Fran Dolan, wearing gray baseball cap, is joined by his fellow cyclists for a celebratory group photo after arriving in Sea Isle City in 2019.
By Donald Wittkowski
It is a 78-mile trip from the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge to Sea Isle City. Fran Dolan – and his legs – are intimately familiar with every single mile.
When they were just 19 years old, Dolan, Joe Fitzpatrick, Marty Costello and Jim D’Angelo began making that same trip on their bikes in 1966 to celebrate the end of their first year at the St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia.
Although none of them went on to become priests, the four men still share a strong bond through the Overbrook Bicycle Association they formed all those years ago and the annual excursions they make on two wheels from the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge to Sea Isle.
Costello and D’Angelo didn’t ride this time around, but Dolan and Fitzpatrick cruised into Sea Isle accompanied by a police escort on Saturday, June 1, to complete the 54th year of their traditional jaunt to the shore.
“It gives us a sense of pageantry as we head into town,” Dolan said of the police escort.
Dolan and Fitzpatrick, both 73, were joined by friends and family members for the trip, including having a third generation accompany them for the first time. Two of the grandchildren of Dolan’s 76-year-old brother, Vince, were among the 20 cyclists.
Fran Dolan’s daughter, Emily, and his son, Kevin, also were part of the trip. His other son, Brendan, couldn’t make it because his wife gave birth to their fourth child two days before everyone hit the road on their bikes.
For 26 years, Dolan and his wife, Lena, 69, have owned own a vacation home in Sea Isle on Roberts Avenue. They spend their summers at the shore once the bike trip is over.
That was not the case in 1966 when Dolan, Fitzpatrick, Costello and D’Angelo set off on a whim, riding old bikes, to celebrate the conclusion of their first year in seminary school.
“We made the foolish mistake of pedaling back home the next morning,” Dolan recalled of the quick return trip to Philadelphia. “It was anticlimactic and boring. There was no anticipation, no salt air, no beach waiting for us.”
