Ask most BRAG veterans about their most memorable ride, and you’ll get a good story. Ask Kevin Fitzgerald, and you might get a scene from Georgia Public Television. In 1990, framebuilder Jim Bradford needed someone to pilot his tandem for a day, so he handed the reins to Kevin—and Jim’s 8-year-old son, Blake, took the back seat. From Callaway Gardens to Columbus, with a side trip up the brutal grade of GA 85 Alt to the Little White House at Warm Springs, Kevin and his young stoker rode slowly, steadily, and made camp just before 7pm. Their journey was captured in a brief scene on Georgia Public Television’s 1990 BRAG special.
That’s Kevin Fitzgerald in a single story: patient, steady, willing to take on a challenge for someone else’s benefit, and quietly present at the intersection of BRAG history for nearly four decades. At 70 years old, with 38 years of BRAG participation behind him and countless miles logged as a Dream Team tandem pilot, Kevin has become one of the event’s living archives—and one of its wisest voices.
From Kid Commuter to Cross-USA Rider
He first learned about what would become BRAG through the Southern Bicycle League‘s Freewheelin’ magazine. As a ride leader for the club, he’d guided a family—the Lukats—on a series of shorter rides. Their growing interest in longer touring events pulled Kevin’s attention toward this new statewide ride. In 1985, he and a cycling friend joined riders on a preview trip from downtown Atlanta to Stone Mountain. “When we saw all the tents set up at Stone Mountain, that made us both want to try BRAG someday,” he recalls.
Kevin’s cycling story began long before BRAG existed for him. A bike commuter since childhood in Forest Park, Georgia, he started touring with the Southern Bicycle League at just 16 years old. By 1986, at age 31, he’d completed a tandem ride across the entire United States—strong, light, and ready for whatever came next.
Someday came in 1987, when Kevin completed his first full BRAG—fittingly, riding alongside the Lukat family who had unknowingly set him on this path. He has shown up for all or part of every June BRAG since. Every single one.
The Heart of the Story: Four Decades on the Dream Team
If you want to understand what keeps Kevin coming back year after year, look no further than the BRAG Dream Team. He first rode with the youth program in 1995, then rejoined from the middle of BRAG 2001 onward—and he’s been a fixture of tandem mentorship ever since.
“I can share my road riding skills with youth riders who are just learning how to do long distance bike touring,” he explains. “It has been very satisfying to see how some of these young riders grow up and do great things as young adults.”
His Dream Team days followed a careful, caring rhythm: adjust the tandem for that day’s young rider, stop at every rest stop, record video to remember the day, and above all, watch out for his partner’s wellbeing. “I had to make sure my tandem partner stayed well hydrated,” he notes—a small detail that speaks volumes about the attentiveness he brought to every ride. One lesson learned the hard way in 2006: young riders get barred from caffeine after 6pm, for everyone’s benefit come bedtime.
Kevin’s tandem has also served riders facing physical challenges. He’s piloted for cyclists with upper body injuries—since the stoker seat doesn’t require steering or braking, it let injured riders keep participating in BRAG rather than sitting it out. That’s precisely how he rejoined the Dream Team in 2001, when a rider’s wrist injury needed exactly the kind of accommodation his tandem could provide. He’s also shared rides with blind cyclists, extending BRAG’s reach to riders who might never otherwise experience it.
Hard-Won Mechanical Wisdom
Ask Kevin for advice, and you get the kind of specific, battle-tested wisdom that only comes from decades in the saddle:
- On aging equipment: “Make sure the tires and cables are ‘young.’ If they are not, buy the needed items weeks before BRAG so they arrive in time enough to be installed properly.” He learned this after breaking a gear cable during BRAG 1987 and wearing out both tandem tires on the final day of BRAG 2006—forcing an emergency tire swap at a rest stop when replacements didn’t arrive in time.
- On listening to your bike: “Make sure you check out any unusual noises or reasons for unusual handling of your bike, especially if it is a tandem.” In 2012, the steering tube on his recumbent tandem’s fork began cracking. Stopping to investigate the strange handling likely prevented a serious crash. The manufacturer replaced the part for free—but only because Kevin trusted his instincts enough to stop and check.
- On hydration balance: During BRAG 1993, he drank too much Powerade without enough water and paid for it with a rough afternoon. “Drink plenty of water along with drinks such as Powerade,” he now advises—a reminder that even veterans learn through experience.
- On essential gear: Quality touring shorts to prevent seat pain, and a proper cycling rain jacket, since he chills easily. Simple, practical, unglamorous—and exactly right.
