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DOUGLAS — Kasey and Erin Hopper were only a half mile from the finish line when they stopped to rest.
The husband and wife cycling tandem had pedaled almost 45 miles when Erin’s legs just couldn’t take it anymore.
“My legs were burning,” she said. “I knew (the finish line) wasn’t very far.”
One of the members of the bike patrol, wearing a bright yellow shirt, rode past and gave them words of encouragement — it’s only a few more blocks.
  
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Kasey told his wife he’d pedal the rest of the way, and they finished the 45-mile loop of the Cochise County Cycling Classic in three hours and 44 minutes.
“It felt like 90 (miles),” Kasey said. “It’s the shortest race we’ve done, but the hardest. The wind was just awful.”
Erin collapsed on the grass after they finished the race, and Kasey spent several minutes helping her stretch the muscles in her legs.
Kasey and Erin, from Tucson, form an unusual tandem, since Erin rides in the front and Kasey rides in the back because he is legally blind. Typically, the stronger rider is in the front, which is usually the male member of the duo.
“You don’t see tandems very often, and you especially don’t see them with a girl out in front,” Erin said.
“She’s my captain,” Kasey said.
For others on the road Saturday, the wind and rainy weather got the better of many of the cyclists who competed in the perimeter bike race around Cochise County.
A record-number of 335 registered for the event, even though several dropped out of the race after threatening clouds filled the skies Friday evening and into Saturday morning.
For some, other factors besides the weather made riders change their plans. John Matzek, who rides with the SynCardia team out of Tucson, finished just half of the 92-mile race before getting picked up and driven the rest of the way because he’s still recovering from a cold.
“It was the first time I haven’t finished,” he said. “But I didn’t crash, I survived it. I’m just bummed I wasn’t feeling well.”
Matzek said he usually rides about 20 cycling competitions during the year, but prefers the social aspect of cycling more than being competitive.
Lately, he’s started picking up youth-sized shirts from each event to give to his 6-year-old son, because his own T-shirt collection has gotten too big.
“I didn’t want to start throwing them out, so I get extra-smalls,” he said. “He loves them. So far, all the perimeter events have had youth sizes.”
Near 3 p.m., almost 13 hours after the 252-mile perimeter race started, its first cyclist returned to Castro Park. Dan McGehee, 45, won for the eighth time in his 10 times racing around the county.
While most competitors only felt splashes of rain on the ground, many of the long-distance cyclists went through larger pockets of dark clouds and rainfall.
And, of course, there was the wind through the whole journey.
“There was no letting up,” McGehee said. “It was either blowing hard or harder. Even downhill. We were crawling. I’ve been here 10 years, and this is the worst the wind has been during the last 80 miles.”
McGehee holds the record time for the 252-mile ride with 10 hours and 26 minutes in 1996. He finished in 12:45.45 on Saturday.
This year, he left his home in Mesa around 8:30 p.m. Friday night after playing mini-golf and Stratego with his son and made it to Douglas just after midnight. He took a 20-minute nap in the lobby of the Gadsden Hotel and then got up to prep for the race.
And the eye doctor didn’t really rest after he crossed the finish line either. He was soon back in the car headed home.
Jame Carney, from Tucson, 30, riding the 252-race for the first time, rode with McGehee for much of the race. Carney ended in second place with a time of 12:57.15. Before Saturday, the furthest he had ridden was 188 miles back in 1999.
“I was up for beginner’s luck,” he said. “And it just didn’t work out.”
McGehee’s name has become so synonymous with winning the race that race officials don’t refer to him by his number anymore. Asking, “Where’s Dan?” over the radio means trying to figure out how close the top cyclist is to completing the course.
In third place in the 252-mile race was Marco Menchaca of Tucson in 14:57.35. First place in the distance’s tandem race went to James and Bob Pomgratz from Scottsdale with a time of 13:25.35.
Three local men finished in the top three spots in the 45-mile race. Glenn Harris and Craig Liming, both of Sierra Vista, finished in 2:03.33 and 2:03.34, respectively. Jim Buttke of Hereford finished in 2:03.44.
In the 92-mile race, Bora Leonard, who is on the cross country and swimming teams at Buena High, finished first among the women in 4:49.44.
Herald/Review sports reporter Liz Manring an be reached at 515-4682 or by e-mail at liz.manring@svherald.com.
Dan McGehee wrote on Oct 13, 2008 3:25 PM:
Thank you
Dan McGehee "