Did anyone notice the bike Sarah Reinertsen was on during IMH? I don’t know much about the mechanical side of her prosthetic but the bike she was on sure didn’t help her bike split! Our friends on this forum could really help her out!
And, the guy who walked his bike 6-miles and then finished IHM- WOW!
Well, I don’t know much about Sarah, however i would venture that she has funding from challanged athlete programs.
As far as the ‘guy who broke his bike’, he was rewarded for his efforts with new bike compliments of Cannondale at the awards dinner. It was pretty cool.
That was very cool of Cannondale. Similar thing happened in Muncie in 1996. Two Checz guy got hit by a car a few days before the race. Trek and Zip replaced their entire bike after the race.
And, I just heard the guy with the ‘broke’ bike was hit by a moto. Sorry, I missed that on the NBC show.
That’s ok, i’m not sure if they showed it on the NBC show, i only know because i was at the awards dinner 
.
Hey, that girl, Sarah, works for the Challenged Athletes Foundation in San Diego and they have gobs of money and support athletes with disabilities. They are pretty closely tied with triathlon (Tinley’s wife runs it) so I’m guessing the bike (as well as her fake leg) is pretty much dialed in to her. Maybe it was her training that slowed her bike split — just like the rest of us! Or else may be it was her disability that limited her first go at IMH.
“That was very cool of Cannondale.”
it was half cool / half business for cannondale, i’m guessing. sarah is a friend of mine, and she comes up here to train every now and then. her original bike was REALLY bad. i explained this to herbert at ABG and he sent her out a QR. now THAT was cool, because herbert had no package in front of him, no expectation of a TV show at kona, nothing but his and his company’s knowledge of a need. there was no fanfare, no press release, no expectation that it would come back to them.
if you’ll notice over the years, whether it’s alexandra paul, or TV reporters, or whomever, they just about always ended up in kona on a kestrel, if they were invited by the organizers and were likely to be part of the TV production. this is because kestrel was the licensee. i remember when the cute san diego TV anchor girl was part of the show (lauren something) and she was basically taken off her QR and put on a kestrel, which sort of pissed me off at the time.
now c’dale is the licensee. i don’t know exactly how it went down, and who contacted whom, what was discussed, recommended, offered, strongly encouraged, i just don’t know. and i don’t think anyone did anything wrong. my reason for posting is to clarify–if you want to point to a company that did something entirely for the reasons you’d like to think were in play here, ABG did so, and did not ask for credit, and has not complained that it got no credit.
as to her set up on her c’dale, or her QR (a tequilo i think it was), sarah is an interesting case. she has two $30,000 legs, one for running, one for cycling. yes, this is what CAS does, it provides funds for orthotics like these. she pays for everything else, except for sponsored stuff (also, louis garneau supplied helmet and cycling shoes, on the same basic impulse that herbert was working under). her leg wasn’t amputated, it was withered from birth. so, there’s a lack of musculature all the way up, which makes things really tough for her versus an amputee who’s got “standard” musculature from the trunk/glutes on down. sometimes i think that, for cycling, her leg length on her prosthetic side isn’t long enough. but i’d need to work with her to know.
as to the remark that she ought to be on the hottie thread, that is exactly the truth. there are two kinds of people in this world. the kind that get better looking as you get to know them, and the kind that get uglier the more they speak. sarah starts out hot when you first look at her, and her numerical score climbs from there the more you get to know her. and, she’s absolutely ripped, which never hurts.
I like that Herbert guy.
her leg wasn’t amputated, it was withered from birth. so, there’s a lack of musculature all the way up, which makes things really tough for her versus an amputee who’s got “standard” musculature from the trunk/glutes on down. sometimes i think that, for cycling, her leg length on her prosthetic side isn’t long enough. but i’d need to work with her to know.
