Wild incident highlights Team Laughing Dog's Race Across America

SANDPOINT — Racing around the clock for 3,000 miles, as local cycling enthusiasts Al Lemire, Mel Dick, Jacob Styer and Dean Kyriakos recently did in the Race Across America, a jolt of adrenaline is always a welcome addition.

As team Laughing Dog was pedaling away from Oceanside, Calif., to Annapolis, Md. last week, a journey they finished in seven days and one hour, they received a most unwelcome shot of adrenaline in Virginia that they they will never forget.

As Dick and Lemire were getting ready to make a relay exchange on a rural road, the team van came across an inhospitable host, standing on his porch armed with a shotgun and not shy about using it.

“We encountered somebody in Virginia that didn’t like the race going by his property. He fired a few shots and yelled ‘get the hell off my property,’ ” recalls Lemire, who was only about 150 feet from the porch. “I heard a gun shot, then another, and a couple of the crew members came back and said ‘I think he’s shooting at us.’ I got on my bike and started riding and the crew took off.”

The team alerted race directors, who warned other teams of the incident, and the man was eventually put in jail for the weekend. Nonetheless, it was another reminder that anything can happen while racing across highways in these United States.

“I could hear shots,” says Dick, who was approaching the spot where he would change bikes with Lemire. “Then I see Al take off on his bike.”

Hot weather and a prevailing headwind made for a little more work for the team, but there were also plenty of highlights. Dick said climbing the 10,800 foot Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado was a thrill, while the steep and plentiful hills of West Virginia proved the most challenging.

The team was racing neck and neck with a team from Germany for a rare stretch, as each team exchanged leads during a race where teams are usually spread out by hours and days. The team also got to know riders from other teams from Ireland, Denmark, Germany and Brazil.

Once again, the four riders received a top notch performance from the crew, which was led by Dennis Luce and Kirk Johnson, co-crew chiefs entrusted with the safety of the riders, among many other things. While many of the other four-person teams encountered snafus and problems at some point, Team Laughing Dog breezed along with no real big issues.

“It was amazing teamwork, a bunch of awesome problem solvers,” describes Johnson, a veteran of all three Laughing Dog teams to complete the race. “People just take charge and do things that need to be done. It was very fluid and easy to be around people.”

The crew consists of three people in the R.V, where the riders eat and sleep when they’re not pulling a stretch of pavement. There are also two crew members and two riders in each of the two vans, which alternate back and forth every six hours for the entire race. Johnson called it the on-road logistics.

“Where we are, where the rider needs to be, where the RV is, getting all those things matched up,” says Johnson, who called crossing the finish line a relief. “A flood of ‘oh my God, we did it, thank you.’”

Lemire, who along with Styer is now a veteran of two races, said the biggest difference was a welcome tailwind most of the way in 2011, and a nagging headwind this time around. He too described crossing the finish line as a powerful experience.

“Relief that we made it, then it turned to joy,” recalls Lemire. “It was ‘hey, we accomplished this.’”

The team also raised money and awareness for 24 Hours for Hank, a local nonprofit for cystinosis. The teams also wished to thank all of the community members and businesses that helped along the way.

For more information, or to make a donation to 24 Hours for Hank, visit “www.teamlaughingdog.com,” or “www.24hoursforhank.org.”