Men's Cycling

Optimist Club impacts 25 years worth of children (03/12/10)
Twenty-five years ago this week, a group of locals came together to make a difference for youth. Since then, thousands of young people in Le Mars have been reached by the Le Mars Optimist Club. "We've made an impact," said Jerry Haack, founding president of the club. "Over the past 20-some years, we've touched every kid in this town in a positive way."...

Cyclists hope bike safety bill pedals through Legislature (03/04/10)
Last year a Plymouth County woman was hurt after being struck by a beer can while riding her bicycle along a country road. Erin Schroeder still gets butterflies in her stomach when she climbs on her bike. She hopes a proposed bicycle safety bill in the Iowa House of Representatives moves forward to help protect cyclists on the roadways...

RAGBRAI to start in Sioux City (02/01/10)
It was close but no banana seat bike for Le Mars for the northwest Iowa overnight stop of RAGBRAI. Announced Saturday, the route of this year's Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa will kick off from Sioux City and run 442 miles with overnights in Storm Lake, Algona, Clear Lake, Charles City, Waterloo, Manchester and the final overnight in Dubuque...

Rewind 2009: The good, the bad and the blizzard (12/30/09)
Editor's note: This is the first of two stories recapping 2009's top stories in the Daily Sentinel. Mother Nature put a wet (or white) blanket on Plymouth County's Christmastime plans, nailing northwest Iowa with more than a foot of snow and winds that lowered visibility and drifted roads shut. ...

When life was simple: Fitzgerald recalls pony carts and hand-me-downs (12/03/09)
Editors Note: This story is the first in a weekly series looking back at life decades ago and remembering a time when people's lifestyle was very different than today. Was life simpler when $1 bought four gallons of gas or during the Great Depression when it cost less to use corn as fuel than sell it or when children played baseball instead of computer games?...

Local fitness business owners get building into shape (11/27/09)
Getting fit doesn't always have to mean jogging. That's the idea behind the two new fitness businesses opening up in a building on Business Highway 75. In The Rhythmz Health and Fitness and Raise the Bar Fitness began business this month in a building that was formerly home to Bomgaars and later Dollar General, just south of the Le Mars Truck Stop...

Olympic champion returns to roots: Jennie Finch headlines Pink Ribbon Night (10/30/09)
You won't find too many natives of Southern California who enjoy the smell of a cattle farm. But Jennie Finch is not your typical California girl. "It's funny how you appreciate the smell of cows and cornfields," said Finch, a softball pitcher for Team USA and a two-time Olympian, said in Le Mars Thursday. ...

Cycling club adds bike racks downtown (09/16/09)
The Plymouth County Cyclists Club is installing more places to lock up bikes around downtown Le Mars this month. The club has ordered 12 bike poles to install downtown along Central Avenue. The bike poles are a metal pole with a ring on top that allows two bikes to be locked...

Holy rolling for hunger: Pastors cycle across U.S. (08/05/09)
A group of pastors are fighting hunger, but not from the pulpit. Instead of waiting for people to come to church, they're bringing the message to them on a bamboo bicycle built for three. Hitting every corner of the country, three Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) pastors and their support team from West Virginia put thousands of miles behind them to raise awareness of world hunger and how people can respond...

Journey is over but adventure is not for Morrow (07/21/09)
Le Mars native Hugh Morrow's journey from China to the United States and most of the way back is finished, but he's far from slowing down. From Xiamen, in the People's Republic of China, Morrow sent word of his latest venture -- book writing. "I will be publishing a series of children's adventure books that will introduce Chinese culture to the west. ...

Bicyclists can now pedal in marked roadway lanes (07/09/09)
Bicycle lanes are showing up on streets throughout Le Mars. The 5-foot-wide paths are part of the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) project to make city streets safer for bicyclists. Dr. Wayne Marty, a Plymouth County Cyclist member, and others worked to obtain support from the public and the City of Le Mars to create the bike lanes...

Plymouth County Cyclists sponsor Tour de Plymouth 2009 (06/12/09)
Plymouth County Cyclists announce their second annual invitational bicycle ride, Tour de Plymouth 2009. The ride will be held June 20 during Le Mars Ice Cream Days. Registration for the ride is from 7 to 8 a.m. in the Hy-Vee parking area at 1201 12th Ave. S.W. in Le Mars...

Skateboarder, rock band, more on the way to Ice Cream Days (06/05/09)
Professional free style skateboarder Tim Byrne, BMX pro biker Vic Murphy, hip-hop entertainer Heath McNease and rock band Me in Motion will be lighting up Olson Cultural Event Center Friday, June 19, during Ice Cream Days. The free show runs from 6:30 to 10 p.m...

Bicyclists plan Ride of Silence in Le Mars (05/18/09)
This week Le Mars area cyclists will have the opportunity to participate in the annual Ride of Silence Wednesday evening, May 20. The Ride of Silence is a slow-paced bicycle ride that will occur in hundreds of locations world wide to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways...

