Long Beach Island, New Jersey---A Ride to Remember

So here we are in the North Shore Inn, one block from the Jersey "shore" (they don't call it the "beach" up here)on Long Beach Island, near Barnegat Inlet. I came up here last year kicking and screaming with my son for his skimboard contest. I had no interest in coming to the beaches in New Jersey. After a lifetime of hearing crummy stuff about the place, I was shocked at how beautiful and well cared for the beaches and the tiny beach towns were when I finally arrived. So here we are again.

I brought my trusty Trek road bike for this trip however and went out for a 30-mile tempo ride this morning. As I was readying for the ride, I spied a guy flying by on the road out front of the North Shore Inn on a hand cycle. I know, what's that? I didn't know that's what it's called either. It's a type of tricycle (high-performance wheelchair) for handicapped athletes operated by turning chain-drive sprockets with each hand and arm. It's frame is triangular in shape with it's rider snug between two approximately 20-24-inch wheels, their top edges leaning inboard toward the rider. A single front wheel, about the size of a standard road bike, projects out in front of the rider held by an aluminum, steel, or carbon fiber fork.

A racing wheelchair, on the other hand, has a smaller front wheel out front about 32 inches. It is held by a straight rod and fork extending forward from the rider's seated position and can be constructed of the same materials found on any road bike.

As I entered the road, I saw a police car, its blue lights ablaze, beside a roadside roped-off area. Adjacent to this was a tent and a gathering of people near what appeared to be a finish line. I was riding along in a race course for a wheelchair race. I looked behind to see racing wheelchairs closing fast.

I moved over toward a group of wheelchair racers who had just finished the 5-mile course. I rolled over to a dark-haired, smiling racer clad in a yellow Cannondale jersey, who introduced himself as Shannon. He had come from Washington, D.C. for the race. He was a 30-year old double leg amputee, the stubs of his legs and his lower body, wore black cycling shorts.

I introduced myself and told him I was very unfamiliar with his ride, so he showed me around and told me some about these special vehicles. His was not a hand-cycle, but a racing wheelchair. The frames were fairly similar, both somewhat triangular, but the means of propulsion were quite different. He said he has a hand-cycle, but prefers to race in the chair. It's his speed machine.

The racing chair is driven with the riders' hands and arms pumping in a vertical motion, with his mitted hands driving the wheels' forward edges downward by contact with a rubber coated ring attached to the outer face of the wheels. This repeated motion has the rider bent over at the waist and face downward toward the road for virtually the entire race. Today's race was a mass start race. Drafting was allowed and is effective with these machines as it is with racing bicycles.

Shannon said his chair, made by Top End, is custom fitted to his body and cost about $5500. Cannondale made chairs for some years but has gotten out of it. Most chairs cost between $3600 and $6500. They even sport deep dish carbon fiber wheels (as his did) and disc wheels, the type used by road cyclists in time trials.

"I wasn't real happy with my results today. I was up real late drinking with a buddy in Atlantic City last night," Shannon confessed. "He came up here with me from D.C. so we sorta stuck together last night. There aren't many out-of-town athletes in this race. These guys are mostly locals," he went on. "I'm from around here so it's kinda nice to come back here for a race like this.

"Well who do you train with at home?" I wanted to know.

Shannon: "The only person I train with around D.C. is an Olympic Parathlete. But I can't really keep up with him. He's super strong. I mean he's a real Olympian. But it's great to have the opportunity to work and learn from someone of that caliber."

As for his training, Shannon said he trains at about 13 to 15 miles per hour. He does long rides of 8 to 10 miles and does intervals to improve his speed. He talks about his training with the same precision of a dedicated road racing cyclist.

As Shannon said this, another rider pulled up wearing a red jersey looking a bit surly and well worn from the road race. "This guy won the race today," Shannon explained. "We're gonna ride back now." Seated inches above the road, he reached up and shook my hand. I also shook the hand of the race winner and wished them both good health and great racing. They took off south down the road intent upon catching up to their racing buddies who now had a head start on them.

They were off in the same direction I was going so I started off as well. I passed the group of them, and as I went by I looked down upon flat backs, faces inches to the road, elbows pumping up and down with a furious rage.

I had an especially good ride today.