Sarah is an amputee… she was born with a tissue disorder which resulted in a limb deficiency and her left leg was amputated above the knee when she was 6 or 7 so that she could be fitted with a prosthetic. I believe she told some of the story on the IM show. Regardless, because of that she doesn’t really have any quads or hamstring to speak of. If you could find a way to help her utilize the muscles on the left side of her body (what remains of her quads, hams and glutes) and make her prosthetic limb more effective I’m sure the benefit would be huge for her because right now it looks like essentially she’s doing a one-leg drill for 112 miles. Can you imagine doing that?!
Watching her miss the cut-off brought a tear to my eye.
You are sure right about Sarah being a hottie and a stud. Chatted with her at Wildflower this year and she is really something. A great role model for all athletes to look up to (“challenged” or not).
“Sarah is an amputee”
yes, i should’ve clarified, sarah is an amputee for similar reasons that rudy is an amputee. my intention was to describe the challenge sarah has that those don’t have whose musculature is fully developed, and has lost a leg via some element of trauma. i used to ride with jim pennsyres on wednesdays when i lived in san diego county, and he lost a leg just above the knee in vietnam. but you’d better be on your game when riding with him, or he’ll whip your butt.
{it was half cool / half business for cannondale,}-reply
i think it was all cool. a lot of bike companies could have stepped up to the plate that were in kona (includiing ABG i presume) but they didn’t. sure it doesn’t hurt cannondale’s image but they didn’t have to do it. and nobody else did.
Yeah, from seeing Sarah ride it seems to me that she’s basically one legging it. I believe that amputees who were previously fully developed have a more balanced pedal stroke. Her right leg is ripped!!
The bike looked like a custom painted pinkish C’dale road bike with clip-ons.
Sarah is definitely a hottie. No doubt, and totally ripped. I’ve got a crush.
{a lot of bike companies could have stepped up to the plate that were in kona (includiing ABG i presume) but they didn’t. sure it doesn’t hurt cannondale’s image but they didn’t have to do it. and nobody else did.
We did not step up to the plate indeed in Kona, we helped her out and sent her a new QR Tequilo earlier this summer for the 2004 season.
Herbert
QR / Litespeed
Below is a pic of her very happy with her QR.
I’m with Slowman on this. The publicity Cannondale got over “giving” him a new bike far outweighs the cost for them to have done it.
Cannondale had a few people on the pink custom-painted Ironman 6000s - including Sarah, Lokelani McMicheal and Tracey Richardson (who posts here…) Good of them to do, and smart from a marketing perspective to boot.
They also sponsored Ryan Suttor (another smart move), I’m sure that will bring out the haters in this forum…
her leg wasn’t amputated, it was withered from birth. so, there’s a lack of musculature all the way up, which makes things really tough for her versus an amputee who’s got “standard” musculature from the trunk/glutes on down. sometimes i think that, for cycling, her leg length on her prosthetic side isn’t long enough. but i’d need to work with her to know.
Sarah is an amputee… she was born with a tissue disorder which resulted in a limb deficiency and her left leg was amputated above the knee when she was 6 or 7 so that she could be fitted with a prosthetic. I believe she told some of the story on the IM show. Regardless, because of that she doesn’t really have any quads or hamstring to speak of. If you could find a way to help her utilize the muscles on the left side of her body (what remains of her quads, hams and glutes) and make her prosthetic limb more effective I’m sure the benefit would be huge for her because right now it looks like essentially she’s doing a one-leg drill for 112 miles. Can you imagine doing that?!
Watching her miss the cut-off brought a tear to my eye.
I wondering about that. So all of her power/pedaling is essentially done with one leg?
It was sad to see her not make the cutoff, hopefully she will make it next year.
Please pass on our congratulations and our thanks to this amazing woman. Just getting to the start line of an Ironman is impressive for any athlete and even more so when it’s Kona and when you have so many obstacles. We all know that she will finish this race one day and the finish line will be so much more sweet because of how difficult it was for her.
Kudos to QR and any company that helps out athletes in need, whether they’re getting publicity or not.
D.
Quick question: Does anyone know if Sarah plans on doing Kona again, perhaps in 2005? I would love to see her give it another go!
Did sarah qualify for KONA or did she get in via dif way. Ethier way an amazing story and someone we should all look up to.
Dan