race course found its comfort level for both spectators and competitors as a flat, fast, four-turn, 1.4 mile circuit around the center of town. This type of racing demanded speed, tactics, and skill on each lap of the 50-mile grind, and in that sense, Somerville was one of the early races to define the “criterium” format of bicycle races. Most notably, four of the Tour’s winners during the 1960s were German or Austrian-born who had recently immigrated to the States. With them, they brought the experience of prior racing in Europe. Olaf Moetus (1963) of Indianapolis, Hans Wolf of New York City (1964), Eckhard Viehover of Berlin (1965), and Siegi Koch of Chicago (1968) all took the top winner’s step on the awards podium. Koch’s win was particularly impressive since, on a solo breakaway in a pouring rain, he nearly lapped the field. As for noteworthy American riders: 19-year-old Mike Hiltner of California, who later was a pioneer in mountain biking, won in 1960, and multiple-time national champion and Olympian Jack Simes III of Closter, NJ, was victorious in 1967 and 1969 to close out the decade.
