Family Downshifts After Establishing Haven for Cyclists : Racing: Norwalk family turned El Dorado Park East into a safe venue for weekly biking contests. Now they’re ready to pass the handlebars to someone else.

Long Beach’s El Dorado Park East, with its rolling hills, grassy knolls and abundant wildlife, has become a favorite venue for Southland bicycle racers.

But the Norwalk resident who has developed a world-class program there, with the help of his wife and daughter, says he’s running out of steam.

Roger Millikan has run the Tuesday night events for eight years with his wife, Lynn, and his 14-year-old daughter, April. Now they’re negotiating for someone else to take over the weekly races.

“It’s a lot of work,” said Lynn Millikan. “We have to pack up, come home and immediately begin work on getting things ready for the next week. After all these years we’d just like somewhere else to go on Tuesday nights besides El Dorado Park.”

Hidden from the city, yet within earshot of the San Gabriel River Freeway, this vestige of rural Long Beach has become a training site for bicycle racers from March through the end of September.

“This is the garden spot of California racing,” said veteran cyclist Phil Guarnaccra. “It’s ideal for a safe ride and it gets us off the streets.”

Millikan, who sometimes plays host to more than 200 cyclists, considers the El Dorado course a safe alternative to what are called “bandit races,” in which bicyclists race on traffic-choked city streets, or through industrial parks or parking lots in off hours.

An occasional bandit racer himself, Millikan wanted a safer environment for competition. He approached the city after the 1984 Olympics, when the sport experienced a surge in popularity. Millikan asked officials to lift a ban on racing and remove speed bumps that had been installed in the park to dissuade bandit racers.

“There aren’t a lot of places to race here,” Millikan said. “That’s why I wanted to put on the races at El Dorado Park. I wanted a good hard ride in a race that is safe.”

Officials had banned racing at El Dorado East because of safety concerns. The city was also angered that bandit organizers were using the park to stage free events.

Promising to run a tighter ship, Millikan persuaded the city to remove the barriers. He formed the El Dorado Park Bicycle Riders Assn. and received sanctioning for the races from the United States Cycling Federation.

Racing begins about an hour before sundown every Tuesday on the park’s main thoroughfare, which is closed off to automobiles, joggers, roller-skaters and other users.

The rolling 1.8-mile course is so wooded that it is impossible to keep up with the progress of bicycle racers from a single spot. Wind whistles solemnly over the trees that line the paved roadway and past the meadow in the middle of the park near the usual starting line. Ducks sometimes wander onto the course just before riders, three and four abreast, pop into view with a whoosh from around a hidden turn.

For a $6 fee per night, racers compete for $10 on designated laps. The season is broken into three parts, and at the end of each segment the top three finishers in each category receive cash awards.

Cyclists in bright, multicolored skintight jerseys race in groups called packs. They’re assigned to a particular group based on their ability or age in accordance with regulations established by the United States Cycling Federation.

On average, more than 120 racers enter each of the 15-lap races, which have staggered starts. Competitors and spectators enter the area from the north gate near the police pistol range, just south of Carson Street.

Millikan, who began riding 20 years ago while in high school at Pius X in Downey, pays $200 a week to the city for exclusive use of the park. He also pays $1 a head to the cycling federation for dues.

Safety is his primary concern, he says.

“If the course is wet before the race, we won’t run it,” he said. “This is basically for training. We leave the crashes for the (important) races.”

Seated on a lightweight alloy frame and hunkered over handlebars, it doesn’t take much for a rider to cause an accident. They’re bunched tightly in packs where shoulders, arms and legs often touch. At speeds of 35 m.p.h., one slip might cause a dozen people to go down. Almost every racer has a story about a wipeout.

“You are so close together (that) you need to know how to get touched and not panic,” said Howard Homan, an avid street rider who was on hand recently to watch a race. “There is a lot more to it than it looks.”

Chief referee York Schulz, looking like a football official in a helmet and striped uniform, circles the course on a motor scooter, looking primarily for illegal passing and dangerous blocking.

“Basically, I’m here to see that the race is run cleanly and fairly,” he said. “This isn’t like ice hockey. No one wants to hit the pavement.”

Even with the precautions, El Dorado presents challenges. Twigs, tree branches and animals sometimes come into play. Schulz recalls the time a small turtle lumbered into the path of a pack traveling nearly 40 m.p.h.

“Cut him right in half,” Schulz said.

At a recent race, a sprinkler timer went haywire, showering riders with water in the first turn.

The most famous turn is called Duck Alley, a low-lying area near a lake, within earshot of the freeway. Ducks wander onto the course there. Several times the birds have lost feathers as speeding riders maneuvered around them.

Lynn Millikan and daughter April help run the event. From the back of their van at the park’s northern entrance, Lynn oversees the sign-in table. April receives $5 a night as a helper and part-time duck-chaser.

Ironically, neither likes to ride bicycles.

“I can’t stand bikes,” said April, who has been at El Dorado every Tuesday during the racing season since she was 5 years old.

But her 11-year old brother, Chad, races.

Several riders said the Millikan family has made racing at El Dorado a pleasant experience.

“Roger is the type of guy that if you ask him for something, he’ll do it for you,” said Chuck LePore of Fountain Valley. “He runs this race out of the goodness of his heart. He’s a pretty unselfish guy who has done a lot for a lot of people.”

Roger Millikan wants to keep racing. Even if he surrenders operation of the Tuesday night races at El Dorado Park, he says he plans to be a fixture there for some time to come.