Mike Allen rode for the Riverside Bicycle Club. He attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Allen was a road racer who worked as a teacher in 1964. He competed in the team time trial at the Tokyo Olympics. Allen later taught at Department of Defense Dependent Schools for over 30 years, mostly in Germany. He and his wife retired to Willcox, Arizona in the late 1990s. Allen became known in the town for maintaining a stretch of State Route 186 near Dos Cabezas as part of the Adopt-a-Highway Program. He helped clean the highway during his daily 6-12 mile runs.