Road Warrior

I had an inspiring experience today courtesy of one of my riding partners in the group ride this morning. The Sunday group ride with the Texas Flyers is always a good one, but today’s had an interesting twist. The pace, challenge, and company varies a bit each week, but invariably about 40 minutes in there’s a split in the group. Those looking for a faster-paced ride always ride away from the others and there ends up being 2 or more groups for the remainder of the ride.

Today six of us broke away around the usual spot and within 20 minutes two had fallen away. The four of us kicked it up and had fun on the fast descents and rollers in the first part of the course. Aside from myself, there were two Texas Flyers riders and someone I had not seen before. He was keeping pace just fine and that, in addition to the fact that he rode a high quality bike and was sporting good, matching kit, I assumed he was a strong rider. Besides, he looked well trained.

His name is Luke (sp?). We struck up a conversation while recovering after a particularly hard stretch and I noticed his thick Eastern European accent. I asked and he mentioned he was from Romania. He also mentioned that this was only his 5th ride back after a long layoff due to illness. Turned out that his “illness” was having surgery to remove one of his kidneys 3 months ago. I was pretty impressed that he was keeping pace, as cycling in those hills at a fast pace is not something just anyone can do. Especially after a few months layoff after major surgery. He then amazed me a bit more, noting that just last November he broke his neck and suffered other injuries in an auto accident. So 5 months after a major accident, broken neck, followed by having kidney removal surgery, he’s on his 5th ride back and hanging with the fast group (okay, the “faster” group). But wow.

Anyway, the four of us made it out and back through the really tough hills, even having a couple sprints along the way, and folks started peeling off toward their respective homes. Luke had come from the very start of the ride, as had I, so we did the last 8 or so miles by ourselves. It was along there that he added some details to his story. Turns out that while receiving treatment and recovering from his auto accident, the doctors gave him some grave news. They’d discovered cancer. It had destroyed one of his kidneys and they were pretty sure that it was getting into other organs. They’d have to remove the one kidney as a start once he’d recovered from the accident. So he had that surgery this past January.

Later this week Luke goes back to start a battery of tests to try and discern how he’s really doing. As of now, he has no idea what his prognosis is. So he’s out on his bike, gutting it out through the hills in the wind with folks who haven’t recently broken their necks; who haven’t recently had a kidney removed; who are not having to deal with the knowledge that any day could bring devastating news. He has no idea how long he’ll be able to ride a bike, he just knows he can do it today. So that’s what he did.

So then it was my turn to turn off and head toward home and we exchanged farewells. He said he hopes to be back and see me at next week’s ride. I sure hope to see him.