Ride your bike: It's cheap and it's cool (05/13/09)
Biking is a realistic choice for transportation. And a cool one. Plymouth County Cyclists brought this message to students from Kissinger and Kluckhohn Elementary schools Tuesday. Club member Wayne Marty demonstrated the physics of how much less energy it takes to transport one person by bicycle versus by car...

Florida cyclist puts in $500 to help hit-and-run victim (05/04/09)
A Florida man is willing to put up $500 of his own money to help find the individual who threw a full beer can at cyclist Erin Schroeder and caused her bike to crash on a Plymouth County road. Joe Mizereck, an avid cyclist in Tallahassee, Fla., came across Schroeder's story online...

Bike club offers reward for information on cycle crash (04/27/09)
She remembers the car whizzing by her bicycle on K-64. She remembers a huge impact on her left side. She was struck by a full can of beer and maybe a car. Then her memory goes black. The next thing Erin Schroeder saw as she regained consciousness sprawled in the lane of oncoming traffic, was a full can of beer, spinning around on the pavement...

Stabbing trial begins for Velarde (12/10/08)
When Josh Thompson first saw Christopher Velarde at a bar on April 27, 2008, Velarde complimented Thompson on his New York Yankees baseball cap. The next date the two men would see the hat was in court as a piece of crime scene evidence that would link them together...

Bikers to deliver toys to local children (12/04/08)
A line of motorcycles stretched over the horizon, the rumble of a hundred V-twin engines made cattle in the fields wonder what could cause such a ruckus. The biker group traveled over 100 miles through farmland and winding roads of the Loess Hills -- followed the whole way by a truck loaded to the brim with children's toys...

Daily Sentinel welcomes Geleynse as co-sports editor (11/19/08)
All the way from a state where agriculture means apples, carrots and blueberries, Jesse Geleynse is joining the staff at the Le Mars Daily Sentinel as co-sports editor. Geleynse grew up playing baseball and soccer in Mount Vernon, Wash., about an hour north of Seattle...

Group wants to address dangerous pedestrian spots (09/26/08)
Colleen Bortscheller spends a lot of time biking. She likes cycling to work or heading to the recreation trail for a ride. But one place she doesn't like to bike is 12th Street Southwest in Le Mars. "I think it's very hazardous, not only for students walking or biking to school, but also adults," Bortscheller said...

Roadblocks coming down on rec trail progress (09/23/08)
The completion of the 9-mile recreation trail around Le Mars is on the horizon after being pushed back more than a year. The walking and biking trail, which stretches from the south near Wells' Dairy's corporate campus north beyond the little league ball diamonds, then east around the golf course, still has a segment to be completed...

Racers battle for place in Le Mars triathlon (09/08/08)
It was a close finish at the second annual Le Mars Sprint Triathlon. The winner, Darin Wadley, 38, of Vermillion, S.D., finished in less than an hour with Jourdan Clark, 17, of Freemont, Neb., following only two seconds behind him at 58:20 to claim second place...

Trail paves the way for recreation (08/08/08)
Delores Lancaster regularly walks on a recreation trail looping around Le Mars. And she's not the only one. People jogging, walking, biking, exercising dogs, in-line skating -- all use the trail. Even though it isn't complete yet, officials are working to finish its final section, which will complete the nearly 9-mile circuit...

Pedal power: How bike-friendly is Le Mars? (08/08/08)
Around the nation, store managers are reporting that more people are picking up bikes to get around. At Wal-Mart in Le Mars, demand has increased for bicycles lately, according to Don Terry, toy department manager. "More people are wanting to get a bike to bike to work and do in-town riding," he said...

Wanna catch the PIGS? (08/06/08)
A group of tandem bikers will hit Le Mars this weekend. More than 35 duos are signed up for the Paired Iowans Going Somewhere (PIGS) Le Mars rally. If you want to see them pedaling along, you might catch them on these days: Friday, Aug. 8th 5 p.m. depart Holiday Inn Express in Le Mars along bike trail heading toward Ice Cream Capital of the World ice cream parlor...

Iowa athletes compete in Beijing for 2008 Olympics (08/05/08)
Iowa may be about 6,000 miles from Beijing, China, but starting this week, Iowa will have a presence in the 2008 Olympic hub. More than 10 athletes from Iowa or with Iowa connections are arriving in the Chinese capital this week to compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics, which run Aug 8-24...

Bike group will make Le Mars see double (08/04/08)
Daniel and Donna Pond enjoy biking together. On the same bike. The Le Mars couple bought a tandem bike three years ago and liked it so much they joined a tandem bike club dubbed Paired Iowans Going Somewhere, or PIGS for short. This month they are inviting PIGS to Le Mars for a three-day bike tour...

Farrer says fair is five best days of summer (07/16/08)
When you think of livestock at the Plymouth County Fair, rabbits and poultry may not be the steer or swine you were imagining. Thirteen-year-old Grady Farrer would disagree. The owner of rabbits, chickens and pheasants, Farrer believes that poultry and rabbits are where the real livestock shows occur...

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