NY Times piece about Handcyclists in the NY Marathon

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Anonymous's picture
Anonymous

"Interesting piece in the NY Times about the divide between handcyclists and ""traditional"" wheelchair racers. Apparently, handcyclists are resented by some because their wheelchairs are too much like bikes!

Disabled Racers Split, With Organizers in Middle
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/sports/othersports/02handcycle.html?_r...

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Anonymous's picture
mike (not verified)

there is a big difference between handcycling and racing chairs.

Anonymous's picture
Fendergal (not verified)

"Buried in this handcycles vs. pushrim story is the proposal that handcycles participate in bike races.

""...the executive director of the United States Handcycling Federation, Ian Lawless, has encouraged his members to enter bicycle races, which he deems a more natural fit for handcycles.""

Bike racing promoters have enough problem deciding which fields to offer. Now people who don't appear to have even an indirect connection to bike racing are trying to say these athletes really should be doing that sport. Without a dedicated handcycle field, where is a handcyclist supposed to compete? I don't claim to speak for the whole sport, but I don't think many of my peers would tolerate having a three-wheeled handcycle in his or her field, given the differences in speed and handling.

Has Ian Lawless ever seen a bike race? Does he understand that race promoters have more time constraints and fewer financial and other resources than a running race organizer? Not to mention that marathoning is a very different discipline than a road race or a crit.

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Anonymous's picture
John Miller (not verified)

Mixing handcycles and double-diamond frames in the same race? That would never happen -- I thought USCF regs prohibit most larks of engineering fancy -- such as recumbents, track bikes, aerobars, frames with no seat tubes, etc. from racing in the same field. Handcycles would fall under the same rules.

That said, maybe what Lawless advocates is more about pressuring for the inclusion of handcycling as a separate field in bicycle races. Handcycle equipment is much more akin to bicycles than wheelchairs, even racing chairs. Their attainable speeds and terrain capabilities are also closer to bikes. If you've been on the marathon escort ride the last few years and tried to chase these guys down, handcyclists' motors cannot be denied.

In the crack-of-dawn world of local NYC racing as it is, there's no room for one additional field. Prospect Park this past year had to drop separate Masters fields to improve racing for Cat 5s,4s, and 1/2/3s. But imagine that equal-opportunity advocacy by the Handcycling Fed. gives park races an extra hour -- finishing at 9 instead of 8 -- and you could accommodate all the handcyclists you want.

Anonymous's picture
hogwich guy (not verified)
yikes!

imho, finishing a race at 9 am in cp or pp is a pretty scary thought.

crowds + bike racing = crashfests and lawsuits.

Anonymous's picture
Bart Wellens (not verified)

It is not about accommodating Handcyclists in a bicycles race. If they would fit there, then bicycles could RUN the marathon.

They need to find an appropriate place. Because they are relatively new, they'll struggle to achieve this.

Handcycles make it easier and less intimidating for people to get into Marathoning. This is great.

But a handcycle is a very specific device. If the competition is not fair, they'll have to create their own fields or their own race events.

Anonymous's picture
John Miller (not verified)

"Yikes is right. Remember, I said ""local racing as it is."" My imagination, foolishly, extended also to greater knowledge of the sport and improved support from the greater public.

I've since returned from Neverland, don't worry."

Anonymous's picture
Fendergal (not verified)

The problems facing NYC racing are the same problems facing all promoters: too many fields to jam into a small window of time. Women's fields have taken a big hit this year at major events, such as Jiminy Peak and Fitchburg Longsjo. Adding another event, such as handcycling, makes for a smaller slice of the resources pie amongst everybody else.

As a woman who's been racing for close to 10 years, I would hate to see the field for any underrepresented group, whether women, juniors or whoever, get pushed even further to the side.

Two years ago, I paced the elite handcyclists at the marathon. They were fast, but not *that* fast.

cycling trips