A tip of the helmet to bike ride organizers and volunteers

John at the first food and water stop on the Kootenai Gran Fondo.

Let's tip our bike helmets to some folks who never get much recognition: the organizers and volunteers who make bike rides happen. I was especially impressed with John Weyhrich and the effort he puts into organizing the Kootenai Gran Fondo.

John has been a competitive bike racer for about 30 years and thought it his duty to give back to his sport, a commendable inclination that too many of us neglect. The result can be the disappearance of part of that sport, like what happened to the Old Puget Sound Beach Rugby Football Club, the club I and many of my contemporaries neglected after we stopped playing. It was absorbed into the Seattle Rugby Club and that into the Seattle Saracens.

John did much of his training in the mountains around Libby, Montana, and saw that it was an area that could use some outside help. So he decided to put on the Kootenai Gran Fondo, which this year contributed money to the Coats for Kids program in Libby, to the Special Olympics in Eureka, MT., and to a food for kids program in Troy, MT.

John is a veterinarian in Bozeman, MT, which is almost 400 miles from Libby. Organizing a bike ride from afar cannot be an easy task, but John has pulled it off for four years now.

Volunteers at the food and water stations came from the groups that benefit from the ride, and John gets help from these folks:

Bill Cochran fixing a flat on my bike.

Course Prep and gear: James and Andrew Mepham
Mechanical Support: Bill Cochran
Medical Consultant: Gregory Rice. M.D.
Libby Liaisons: Pamela Peppenger and Susie Rice
Registration: Kathy Ponto and Tasha Patrin

Thanks to all of you for putting on a great ride. See you next year.