Wheel to win

It takes more than a pothole to make Spokane cyclist Michael Emde quit. Emde, 36, led 180 cyclists through 179 miles of the Furnace Creek 508 on Oct. 7, a grueling 508-mile bicycle race through Death Valley, Calif., when he radioed his crew for a nutrition drink.

He gripped the radio on his shirt with his right hand, leaving his left hand on the handlebars, legs pumping, his bike cruising over the cracked, dusty old highway at 30 mph.

After more than 10 hours of riding, he had successfully dodged hundreds of potholes on the highway, some bigger, some smaller, all potentially disastrous. He didn’t see this one.

His front tire hit first, the impact threw him off balance and jarred his left hand off the handlebar. He reached for the bar with his right hand as he yelled in the radio, he was too late.

At 30 mph Emde landed on his right side, cracking his helmet and shredding his red, white and blue jersey, gloves and bare skin. No bones were broken, but his bike was and he still had the lead.

His crew, including Robert Treadwell, his wife, Marla, and daughter Martina, came around the corner in a van to see the bloody Emde waiting for them, jersey in tatters. Treadwell thought the race was over until Emde helped him assemble the second bike, hopped on, and took off within minutes of his nasty spill.

He had to keep going.

For the Austrian-born Emde, 2006 marks his second consecutive Furnace Creek 508. Last year he placed third, breaking the course record for the 30-39 age group with a time of 27:49:07.

The Furnace Creek 508 is nicknamed “The toughest 48 hours in sports” because athletes have 48 hours to complete the race amid 90-100 degree temperatures and 35,000 feet of climbing, Townes Pass alone rises to 4,985 feet above sea level. It’s a test of preparation, endurance and desire. Here, racers reach their limits then pedal on by.

A race official said Emde looked like a man possessed coming down from Townes Pass, and he was. He accumulated a 1-hour lead over the nearest racer with just over half the race to go, so Treadwell advised him to slow his pace for a while. Emde refused.

An hour can disappear quickly in a race like this, Emde said, like last year where he led most of the race until an equipment malfunction cost him 30 minutes and the win. So he pushed on despite a roaring pain in his right hip flexor and dried blood caked on his right side.

Treadwell couldn’t believe his eyes. After a fall like that, he was worried Emde might falter late in the race if he kept the same pace.

With 28.1 miles to go and still in the lead, Emde signaled the crew who was following behind him in the van and told them matter-of-factly “I’m empty”.

Going on 28 hours on a bike with no sleep, Emde had no choice.

He snatched a bottle of liquid nutrition, guzzled it down, stepped into the pedals and rode past the pain, past his physical limits and past the finish line to the biggest triumph of all: finding no quit in himself.

There were no cheering crowds when Emde finished with a time of 28:23:00, an hour before the next racer, no sum of money, just self-satisfaction and a qualification for the Race Across America; a 10-day race from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.

In fact, cheers were replaced with concern because Emde was so physically drained, he had to be helped off his bike and onto the hotel floor where he began shaking uncontrollably.

Marla cleaned his wounds as he screamed in pain. Finally, she and the crew managed to cool his body temperature and he immediately went to sleep for five hours.

Emde lost seven pounds over 28 hours of racing and two weeks later is still not fully recovered. He said he plans to race again next year to defend his title, but doesn’t know when he will choose to compete in the Race Across America.

For now, he and Marla plan on working at their Spokane-based cycle training and coaching business, Emdesports.com, in the off-season.

Emde said he’s not sure where cycling will take him, but for now, it’s his life. He is known to hop on his bike at 10 p.m. and ride until 3 a.m. The road is peaceful, he says, and he has seen the most beautiful scenery the Inland Northwest has to offer.

Health permitting, he wants to ride until he’s 80 years old, because the way he sees it, he can’t have his students waiting for him on the road.

He has to keep going.