Martel runs from Beer-Bike responsibility

I was the Will Rice College bicycle rider whose crash brought the 2005 Alumni Beer-Bike race to an early end. While leaving a shattered helmet and a good measure of blood on the pavement hardly qualifies one as an expert on bike race safety, the experience did prompt some reflection.

I have ridden in eight Beer-Bike races: the first four as an undergraduate beginning in 1976 (an era of extraordinary college competitiveness) and the latter four in scattered alumni races.

Notwithstanding this year’s accident, the race has become much safer in several ways. In the ’70s, bike helmets — now universally used — were rarely seen at Beer-Bike. The track, then on the east side of the stadium, was rutted, rough and uneven — a far cry from the smoothly paved surface used today.

And no Rice Emergency Medical Services team was standing by. I owe the Rice EMS people a big debt of gratitude. I should like to have thanked them personally, but I was unconscious while we were together. 

However, all of the safety measures in the world cannot immunize against the dangers of stupidity. I first saw the Martel College runner as I was coming out of a curve on my first lap. In the split second available, I swerved left to miss her. She, alas, also moved to the left, evidently to enter the pit and evidently oblivious of the bikers behind her. Martel’s unannounced decision to send runners onto the track, while no doubt intended to be an amusing stunt, was plainly perilous. Mixing pedestrians and bike racers is a formula for serious injury or death. Martel, perhaps, has a different view of track safety, but I can only speculate. Since the accident, I have heard not a word from either the pedestrian or anyone else at Martel.

The accident this year bears an interesting resemblance to one that occurred 34 years ago. In 1971, a car — whose driver escaped, never to be identified — drove onto the track in the middle of a race, sending rider Bob Bridge (Hanszen ‘73) sprawling. After that, race organizers blocked the entrances to the parking lot where the race was taking place. No one then dreamed that pedestrians — and team members no less — would ever pose a similar problem.

While the safety of the race has changed, Rice’s ability to attract some truly splendid people has not. I discovered on race day that Traci and Joel Wolfe, the Will Rice masters, are creatures of beauty and wonder. They were on the scene immediately, made certain I was well tended to and then swept my toddler daughter and young son into their arms and cared for them while my wife and I were at the emergency room.

We thought we knew Traci and Joel well before April 2, but we feel privileged to know them even better now. They embody all of the intelligence, caring and passion that the ideal college masters should have, and are Rice at its best.

The students, too, are still magnificent. Most of them that I’ve observed — at Will Rice and elsewhere — work hard, play hard and have lots of fun. But to us ancients, the chugger’s option of substituting water for beer seems like sacrilege.

One final note: The decision to strip the title from Will Rice’s alumni team seems inane. When its effort was sabotaged, the team was more than a lap ahead and still pulling away. The remaining three riders were among the fastest. Under the circumstances, it seems loopy to declare ‘No Winner’ because of a supposed uncertainty about whether the judges recorded accurate times, as reported in the Thresher (‘Number of Beer-Bike EMS calls similar to previous years,’ April 15).

However, with riders from the class of ‘63 through the class of ‘05, the Will Rice alumni will set things straight again next year.

Lawrence Fossi graduated from Will Rice College in 1979.

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