A Life Built on BRAG Connections
Kevin’s 38 years have produced friendships that read like a BRAG history book. He still stays in touch with grown-up former tandem partners—the kids who once rode behind him now adults with their own stories to tell. Sarita Rocker, a Dream Team parent, once invited him to her son’s first birthday party. A photo of Kevin and a young rider from BRAG 2008 even appeared in Adventure Cycling’s Cyclosource magazine.
His friend Winston Elston, who rode alongside him on that 1985 preview trip, went on to ride BRAG many times and later served as a SAG driver, giving Kevin rides home for years. In 2004, he met a fellow rider named Adel from Florida—their friendship grew into visits over subsequent years, and yes, he even bought a lawnmower from her.
Kevin has crossed paths with BRAG royalty, too: Dot Moss, the founder of the cross-state ride, and Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor who rode BRAG in 1985, 1988, 1989, and part of 1990. And when Kevin’s recumbent tandem suffered its trip-ending steerer tube crack in 2012, it was his late older brother—the same brother who bought him his first bike and taught him to ride in traffic as a grade-schooler—who saved the ride by bringing a replacement tandem to their overnight stop in Jasper.
Discovering Georgia, One Route at a Time
Nearly four decades of riding has given Kevin an intimate geographical knowledge of Georgia that few people possess. Providence Canyon during BRAG 2000 stands out as his most surprising discovery. “Climbing down into the canyon was worth it!” he says of Georgia’s own “Little Grand Canyon.”
But it’s the town of Fitzgerald, Georgia that holds special meaning. Visiting for the first time during BRAG 1994, Kevin toured the local museum and learned about the city’s remarkable founding history from Ms. Davis, the museum’s caretaker. That single visit sparked a lasting connection—he brought his parents back later that year, and returned again in 1996 for the town’s 100th anniversary celebration. A single BRAG stop turned into a family tradition of its own.
The Sage Advice
When Kevin offers advice to newcomers, it carries the weight of someone who has truly seen it all: “Learn as much as you can from other BRAG riders ahead of time. Make sure to do long rides before doing BRAG. Riding the BRAG Spring Tune-Up is very helpful. And if you have friends who have already ridden BRAG, find out what they did that was helpful, especially how they handled getting to the start, and coming home from the end.”
Perhaps his most valuable piece of wisdom, though, has nothing to do with training or gear. “Keep some kind of written or video record of each day of BRAG so you will remember where you visited, and the lessons you learned and the people whom you met,” he urges. Kevin practices what he preaches—he kept meticulous written logs during his 1986 cross-USA ride and continued the habit through his early BRAG years, then began recording videos in 1988, some of which are still online today. Search “BRAG 1997” on YouTube, and you’ll find one of his favorite recordings: riding his tandem with a grandchild from the Dukes family, cyclists he’d first met on that 1986 cross-country journey, captured just after finishing the ride from Lafayette to Rome.
It’s fitting advice from a man whose own memory of BRAG spans nearly four decades—because he made the effort, year after year, to capture it.
Still Riding, Still Giving
These days, Kevin camps in his van and typically joins for the mid-week loop day rather than the full route—age and hills have made their compromises. But his spirit for BRAG hasn’t diminished. “Now that I am 70, I still have the skills, but my ability to climb hills isn’t so good right now,” he admits. “But I can keep up with slower riders and I can help them learn new skills and techniques.”
His bucket list reveals a man still dreaming of the open road: “If I ever get to retire, I hope I can ride the full length of a BRAG ride again, especially if the route is in south Georgia and is flat.” Retirement, he hopes, will bring the training time needed to tackle those hills once more.
If BRAG had a theme song for Kevin, it would be “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” by Starship—a hit during his unforgettable 1987 ride. And his definition of a true BRAGger is instantly recognizable to anyone who’s caught the bug: “You have a closet full of BRAG T-shirts and most of them still fit. You are wearing one of them now. Your backpacks and other items are identified with BRAG luggage tags, and you use recycled BRAG wrist bands to identify your items in the office refrigerator.”
Nearly 40 years after that first preview ride to Stone Mountain, Kevin Fitzgerald remains exactly what he’s always been: patient, present, and endlessly willing to hand a young rider the confidence to keep pedaling. His tandem has carried children, injured riders, and blind cyclists across the width and breadth of Georgia. His memory has carried the stories of a hundred small towns, a dozen dear friends, and one very memorable lawnmower purchase. And his wisdom—hard-won, generously shared—continues to guide the next generation of Dream Team riders down roads he’s traveled a thousand times before.
