ANOTHER Dead Mountain Biker!

Evolution in action....

Mike


http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/app...DH04/809280386

Column: Tuesday bike blogging: Bednorski's legacy
September 28, 2008

The 41-year-old town of Mosinee man died last Thursday in a bike
crash, having hit the back of a parked SUV on Highway KK. The
circumstances of the crash were odd, because Bednorski was such a
strong, experienced and canny rider. He was a top mountain biker and
road racer, and his loss has affected a lot of bicyclists across the
region very deeply.

Gregg was a consummate rider, said his friend and fellow mountain bike
racer Randy Bailey, the owner of Stadium Bikes in Green Bay and the
Trek Bicycle Store in Wausau. "He'd fight for every result," Bailey
said. "And he generally had the fitness to back it up."

Beyond being the generally regarded strongest rider in central
Wisconsin, Gregg also was universally regarded as a genuinely good man
and nice person, quick to share his experience and his passion. He was
the one on group rides who would hang back if there was a straggler,
and help the struggling rider rejoin the group. He was the one to
encourage anyone to give it a go on the bike.

It was that kind of attitude that made dealing with his loss
especially hard for those who rode and trained with him.

Bike racing is a unique sport, and its quirks makes the bond among
fellow riders especially strong.

There are inherent dangers in riding a bike fast, especially in a pack
with your fellow riders' elbows inches from yours. You need to trust
that person, because his actions means the difference between you
staying on your wheels or sliding across the pavement. The more time
you spend with that person the more you know about him or her, and the
deeper that trust goes.

There's the teamwork factor in the sport. You can ride much faster as
a group than you can alone, so that creates situations where you
depend on each other to get faster, to take it to the next level. But
it's still an individual sport, and at some point there comes the time
when you all go for it on your own, and you all switch off that spirit
of cooperation and you try to break each other. That's just the way it
is. And the way you do it tells a lot about your character.

And of course there's the pain factor. In bike racing, you train for
hours and hours in an uncomfortable position, your heart beating in
your chest and your legs aching. You do that with someone else for
miles and miles, and you're bound to grow close.

According to everyone I talked to, Gregg did all that better than
anybody else. That's why so many strong people cried at his funeral.
That's why he'll be missed for years.

That's why I wish I would have known him.

Because his was such an odd crash, there really isn't much to learn
from it, other than the fact that all our lives are so tenuous, and
they can be taken away from us so quickly and randomly.

But there's a lot we all can learn from the way he lived.

Keith can be reached at 845-0651 or . Read his
thoughts about life in his blog, That's Life. Click on any of the blog
links on the Daily Herald home page.
--
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande

On Sep 28, 2:31*pm, Mike Vandeman wrote:
Evolution in action....

Michael J. Vandeman delights in the death of another human.

The 41-year-old town of Mosinee man died last Thursday in a bike
crash, having hit the back of a parked SUV on Highway KK. The
circumstances of the crash were odd, because Bednorski was such a
strong, experienced and canny rider. He was a top mountain biker and
road racer, and his loss has affected a lot of bicyclists across the
region very deeply.

Freaking SUV...was he parked on a mtb trail? oh no...just on the
highway. Hmmm...so he didn't DIE on the MTB? of course not...mikey is
a just posting because he enjoys others deaths...He didn't die while
MTB you douchebag. Go kill another tree you flying draft dodging
lumberjack cook.