Cyclists helping one of their own
A tale of ultimate survival and human kindness, Damian Lopez Alphonso's story is one that needs to be told. He's not only captured the hearts of those he's met and raced with; he's inspired an outpouring of support from the cycling community at large.
At age 13, while trying to retrieve a kite caught on an electrical wire in his native Cuba, Damian Lopez Alphonso was electrocuted with 13,000 volts of electricity - the voltage equivalence of what it takes to move a New York City subway car.
He spent 52 days on life support following the accident and has had dozens of surgeries - some life-saving - since his teens. Doctors are still baffled by the fact that he's alive.
But Damian, now 34, hasn't allowed these seeming setbacks to slow him down - literally.
Although he lost both of his hands and uses no adaptive devices, Damian is an accomplished cyclist, who finished first at the Coppa 8 de Marzo Time Trial, second at the Tour of Havana de Este, and third at the Criterium de Havana against some of the best athletes in his region.
He learned to ride his bike by carefully resting the remains of his arms on upturned handlebars.
Tracy Lea, a fellow cyclist and a Team Fuji ambassador, first witnessed this balancing act at the 2002 Pan American Championships in Cuba. Mesmerized by how he could compete without prosthetics and not in the Paralympics realm but against some of the best able-bodied cyclists in the world, Lea decided she wanted to help him in any way she could.
After much lobbying with the Cuban government, Lea secured a visa for Damian, and he arrived in the U.S. on December 6. So when Damian arrived in New York, a brand new Fuji Roubaix ACR was waiting for him, and Lea took him to Echelon Cycles, a Fuji dealer on 8th Avenue in Manhattan, for a full fitting.
With his new bike in tow as well as some new cycling gear provided by Louis Garneau and Hincapie Clothing. Damian set off for the NYU Langone Center.
After undergoing a week of extensive physical and
psychological exams, the NYU doctors determined that Damian is
eligible for prosthetics and facial reconstructive surgery.
... rest of the article is online.