Tag: Cuba

Disabled Cyclist to Start Achilles Chapter in Cuba

March 25, 2013 — By Jen Benepe

Alfonso (center) on a training ride in Cuba in 2012

Damian Alfonso, the Cuban cyclist who made headlines when he qualified for the 2012 cycling event at the Paralympics –and then came in 12th overall in his class, will be recruiting more disabled athletes in Cuba.

“This is about Damian giving back,” said his long-time American friend and advocate, Tracy Lea who first discovered the cyclist on a sports trip to Cuba in 2000.

Though Americans are still forbidden from traveling to Cuba with American passports, there are exceptions, among them traveling to compete in sports events.

Dick Traum who started Achilles International in 1983, said the new Cuban chapter will hopefully attract both cyclists and runners who will then be invited to New York City on June 30 to run in the Hope and Possibility race 5 miles around Central Park.

“Damian is a fantastic athlete, and he is the perfect role model for other Cuban athletes who are disabled,” said Traum.

Traum who is disabled himself and uses a hand crank to cycle in Central Park, said the June event was started in honor of Achilles board member and Central Park Jogger, Trisha Meili, who sustained traumatic brain injury when she was assaulted and raped during her daily run in April 1989.

Meili, who eventually recovered from her attack went on to be a  spokesperson for people with disabilities who are in sports.

Damian Alfonso with a group of CRCA riders when he visited New York City. Pic: Courtesy Will Schneider

Over time Alfonso has received help from the Achilles Foundation, partially enabling him to come to the United States to compete, as well as to receive free medical help from the National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction and the New York University Langone Medical Center.

A kite lover at the age of 13, Alfonso tried to disconnect a lost kite from a power line using a metal pole, and was electrocuted.  ‘The electricity blew his arms off, his face off: they had to scrape him off the ground,” said Mike Fraysse, previous president of the U.S. Cycling Federation who has run several Pan American cycling events in Cuba.

“They thought there was no way he was going to live, but son of a gun, he did.”

And on top of living, he became an amazing competitive cyclist, said Fraysse.

The Cuban cyclist lives with his mother in Havana, has no arms, and cycles with his stumps rather than use prosthetic devices to control the bicycle. He also has limited sight in one eye.

Alfonso who also placed 12th overall in his division of the Paralympics last summer, first met Tracy Lea in 2000, when he was 22 years old and already proving to be a fantastic cyclist locally.

Cuba does not provide financial support for disabled cyclists, and that means support must come from outside the country, said Lea.

“With limited resources, athletes with disabilities are not high on the totem pole,” she added.

So far, Lea has arranged for Alfonso to visit the U.S. four times, three times for free medical treatment, and a fourth time to compete. He has also visited Canada twice for World Cup competitions.

“He’s been fortunate, he’s had a chance, a lot of doors opened up to him,” explained Lea who was instrumental in helping Alfonso develop his cycling abilities. The Challenged Athletes Foundation grants also played a critical part in providing support to Alfonso to race in the international events to earn a qualifying spot for the games, said Lea.

Out of the 6,000 runners in the June Hope and Possibility run, about 1,000 will have a variety of disabilities but they will all compete together.

Achilles International has chapters in 10 South American chapters already, among them the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil, as well as 60 other countries in all.

Damian Alfonso (left) riding with Will Schneider of CRCA when Alfonso came to visit NYC. Pic courtesy Will Schneider

The Cuban athletes that join their new chapter may also be able to come to the U.S. for the Five Boro Bike Tour, a 42-mile bike event around the boroughs of New York.

Alfonso who is also a runner is expected to come to the November 3 New York City Marathon to compete as well said Traum. Several of the Achilles chapters host triathlon teams, which could be the final shape of the chapter in Cuba.

Alfonso did come to the last NYC Marathon, which was canceled in the after math of Hurricane Sandy which destroyed several New York communities. He did however run in Central Park where he surprisingly outran his guide, noted Traum.

Traum, who delights in racing against full-bodied cyclists, especially up the 86th Street hill on the west side of Central Park said he hopes the Hope and Possibility run will attract athletes from around the world, but also provide a chance for disabled athletes to compete against able-bodied runners.

“If I were visually impaired, an amputee, someone with traumatic brain injury, or had cerebral palsy, I would get in shape and come to New York. It would be the time of my life,” he said.

Rechnitz’s Velodrome Dream

By Jen Benepe

Josh Rechnitz

Josh Rechnitz was profiled by the NY Times on Sunday, but the journalist never spoke to the man.

Perhaps that’s because the Times doesn’t have any cyclists on staff, because just about everyone at the Century Road Club Association, one of the oldest bike racing clubs in the U.S., knows Rechnitz.

Besides often seeing him at races put on by the CRCA in Central Park, or waving Hi! in Nyack, NY, I traveled with Rechnitz and many other cyclists to Cuba in 2000.

That was the first time Rechnitz raced on a velodrome, at the Pan American Masters’ Championships in Cuba, an event organized by Mike Fraysse, previous president of U.S. A. Cycling, and now owner of his own training camp in Glen Spey, NY.

I published two films about the trip, one focusing on how Cubans live and think, the other on our racing event.

Rechnitz is seen in the first video (see below) in the bus that took us from the airport to the hotel, then later he crosses the camera lens in his USA cycling suit before a race.

With his slightly mussed hair and often off-kilter glasses, Rechnitz was shy and sweet, and loved his mojitos.

When he announced that he was donating $40 million dollars to help build a velodrome in New York City, I almost fell off my chair. That was because the guy never let on that he was a passionate, and deeply pocketed velodrome advocate.

I called Adrian, my brother, who also happened to be NYC Parks Commissioner at the time, to check and make sure what I heard was true.

I hadn’t spoken to Josh for a long time, not since I raced in Central Park under the Century Road Club Association umbrella.
Or maybe the last time we said hi in Nyack, NY.

But he’s still the sweet guy I always knew, and obviously with his heart and head in the right place.

It does however pain me to see the opinions of some expressed in the Times’ article, that cycling is a secondary or tertiary sport.

The reality is that those who think so have absolutely no idea how popular cycling is, and how important it is to cyclists. They also have no vision of how popular it could be once again since the time of the Six Day races that were held at Madison Square Garden.

In those races riders literally rode for 6 days straight around the velodrome, taking short naps in between. The arena has since been replaced by big moneyed basketball courts and regular games.

But what the critics don’t understand is that the lack of a velodrome within close proximity to Manhattan is a huge detractor for cyclists living in the city.

But no one has ever measured either the level of need or desire for a velodrome, nor for the level of cycling that would take place if the city’s population actually felt safe riding on the streets. Of the people I speak to who aren’t cycling, their number one reason to stay off a bicycle is fear of being hit by a motor vehicle.

Even though velodrome cycling is not always safe–falling down the steep banks and crashing are always possibilities, it is one of the greatest venue sports in the world.

What cycling lacks now is a place where crowds can come and watch as they do with baseball, football, and basketball–the big money sports.

With time, and now soon a velodrome, the popularity of cycling, and watching bike racing, will soar.