Winter-like temperatures didn’t keep nearly 40 riders from coming out for the first ever East Lansing Police Department/Jimmie Heuga Center Mountain Bike Race Sunday morning.
The event was organized by Officer Dave DeKorte of the East Lansing Police Department to benefit the Jimmie Heuga Center in Edwards, Colo. The center was created in 1984 by Olympic medalist Jimmie Heuga to help those with multiple sclerosis and fund further research into the disease.
John Francis has known DeKorte and his wife for about five years and worked with them on several causes to help those with multiple sclerosis. He was diagnosed with the disease 13 years ago.
“I characterize myself as a lotto winner MS patient,” Francis said. “I show no real signs of the disease and can still walk unaided and take care of myself.
“I know it’s cold out here, but I also know hundreds of MS patients that would give anything to be out here in the cold riding their bikes, but they no longer can,” he said.
As Ernie Stafford, a Grand Rapids police officer, sailed across the finish line in 40-degree temperatures in the eight-mile event, he shouted to his teammates that he had finished sixth or seventh.
“If we could just kill the wind a little bit that’d be better,” he said. “The snow’s no big deal when you’re riding.”
Stafford not only raced in the individual event but was part of Grand Rapids’ four-man racing team as well.
“This is our first race, we wanted to try something new and different,” he said. “It beats working a 10-hour shift on road patrol, and it’s fun.”
The course, a two-mile loop around East Lansing’s Abbott Road Park, began and ended at the soccer complex but had a little bit of everything in-between. There were stretches of grass, gravel and mud, racers said.
Among the six veteran racers competing in the 12-mile event was an MSU student, finance senior Brian Tremblay. He has been riding since he was 14, but today was the first time he competed in a race. He finished fifth.
“I was feeling kind of macho, so I decided to enter the advanced race,” he said. “I ride a lot but not (in East Lansing).”
The biggest crowd draw of the day was the team event at the end. The East Lansing Police Department had been saving up for this by passing on the individual events, DeKorte said.
They held three of the 11 team slots but fell short to a more experienced racing team of Jon Looman, Tod VanWieren, Mike Pitchford and Dennis Jeffers. The four friends have been racing at area events together for two years and finished the 16-mile event in 1:23:11.
“It was well laid-out and a well-marked trail, but it was pretty flat,” Looman said. “We used to do the MSU course a few years back, and I do like this one a lot better.”
Throughout the day small groups of spectators huddled in blankets sipping hot chocolate and coffee while watching the races unfold. Tara Johanson of Hudsonville, Mich. made the trip down with a friend and their children to watch the races.
“The race seems really well-planned, and they have a lot of stuff for everyone, I just wish the weather would have cooperated,” she said. “This is the guys’ first team race.”
DeKorte is planning to hold the second annual event at the beginning of October next year.
