Tragedy At Bike Race
 

The New York Post Online
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/55539.htm
By JAMIE SCHRAM and BILL HOFFMANN

October 17, 2005 -- A veteran cyclist racing for charity on FDR Drive yesterday fell off his bicycle and died minutes later, police said.

Kurt Marino, 47, plummeted to the pavement at 8:10 a.m., shortly after he and thousands of other cyclists started north on the FDR from the South Street Seaport.

Paramedics found him unconscious and not breathing near East Houston Street and rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A preliminary investigation revealed Marino, a bachelor who lived in Cos Cob, Conn., may have had a seizure, police sources said.

The 30-mile MS Bike Tour to benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society was one of many charity events Marino had participated in over the years, his friends said.

"This is quite a shock. He was a very good athlete," said Steve Johnson, a member of the Tokeneke Race Club in Darien, Conn., to which Marino belonged.

"He'd been racing actively in New England for the past five or 10 years. The weather never bothered him."

Just a week ago, Marino had competed in a 38-mile race in Jamestown, R.I., in which he placed 23rd in the 45-and-older category.

"I rode with him in that race. He was very fit," said his friend, Richard Shear.

Mike Smallidge, who also raced with Marino, said he was recognized as a Category 3 biker out of categories 1 through 5, with 1 being the best.

"He was a really good athlete and had been racing for a long time. It gets harder and harder as you get older," Smallidge told The Post.

It's not a race damn it! Maybe for the 10 people up front but for everyone else, it's a ride.

The ignorant masses, known as Americans, assume two cyclists together is a race.

Wearing a helmet?

In a similar vein of grossly generalizing, how 'bout dem ignorant cyclists? Put two cyclists who are total strangers together and more often than not at least one of them thinks he's in a dang race and must "drop" the other. Sometimes its not even necessary to have a second cyclist as a catalyst to stimulate an irrational need for speed.

To return to the thread subject; this article is about death at a relatively young age that is only tangentially related to cycling.

I also noticed they say it was 30 miles. And that he was a "biker"... Was he on a Harley?

I wonder if there is a picture of him anywhere I must have seen him in Jamestown.

Yeh, that is misleading. There were 3 possible distances to choose from: 30, 60 or 100 miles.

I was in that tour yesterday and I was in the group of approximately 30 guys at the front doing the 100 mile course. At times it felt like a race, but it was a ride even for the fastest guys.

Sue the organizers right away! They should be held liable.

Yeah, the straps were too tight and it gave him a stroke.

Which one were you?
I was in the lead group of 7 or 8 till mile 60 or so. At around mile 75 (i think, right before the last rest stop) I was 2nd but I had to drop by the last rest stop, they kept going, you must've seen me when you passed me.
I was the idiot that when the cop pulled us over in piermont said, "there's 30 of us and 1 of him.. come on, we can take him."

Sue the helmet manufacturer too!

Can't. The disclaimers that come with the helmet clearly state the helmet won't or can't protect in all or any impacts.

Buy a helmet, put it on and you're consenting to possible injury.

Looks like he was.

My pneumo doesn't say that. And whatever you said is so broad, hell that means your insurance won't protect you against ALL incidents either, and yet you're still dumb enough to have insurance.
Condoms don't say they 100% protect against disease either. I love how people like to play with words to prove a stupid point.

"All or any?" Give me a break. Show me this disclaimer please.

Because NO ONE makes a claim to protect against 100% of all impacts, you're the only one who seems to be the one making the accusation that helmets protect against all impacts. And conversely, no one clearly states that a helmet does not protect against ANY impact. If I can pay 20 bucks for a cheap piece of foam to increase protection from 0% to even 1%, it's worth it. So yeah, you want to sound so righteous and correct, please provide 1 bit of evidence that helmets provide 0% protection against impact. Right now, show me.

Sorry, if you ever have kids, I hope they never wear a helmet, never use a seatbelt, airbag, condom (someone apparently made that mistake?), etc. You shouldn't have a problem with that considering none of those things are proven to protect against ALL incidents right?

Spoken like a true New Yorker. Much better than the t-shirt sold all over the city. You know the one, all black, with big white letters...

"NYPD - Get on the ground?"

US Govt' and CSPC says it had a warning. I think it goes to show how careful some are at understanding what it is they buy even when it comes with explainations.


Actually "all" is good enough to cover "any".

Doesn't matter anyway. It looks like he was, and it looks like it didn't. Not a new story.

I was just wondering.

Nope. The only word on there suitable for this forum is "You".

Dead guy. Random. Sad. It has nothing to do with anyone having some stupid chip on thier collective shoulder.

Stop being dorks.

QFT!

I'm fairly certain that we were in Nyack when the cop pulled us over. I was the guy who questioned the cop about his insistance that we ride single file. I thought we should be able to ride two abreast which is the ny state law. He informed us that the law in Nyack is single file. I don't believe local law can supercede state law, but I just wanted to get moving. We were going at a good pace up until that point.

I bonked at about mile 90 and suffered horribly that last 10 miles so if I did pass you at the last stop, you probably passed me soon after that. I couldn't keep up and it seemed like everyone was passing me then. I should have eaten more.

HAHAHA nice. I haven't been to the tourist parts of town in a while, I should find that shirt.

I remember it happened soon after the descend into piermont, but piermont's pretty small, you might be right. I think I remember who you are, I thought u were a tour marshall or something.
The cool thing about being in the front is, we had a pace car and I think nyack sent out a police SUV to escort us, esp. since the pace car decided to wait at the next rest stop for everyone else and we just kept going. It'll be great, about 1/2 a mile before every turn or intersection, this SUV would gun it and blaze by us at like 70 on the other side of the road and stop traffic. The looks on the driver's faces were priceless, it was like, "that's it? the police cut off 4 lanes of traffic for 8 guys?!"

edit: deleted what I wrote cause it was wrong. ;)

Al

Actually, "Tragedy at Bike Race" was the title of the NY Post article. The forum member just inserted the Post's title into the thread title.