For brothers, one with ALS, 'it was a good day'
By Chris Davis
Special to the Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.23.2008



Ten years ago, Jim Riehl introduced his brother Eric to cycling, and Saturday Eric helped him rediscover his passion as they rode 109 miles in El Tour de Tucson.
While the ride was a feat many people accomplished throughout the day, Jim and Eric's journey was different. Jim was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, eight to 10 months ago. ALS is a degenerative disease of the nerve cells that control muscular movement.
Jim, 46, could no longer ride a bike on his own, so Eric pitched in to ensure that his brother got the chance to ride in this year's El Tour de Tucson. The two crossed the finish line in 8 hours 11 minutes 54 seconds.
"It was a good day," Eric, 37, said. "There were highs and lows, but it was the best day I've ever had on a bike."
The two rode on a special retrofitted bike that Eric found used in Tucson. Eric steered, and Jim helped by pedaling.
"My brother rode for many years, and this was very important to him," Eric said. "It was always kind of our goal to get him back out to El Tour."
Of equal importance, said Eric, is raising awareness of this disease.
"Two years ago this was a healthy 46-year-old man," Eric said. "He was an avid cyclist, so it can happen to anyone, and there's no cure or effective treatments."
New start is smooth
This year's El Tour de Tucson headed in a different direction — literally — but only briefly. Instead of the riders racing west on Congress Street, they were re-routed to ride west on Clark Street to the Interstate 10 frontage road.
El Tour route director Andy Guerrero said the change was due to construction and traffic.
"It was more of a traffic issue," he said. "Riding down Congress was going to create more chaos with the cars, and we didn't want that. So we decided with the Arizona Department of Transportation to run it through the underpass at Clark Street."
ADOT patched up Clark for the riders, and some said they hardly noticed a difference.
"It was no worse than last year," said J.R. Grabinger, who rode with the Ride Clean team. "They did a good job of resurfacing the road and took care of the dangerous places."
Dwight Nelson, one half of the first tandem bike to cross the finish line, echoed Grabinger's comments.
"It was pretty much the same ride as in the past," he said.
Riding by twos
Nelson and Evan Unger used to ride against each other — at least until the last few months when they decided they could make a decent team if they combined their strengths.
It turned out to be a good decision. The pair of Tucsonans finished first among tandem bikes in the 109-mile race at El Tour de Tucson with a time of 4:32:02.
"We practiced the last three weekends together, but this was our first El Tour de Tucson riding a tandem," said Nelson, 52. "And it was by far the hardest I've ever ridden."
The pair are El Tour veterans. Nelson had done El Tour 22 times before Saturday and Unger 18 times. Racing as part of the Southwest Hand Cycling team, they got out to a fast start but ran into trouble at the Sabino Creek crossing.
"We had some mechanical issues with the gears," Unger, 54 said. "In that river crossing that's as sandy as it's ever been."

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