Cycletrons founder Darrel Lager to retire from LLNL (but not cycling)

Cycling may well have saved Darrel Lager’s life.

At a family gathering to watch football in winter 2013, Lager suffered cardiac arrest. Alert family members recognized the signs as Lager lay asleep on a couch turning blue and provided CPR until medics arrived. He spent 48 hours in a hypothermic coma and had a stent inserted into his left artery to ensure blood circulation. The previous day he had completed a 50-mile ride, but was unaware of any warning signs.

"I was very fortunate to be with CPR trained people who knew what to do," Lager said. "I’ve long believed it’s better to be lucky than good."

His cardiologist told him that he would not have survived cardiac arrest if his heart muscle wasn’t so strong from decades of endurance cycling. Lager also was fighting family genetics. His father died of a heart attack at age 46. "If I hadn’t been fit, I probably wouldn’t have survived that," he said.

Lager, who will retire from the Lab today (Feb 2) after 46 years, is a founder of the Cycletrons LLESA activity group of which he remains the undisputed patriarch. And he’s back in the saddle for noontime rides, albeit carefully monitoring his heart rate. "I’m back to doing most all of my activities," he said. "But not as intense."

Lager recently sat down with Newsline in his Environmental Restoration Department (ERD) office to look back on his life and career at Lawrence Livermore. An electronics engineer by training, Lager was hired as a circuit designer for computing systems in the Engineering Research Division. He has spent his career developing software applications from electromagnetic problems, tomography and signal processing to auto tuning of particle beam accelerators, Tokomak experiments and, the last several years, software for managing groundwater treatment.

"The Lab offers a lot of opportunities to pursue research," Lager says. "It’s like I have worked for five or six different companies."

Colleague and riding partner Zafer Demir says Lager "is not your usual computer scientist" because of his ability to reinvent himself and find new ways to contribute to the organizations he served. "I'm constantly amazed to how he can renew his focus and skills every five to 10 years and run circles around the youngsters in his field of expertise," Demir said.  

Since joining the Environmental Restoration Department in 1990, Lager’s work has had a major impact on department operations. He was one of the key developers of ERD’s Environmental Information Management System, which allows users to access and visualize data through a Web-based interface. More recently, Lager completely rebuilt the data acquisition system that continuously monitors the ground water extraction wells and treatment facility operations at both Livermore Site and Site 300.

"This was a monumental task," Demir said, "and he successfully implemented a new model that has resulted in standardization and significant cost savings to ERD."

"One of the hard parts of retiring will be replacing the intellectual challenge," Lager says.

He credits a lot of his career longevity and vitality to a passion for cycling dating to childhood when he used a bike to deliver The San Francisco Chronicle over his 5-mile route in the Sacramento neighborhood where he grew up.

In high school, Lager and a friend swapped out 3-speed hubs and put them on thick tire delivery bikes to create early mountain bikes, which they used to climb off-road and "do wheelies in river beds."

Lager purchased his first 10-speed in 1964 and began going on longer rides of up to 50 miles. He took the bike to Cal Poly where he continued to ride in the San Luis Obispo region. After graduating in 1968, Lager was hired at the Laboratory.

In 1969, he took on the Mt. Hamilton Challenge riding a 37-lb. bike with a basket loaded with Gatorade and grapes. He participated in other endurance rides sponsored by local groups such as the Valley Spokesmen. These events took place long before the dramatic surge of interest in cycling prompted by the success of Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong, Lager notes.

"People who cycled in events were serious," he says, adding with typical humor. "Whenever I did century rides I just wanted to stay ahead of the girls in tennis shoes."

Lager rode with LLNL and Sandia colleagues in the early ‘70s, often riding laps around the site, and as the number of riders grew, they decided to charter a Lab club in 1976. Otis Walton of Sandia, an original member, came up with the name "Cycletrons." That also was the year Lager bought his "first real racing bike."

The Cycletrons used the precision odometer in a member’s Porsche rally car to measure courses for races and time trials. They sponsored race events such as the February "Fit or Fat" race, a circuit over Patterson Pass, Cross, Tesla and Greenville roads. Also popular with members at the time were "miss and out" races up the hill on the Tesla Road side of Greenville Road. The last rider would be eliminated from each heat and the sprints up the hill would continue until only one rider was left.

As the Cycletrons grew, the noontime routes expanded. The routes established by riders in the late ‘70s – a different route for each day of the week – are still used today.

Lager raced for a number of years, but for him cycling was always more than just about competition. While some of fellow Cycletrons might argue the point, Lager says racing was never his forte, it was more about the challenge of endurance events and the camaraderie of the group. He says this focus kept him riding after others who had successful racing careers slowed down or stopped riding.

"It has been good for me be a mediocre rider," Lager says with a wry smile. "I’ve always had to work hard at cycling and that has kept me fit."

The list of endurance events he has completed is impressive including the infamous Markleeville Death Ride, a 129-mile ride with 15,000 feet of climbing over five 8,000-foot elevation Sierra mountain passes, an event he has completed multiple times. On one occasion, he even rode a "bonus" sixth climb to silence some trash talking teammates.

Lager and the Cycletron founders developed a cycling vernacular and named geographic features along the noontime routes, such as Track Stand Turn and Religion Hill, a steep stretch of Patterson Pass Road on the ascent from Tracy.

Over the years, Lager has brought a lot of people into the cycling fold, according to Demir. "He is responsible for many folks around the Lab changing their lifestyle, finding work-life balance and purchasing a bicycle to join the Cycletrons."

Lager plans to keep riding after retirement to keep himself fit for his other interests, including skiing and West Coast Swing dancing; not to mention the "social element" central to his cycling. "Each time you ride, there’s another story."

"It’s amazing. Darrel recently rode a very hard 25-mile noon ride over Patterson Pass," Demir said. "You just can’t keep a good man down."