By Matt Stout
Staff Writer

Hooksett’s Norman Gill competes in the cycling event’s 5K time trial in the Granite State Senior Games on Saturday, Aug. 12. (Hooksett Banner/Matt Stout)

All it took for Brad Hosmer to consider trying cycling was a couple cracked vertebrae. For Norman Gill, it was a blood cot in his leg, and John Valavane, a few broken ribs and more than a few trips to the hospital after landing on his head.

Oh, that’s it?

For these three men, it was.

Hosmer, Gill and Valavane had kept busy doing more traditional and in some cases, inherently more dangerous sports, before they turned to cycling.

On Saturday, Aug. 12, the trio displayed how much they’ve come to embrace it with an array of impressive finishes at the 19th annual Granite State Senior Games cycling event.

Hosmer, 66, earned silver in the 5K time trial and 20K road race, and gold in the 40K road race in the 65- to 69-year-old age group.

Gill, 53, took three bronze medals ­ two in the 5K and 10K time trails and one in the 20K road race ­ before winning gold in the 40K in the 50- to 54-year-old age group; and Valavane, 55, captured two golds, one in the 5K and another in the 20K, and a silver in the 10K in the 55- to 59-year-old age group.

Yet, for all three, their paths were not common ones.

Hosmer played ice hockey into his mid-50s before a hit in a men’s no-check league of all places cracked parts of his spine about 10 years ago.

After sitting out six weeks per doctor’s orders ­ the injury was “more painful than dangerous,” Hosmer said ­ the Concord resident decided to sit out the rest of the season.

“Then by the time the next season rolled around,” he said, “I said, ‘I think I’ve had enough.’”

At the time, his son Seth, now 31, was just getting into cycling The two decided to train together and joined the New Hampshire Cycling Club, the largest of its kind in the state; today, the pair has come to dominate their respective opponents.

Brad Hosmer has qualified for the National Senior Games three times before, last taking a silver medal in both a cycling event and the triathlon in 2004. He also finished first in the 60-plus age group at the Concord Capitol Criterium on Aug. 11.

Meanwhile, Seth Hosmer recently won the overall title at the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association 41K Time Trial Championships on Aug. 6.

“I do more triathlons now than I do bike races,” said Brad Hosmer, who usually does seven triathlons per year. “I’m average in swimming, above average in cycling and below average in the run.”

Gill, a member of the newly created NorEast Cycling club, was a runner himself through the 1980s. A member of the Manchester Athletic Alliance, the Hooksett resident was finally “disabled” when he developed a blood cot in his leg while running the 1986 New York City Marathon.

Twenty years later, Gill trains at the New England International Speedway on Thursday nights between April and September, and attends spinning classes during the winter.

Valavane, a member of the NHCC for the last seven years, follows a similar training schedule as Gill and is in the midst of a jam-packed August that has included stops at his second Senior Games, the Concord Criterium and the Mt. Ascutney Hill Climb in Vermont. He’ll also compete in the Mt. Washington Bicycle Hill Climb on Saturday, Aug. 19.

To think, seven years earlier Valavane was racing mountain bikes before his body simply couldn’t take it anymore.

“It just got to the point where there were too many injuries so I started road racing,” the Candia resident said. “You know, you break ribs, crack things, then you go into the hospital when you land on your head. Things like that.”

Horror stories aside, all three have enjoyed the transition to cycling where wear and tear is minimal and major injuries are rare. And if the state record-tying 65 cyclists at this year’s Senior Games is any indication, it’s this: cycling is something athletes can enjoy for years down the road.

“In, say, track and field events, you’re all done at a certain point,” Gill said. “But in biking, you can continue on and on.”