The in-fighting has resulted in board member casualties. Cat Berge, the 2005 female RAAM winner, resigned just prior to the RAAM sale being finalized, disgusted with what she perceived to be back-room dealings. Current board member Cindi Staiger, another former RAAM winner, has made public her dissatisfaction with many UMCA procedures. “Instead of John Hughes working for the members and the board, it feels like the board is working for John Hughes.” Other former board members and ultracycling race directors contacted for this story declined to go on record with their dissatisfaction of Hughes for fear of reprisal.

Except for one.

Chris Kostman, a longtime ultracyclist, former RAAM team race director, and one of the most respected ultracycling event directors in the world, is not afraid of repercussions inherent in opposition to Hughes. Kostman, who began his involvement in the sport as a fresh-faced 20-year-old in the 1987 version of RAAM, attracted cyclists from eleven nations to last October’s Furnace Creek 508 race, held in California’s Death Valley. He uses no uncertain terms when discussing what he considers the serious ethical breaches in the management of the organization.

“In my case, John stripped away the RAAM Qualifier status from Furnace Creek 508 just because he wanted to stick it to me,” says Kostman. “Only because of public outcry—and because the event is so legendary—did he reinstate the race’s RAAM Qualifier status. Then he tried to pretend that he'd never taken it away in the first place. John was an inflexible, self-important dictator when he ran the UMCA as a for-profit business and he's become just out of control now that he has the backing of a 'yes men' board of directors who never question a single action he takes."

In much of the country, including the UMCA’s and Hughes’ home state of Colorado, there’s an old expression about the weather. “If you don’t like it,” goes the old yarn, “just wait 5 minutes. It’ll change.” Change now looms like a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm on the UMCA horizon—the upcoming elections are bound to breathe new life into the ranks of the UMCA ruling class, and an apple cart or two will likely be upturned. Skilbeck, for one, believes that “Change will do you good,” to borrow lyrics from the former girlfriend of the country’s most well-known cyclist. “Hughes claims that he’s got the best interests of the sport at heart, but that’s not true,” says Skilbeck. “Look at how much attention the UMCA gives to promoting RAAM. What about the National 24 hour championships? What about the dozens of other events on the calendar? There has been too little focus on these events that are bound to grow the membership of the UMCA.”

Skilbeck grabs a stack of papers and pauses to read the numbers. “Over the same time period that Hughes has run the UMCA, the ranks of USA Cycling [the governing body of traditional bicycle racing in the U.S.] have swelled to over 60,000. Under his leadership, the UMCA has grown at an abysmal rate. The current rate of progress should be reflective of the current rate of growth of cycling, which has been at an all-time high in the last few years.”

Ironically, it’s on the growth of the UMCA membership rolls where Hughes hangs his hat. “Go back to the early ‘90s when membership was declining and we only had a few events,” he says. “I’ve tried to broaden what ultracycling is all about. When I became director, we had 700 members, and now we have 1750. Back then, very few people qualified for RAAM, and riders weren’t setting cross-state setting records or doing a lot of races. That has all changed.”

Former UMCA director Nick Gerlich, now a cycling promoter and college professor in Texas, debates the totals that Hughes claims, pegging the total number of UMCA members in 1997 at approximately 1000.

Despite the controversy, inconsistent membership claims, and in the face of allegations of misuse of power, shady financials, and horrendous record keeping, John Hughes remains nonplussed. “I try to do things for the joy of doing them,” he says confidently. “I think that my legacy in the ultracycling world will be of crafting a strong vision of what the sport is all about—a broadly defined set of events that is international and built around a set of programs. I think that the vision and structure is pretty solid.”

Finally, he addresses his detractors. “What I would truly hope that they believe,” he states, “Is that I’m acting in what I think is the best interest of the sport. We might not agree about the correct direction of the UMCA, but we’re all trying to help the sport. And I’m not just trying to help myself.”