Local support puts Warrior Games cyclist back on bike

An Army soldier will participate Friday in the Warrior Games on a recumbent bicycle that was donated by a Penrose man and rebuilt by a Peyton recumbent specialist after his bike got damaged by airport inspectors, then ruined by a Colorado Springs repair shop.

Sgt. 1st Class Justin Minyard credits the “incredibly selfless” efforts of two strangers for him being able to compete in a 20-kilometer race at the Air Force Academy that kicks off the cycling portion of the Warrior Games, a seven-sport festival for about 220 wounded, injured and ill military personnel running through Saturday in the Springs.

The three-wheel bike owned by Minyard, 31, of Raeford, N.C., had severe damage to lots of major components May 8 when Transportation Security Administration officials failed to properly repack it upon removing it from a foam-filled box as Minyard traveled from Raleigh, N.C., to Dallas to the Springs. When Minyard arrived at baggage claim, “the box was open,” he said. “Parts were falling out. I knew there was some significant damage.”

So Minyard took his recumbent the next day to Criterium Bicycles, and the shop fixed all of the broken components. Good as new, he thought – until his first test run. In less than a mile, he started hearing a grinding noise, and the chain on his recumbent, which had been incorrectly routed around a pulley, “acted like a buzz saw,” cutting deep into the frame.

The manufacturer of Minyard’s recumbent, Big Cat Human Powered Vehicles in Florida, didn’t have a replacement Catrike 700R in stock because of the uniqueness of the model and the high demand due to the beginning of the cycling season. And Minyard figured his Warrior Games debut would have to wait, nearly 10 years after he suffered spinal trauma as one of the first responders to the Pentagon during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In stepped John Cunningham, the owner of Recumbent Brothers Cycles, a one-man show that resembles a hobby more than a business for the Navy veteran who was in New York the morning of Sept. 11. Cunningham also was out of Catrike 700Rs, having sold his last one to a friend, Doug Barnett, a week earlier. He called Barnett, telling him of Minyard’s story, and Barnett never hesitated in bringing his recumbent to Cunningham on May 11.

Over hours and hours, Cunningham disassembled Barnett’s recumbent, which retails for $3,050, then took the essential components from Minyard’s damaged recumbent, such as the lightweight rear wheel, and put them on Barnett’s frame. The recumbent made for the 5-foot-10, 160-pound Barnett, 63, became a racing machine for the 6-foot-8, 195-pound Minyard, who has topped 50 mph during 180 miles of training rides the past week.

“These two guys turned a completely hopeless situation into an incredible opportunity for me to race,” said Minyard, who can’t walk more than 45 minutes, despite multiple spinal operations to fix a condition that was worsened by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Minyard tried paying Cunningham and Barnett for their services – parts and labor totaled more than $1,000, and Cunningham has agreed to ship Minyard’s revamped recumbent to Washington, where Minyard will open a six-day ride May 30 to Virginia Beach, Va. But Minyard was met with a “straight, outright refusal. Their only request was that I win” the Warrior Games. “To some people, it’s just a bike,” he said. “For me, it’s much more.”

“There was no way I was going to charge him anything,” said Cunningham, who also has redone a recumbent this week for Army Spec. Mark Gilmore after his bike was damaged. “It’s a labor of love. … Here was a kid that needed some help, and we could help him.”

Loaning his recumbent to Minyard was “the right thing to do,” said Barnett, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a 2003 cycling accident that nearly left him paralyzed. “I may have given Justin a bike, but the satisfaction I feel is the payback. That’s all that’s necessary. … He’ll be faster on it than I am. Maybe he deserves that bike more than I do.”

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