MS Bike with Kaylan

I came home from work announcing "GENESYS is riding in MS Bike". I said to Tracey (wife) that we should dust off the old tandem. 160 miles should be easy compared to what she did in our touring days. Tracey wasn't sure due to kids schedules, marathon training, etc. Kaylan (daughter) said "What's MS Bike?" I told her it is a ride to raise money for curing Multiple Sclerosis. I gave her the website and off she went. Kaylan came back downstairs a while later announcing that she wanted to do it. Wow! I saw a hint of jealousy in Tracey .

I can't tell you what a turning point this day was for the relationship between a 43 year old father and a 12 year old daughter. Not that we had a bad relationship, it was actually pretty typical. Anyone with a pre-teen daughter would understand. Anyway, the preparation, the long talks on the bike, the moments sitting on a sidewalk in front of a quick trip or a Subway, were absolutely priceless. There is a lot to talk about when you have hours to spend in the saddle. The fact that she didn't have to look at me (on the back of the tandem) was actually helpful. We talked and talked and talked. This was the best.

First training ride. Mom's old jersey from around 1990.



Quick Trip moments. I'm not kidding. This made our summer.

Sitting in front of Kaylan's old school in Lone Jack

Park near the house.

Cool shades.

Tour day. Gary Michalek, Iron Man Triathlete and my best man, came to ride with us. He rode many tours with Tracey and I and had never met Kaylan. He is one of my favorite people in the world. So imagine the chemistry the three of us had riding the miles of Missouri back roads together.

Kaylan discovers the miracle of Hammer Gel and hot chocolate.

the guy behind Gary is Steve Beck. Steve has worked in our shop at GENESYS for over 10-years. I'm so proud of him for being out there. Notice his feet up on the shocks of his bike. Millwrights are tough.

Kaylan insisted on sticking her tongue out at every photographer. How childish.

Dinner at the end of day one. Priceless.

Morning of day two. The three amigo's are getting warmed up.

Steve and James

Nobody told Roder, until half way through the second day, he had been wearing his helmet backward.

This pace line is Steve Lucido, Brian Roder, James Herrman and Mike (Steve's freind). They beat us the first day but we put the hammer down on day two.

Then we crashed!!!

Here is how it happened. Kaylan couldn't stand the fact that James, Steve, Mike (Steve's Friend) and Brian beat us to the finish on day one. Day two, they got out before us, so we started behind. We hammered hard but didn't catch them by the 55-mile lunch break. As we were finishing lunch, they road in! Somehow, we had gotten ahead of them. Probably at one of the rest stops we chose to skip. Anyway, We are leaving and those guys throw away their half eaten lunches and jump on their bikes. They get ahead of us again. This is where me, Gary and Kaylan say "lets not pass too soon because it could make for a hard 30 miles if we do" We all agreed. However, they are just going too slow at this point and we see a huge downhill to make our move. Now it's on. Gary, coming off a recent ride from Canada to Mexico, is ready to open it up. We quickly loose sight of the GENESYS pace line and join another. Gary pulls ahead and we are cranking. Steve and the others are now little specs in the rear view mirror.

Then it happens. A bottle cage breaks from the tandem on a patch of rough road. We fall off the back of the pace line and Gary has no idea. Excited, I hit the breaks, jump off and tell Kaylan "hold the bike, I'll run back and get it". Problem is, Kaylan wasn't even unclipped yet. The tandem comes down on top of her. This is bad, she is bleeding, crying, leg is swelling. I feel like crap but I'm saying "you ok? come on honey, lets go!" We get it together and now we are moving pretty slow. She's banged up pretty bad.

Then we see Gary and start riding together again. Gary takes in the situation, sees Kaylan's tears, the blood running down from her knee and he starts to tell a story. The story is about Kerri Strug who at 13, in Atlanta, had a US Olympic team medal riding on her shoulders. She has two chances and twists her ankle bad at the first attempt. Gary describes how the camera was on Kerri's face as her famous coach yells Kerri YOU CAN DO THIS! The whole world watches. She takes off, nails it and then collapses. See the video below. She accepts the award, in a cast, in her coaches arms. It was the most powerful story I had ever experienced considering what Kaylan and I had been through in the months, days and moments leading to this point. While Gary was telling the story, I can feel Kaylan through the bike. She is getting stronger and stronger. She brought us back to full speed with the energy of that story being told by my best man. We pulled it off. We beat the GENESYS pace line that beat us the day before. Energy creates energy. I'm telling you man, it's true. http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFn47a_Ny0Y

This is the fast pace line that Gary pulled. You can see Kaylan, rider No. 1136, pre-crash.

Rounding the bend at the end of the second day.

Kaylan in the triage unit where Paramedics tend to her injuries.

Our GENESYS group. Brian Roder, Paul Schoneman, Brandon Vega, Steve Lucido, James Herrman, Molly Pruett, John Leffler, Matt Adams, Steve Beck, Al Martinac, Jean Cortier, Bryce Gum. the guy in the grey shorts, front and center, has a sister who was diagnosed with MS last year. Our group collected $11,000.

What a finish. What a weekend. What a summer. Life is good.