Cycling dream about to take wing of Kenyan

Partial loss of leg didn't stop rider in Leadville Trail 100

Brian Metzler, Special To The Rocky

Published August 7, 2007 at midnight

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LEADVILLE - Ibrahim Wafula might be the only rider in Saturday's Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race who won't mind if it rains.

After all he has been through, and what it has taken to get him to the starting line, he wouldn't let a summer shower dampen his mood.

The 27-year-old perpetually optimistic Kenyan with a brand new prosthetic leg will be riding a secondhand Cannondale, but he's not one of those just hoping to finish. His goals are to finish in fewer than 10 hours, enjoy the spectacular scenery and spread a powerful message to disabled people around the world.

"When I was young, my mother told me, 'You're just like everyone else,' " says Wafula, who lost part of his right leg in a car accident in Nairobi when he was 7. "She always said, 'You can do.' She would always encourage me to do things, and that is why I work so hard."

As a teenager, Wafula started riding a homemade bike as a means of transportation, keeping his disfigured right leg bent while pedaling only with his left. It was awkward at first, but eventually, he became proficient at it. Besides, it beat hobbling around on the steel crutch his mother had given him, and it allowed him to live a more active and independent life.

Still, he didn't consider his growing cycling prowess an athletic skill until he happened upon a bike race in Nairobi about 10 years ago. While watching the race from the side of a road, he assisted a cyclist who had stopped to fix a flat tire - and a light bulb went on in his head.

"I knew that's what I wanted to do," he said.

Within a week, he entered a 50-mile race and finished 20th in the field of 130 able-bodied riders. He entered more races and started gaining recognition, around Nairobi and throughout Kenya. He became good enough to start winning money, enough to buy a new bike and donate his old one.

"Bicycling has changed my life," says Wafula, a devout Muslim who lives in a one-room apartment in Nairobi with his wife, 12-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. "It's helped me start a new chapter in my life, have new experiences and meet new friends."

When first approached about an amputee entering the Leadville Trail 100, race director Ken Chlouber was skeptical.

"I said, 'No, partner, you can't do this race on one leg,' " Chlouber said. "Boy, did I get chastised for that. My son had heard the conversation and said, 'Dad, you've never told anybody they can't do it - in fact, much the opposite.' So I called him back and said, 'Look, if you want to give it a try, we'll help you in any way we can.' "

Wafula knows he'll have his work cut out for him Saturday. He has spent most of the past eight months living at sea level near Washington, D.C., in the home of friend and fellow Leadville entrant Eric Brewer, whom he met last year in Kenya.

The two were introduced via e-mail by a mutual friend who was aware of Brewer's passion for cycling and suggested he should take a trip and go on a bike tour with Wafula. At the time, Brewer was spending his days in a cubicle working as a contractor for the Environmental Protection Agency and was desperate for a life-changing experience.

During their two-day, 200-mile journey from Nairobi to Tanzania, Brewer learned about Wafula's aspirations of competing in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, as well as his desire to improve the bicycling conditions on the dangerous streets of Nairobi. But even more importantly, he discovered the depth of Wafula's character and his sincere desire to help, inspire and educate disabled people in his country.

"We'd stop in these small towns, and children would gather around us and the people would come out of their homes," Brewer said. "And I could sense what a commanding person he was. He was eager to talk to people (about) his situation and encouraged people not to look at disabled people as being different or people that couldn't have jobs."

When Brewer left Africa, he was so inspired that he quit his job and started a video production business. He also made up his mind to do whatever he could to help his new friend fulfill his dream of cycling in the U.S.

So when he got an e-mail in October from Tony Simons, Wafula's employer in Kenya, saying that Wafula was en route to San Diego and hoping to complete the bike course of a triathlon organized by the Challenged Athletes Foundation, Brewer flew out the next morning to meet Wafula's flight.

At the race, Wafula met Elliot Weintrob, a former Olympic paddler who has become a renowned designer of prosthetics. Weintrob offered to make him a specially fitted prosthesis, but it would require Wafula to have surgery to amputate the rest of his right leg up to his knee.

At first, Wafula was hesitant, but when Dr. Christopher Attin- ger, the director of the Wound Healing Center at Georgetown University Hospital, told him that he'd be able to derive more power and ultimately become a better mountain biker, Wafula was all for it.

He had the surgery in February and received his new leg in March.

With the exception of the surgery and the prosthetic leg, both of which were donated, Brewer has financed virtually all of Wafula's experience in the U.S. He took him into his house in suburban Washington and gave him a taste of American culture while also trying to generate sponsors for his friend's cause.

The day after they arrived in Colorado, Brewer bought Wafula a secondhand bike that he found on craigstlist.com. They've been staying in the Dillon home of Kevin and Pam Minard, an opportunity that was volunteered through a series of e-mail connections less than a month ago. Local riders have donated gear and apparel, and a friend of Brewer's donated enough airline miles to cover Wafula's plane ticket across the country.

"A lot of people have been very generous to make this happen," Brewer said. "It wasn't necessarily the time to take on such a big financial responsibility after starting a new company and not having a regular paycheck. But even though I'm dead broke, I look at it as, 'This is the path I'm supposed to be on.' If I can't do anything with the gifts I've received to help someone else, then what am I doing here?"

Since arriving in Summit County on July 20, Wafula and Brewer have been on their bikes almost every day, once riding a 45-mile section of the Leadville course. They also entered a local race to get used to the lack of oxygen at higher altitudes. Now it's time to follow Wafula's optimism to the finish line.

"I'm so very, very happy to be here and have this opportunity to ride in Leadville," says Wafula, who has learned to speak English since arriving in the U.S. "My aim is to ride my bike all over the world."

If you go

• What: The Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race is staged on a 50-mile out-and-back course along dirt roads and trails of the Upper Arkansas River Valley.

• When/where: It will start with a shotgun blast at 6:30 a.m. Saturday in the historic downtown section of Leadville and send 750 riders to a high point of 12,600 feet at the turnaround point at Columbine Mine.

• Awards: Riders finishing in fewer than nine hours receive a large gold and silver belt buckle, while those finishing before the 12-hour cutoff receive a smaller silver finisher's buckle.

• 2006 champions: Gunnison's Dave Wiens won in 7 hours, 13 minutes. Lakewood's Joan Miller (9:09) was the top female.

• Contenders: Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong said through a spokesperson Friday afternoon he won't compete in this year's race after all, citing a scheduling conflict. Embattled 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis, a 1993 junior national mountain bike champion, will compete as planned, with competition likely coming from Wiens, the race's four-time defending champion, and 24-hour solo national champion Nat Ross of Vail, among others.

• For your viewing pleasure: There are several good places to watch the race, including the start/finish line at Sixth and Harrison in Leadville; the west side of Turquoise Lake (accessible from County Road 4); and Twin Lakes Dam near the small settlement of Balltown (just west of the intersection of U.S. 24 and Highway 82).

• Details, maps: Visit leadvilletrail100.com.

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