Though she lived more than 100 years ago, a woman bicyclist who
competed in gender-bending races still has the horsepower to
inspire at-risk students. Grand Rapids author Sue Stauffacher
said the spunky Tillie Anderson — who’s the subject of her newly
released picture book, “Tillie the Terrible Swede: How One
Woman, a Sewing Needle, and a Bicycle Changed History” —
exemplifies what determination can accomplish despite the
constraining social norms of the late 19th- and early 20th
centuries. Stauffacher and her husband of 25 years, Roger
Gilles, will lead a convoy of bicyclists starting May 16 on a
five-day, 250-mile trip that will take them to the Swedish
American Museum in Chicago on May 20. A two-day tribute to
Anderson is planned at the museum, and a grandniece of Tillie’s,
Alice Roepke, is scheduled to attend. The tour is, in part, an
homage to Anderson, born in 1875 in Skane, Sweden. Her exploits
as a world champion cycler are told in Stauffacher’s book. While
on the ride, Stauffacher will make stops at