Rory McCarthy has muscular atrophy in his legs and needs
crutches to walk, but that doesn't stop him from cycling. He uses arm
power to crank a 21-speed, three-wheeled handcycle.
McCarthy,
43, lives in West Bath, Maine, and has cycled across the United States and all
over the world. He was one of six disabled people on the AXA World Ride '95, an
eight-month, 15-country tour organized by World TEAM.
Handcycling "definitely was an oddity when I started 16 years ago," said
McCarthy, who was looking for a way to keep active after he began using crutches
as a teen-ager. "I rarely ran into anybody else doing it except the guy I
bought my first bike from, a guy in Boston named Bill Warner. He had been
an MIT student when he began making handcycles."
But loneliness
was not the prevailing feeling. "It was incredible, just the freedom to go
out and cruise around," said McCarthy, who is self-employed in electrical design
and computer graphics. "I was hooked, absolutely."
Nowadays, four cycles later, McCarthy can find a handful of disabled and
able-bodied buddies to join him on a weekend handcycling ride. And he's
breaking into racing.
Eight handcyclists competed in an
exhibition race July 19 during the U.S. Cycling Federation's Masters
National Road Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. McCarthy finished second
in the 5-kilometer criterium, behind Australian triathlete John Maclean, who was
the first paraplegic to complete the Hawaii Ironman, in 1995, and did it again
last year.
McCarthy was exhilarated to have bike racers from
all over watching. "This is the year World TEAM has been trying to promote
handcycling at USA Cycling events, with the aim for it to become a Paralympic
sport," he said.
Handcycles have become lighter and more
aerodynamic over the years, and a number of manufacturers are competing to gain
a foothold in the market, McCarthy said. The machines can cost about
$2,000 to $4,000, he said.
Handcycles suit people with a
variety of disabilities, including those with spinal cord injuries, and they're
being sold to able-bodied riders as well. "It's a great upper-body
workout," McCarthy said.
"I got to handcycle on the World Ride
and got enormous enjoyment out of it," said bicycle racer and cycling trainer
Paul Curley of Taunton, director of cycling programs for World TEAM, who is not
disabled. The Tallahassee event included two nondisabled handcylists,
helping to promote World TEAM's mission of integrating athletes with and without
handicaps.
McCarthy finds handcycling more appealing than
wheelchair racing, because push-driven wheelchairs have no drive train and no
gears. Wheelchair racing is more like running, and competition usually
takes place on the same courses runners use, while handcycling is more
like bicycling and belongs with bike races, he said.
Curley
said the large fields and prize money in wheelchair racing indicate there could
be great demand for handcycles -- World TEAM's list of handcyclists from the
World Ride and sales records from two manufacturers is up to about 200 -- but
there have to be racing opportunities for the sport to develop.
A handcycling category has been added to the Dividing Waters race Aug. 22-24 in
Greenville, S.C., and handcyclists are lobbying to include their sport in USCF
national championships next year.
~~~
The masters nationals
included the national road championships for bicyclists with disabilities --
blind tandem stokers with sighted pilots, amputees with and without
prosthetics, and riders with cerebral palsy or related disorders. Blind
rider Ray Collins of Plymouth, Mass., riding with Dave O'Neill of Cambridge, won
the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes men's road race title. Collins, 36,
was USABA time trial champion in 1994, national tandem track cycling champion in
1995 and a member of the 1996 U.S. Paralympic team.
~~~
TIP OF THE HELMET -- To Tyler Hamilton (U.S. Postal Service) for
his tenacious performance in the Tour de France despite bone spurs in his heel
just before the race. Hamilton, who hails from Marblehead, is believed to
be the only New England native to ride the Tour. Hamilton's Tour by the
numbers: 69th place overall out of 198 starters and 139 finishers, on one
of only three teams to have all their riders complete the 2,405-mile, 21-stage
race; one of six Americans in the Tour; top American finisher, in 27th place, in
the uphill time trial July 18; 22nd place in the final time trial July 26.
Hamilton had the week off after the Tour's conclusion last
Sunday in Paris, and starts a stage race in Spain today. He plans to be
back in the United States Aug. 10.
~~~
Rebecca Cooke
(Minuteman Road Club) of Boylston is leading the Category 3 women in the New
England Women's Challenge Series sponsored by Stonyfield Farms, after winning
the Harvard Classic race last Sunday. Meg Ryan of Worcester, a bike patrol
officer in the Worcester Police Department, won the Category 4 women's race and
Queen of the Mountain title.
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