Crossing the country for charity
Ed Kross never thought twice about bicycling from his Framingham home to visit his aunt Helen -- in Erie, Pa.
``It's only a 2 1/2-day trip," said the 47-year-old electrical engineer. He looks at each mega - ride as a time to relax, even when he's riding cross-country -- the entire country.
Last month, Kross participated in his fifth Race Across America, biking from California to New Jersey. Unlike Tour de France contestants, who ride a set distance per day, the RAAM racers are off with the pop of the starting gun and, as Kross says, ``the last one to the other side of the continent is a rotten egg."
Kross completed four solo RAAM rides between 1992 and 1999; it would have been five, but he fell short by 135 miles of 1997's 3,049-mile route.
So what was his excuse? ``The race in 1997 was one of the hilliest to date, and I don't do so well in the hills," he said.
In last month's race, Kross was part of a four-man relay team, Athletes Racing for Charity, with Ralf Geiben, 36, of Newton; Eric Jensen, 36, of Falmouth; and Patrick Autissier, 43, of Belmont. They finished second in their 12-team category by riding the 3,052 miles from Oceanside, Calif., to Atlantic City in 6 days, 13 hours and 6 minutes.
``Ed is an ultramarathon racer, I'm a road racer, which is quite different in style; he can sustain long rides at a set speed. In my case it's more high speed for a short term," said Geiben, who added that he was racing in his dreams for a week and a half after they crossed the finish line in New Jersey.
Team ARC divided into two pairs. Over a four-hour shift, Kross alternated 20-minute spurts with another rider; then they retired to an accompanying van to sleep, eat, and relax. The van's crew included two massage therapists, a nurse, and ``others versed in everything necessary to keep the whole party moving across the country," said Kross.
One of his most exciting moments during the race came not from speed or scenery, but in meeting Jonathan ``Jacques" Boyer , the first American to ride the Tour de France, in 1981, and the solo winner of the 1985 Race Across America. When Kross saw the name ``Boyer" on the racing jersey ahead of him, he pedaled alongside, introduced himself to the 51-year-old legend, and said, ``It's great to see you still have it after all these years!"
Kross and his teammates used the race to raise money for Partners in Health , which provides care to the underprivileged worldwide, and the Nashoba Learning Group, which helps families cope with autism.
If not for his mildly weathered hands and a few character lines across his forehead, Kross could easily be mistaken for a man more than a decade younger. He's 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds.
``My basic diet has a pretty good variety," he said. ``I just love steaming up a whole bowl of vegetables, but I do eat way too much junk-- like muffins."
Kross does no formal training for his races.
Both skill and luck have played a role throughout his riding career. Kross has taken the occasional spill in a few local races, and gone over the handlebars just once (on a mountain bike). He claims never to have suffered that bane of occasional bikers, the sore buttocks. Kross attributes many of the problems cyclists have with riding style, like leaving all of their weight in the saddle for too long without standing.
He was once hit by a car -- when he wasn't moving. It was in 1991, on his way to see Aunt Helen in Erie, when he was rear-ended at a four-way intersection in Buffalo.
``It was a very slow hit, but the wheel collapsed and put the bike out of commission for a few hours," said Kross. Police gave him a ride to a bike shop for repairs. It didn't cramp his style, either: Soon after he won a 515-mile qualifying race for the Race Across America. ``It was done in 42-mile loops and took me just over 30 hours," he said.
Kross got his first real racing bike, a 10-speed, when he was a high school freshman.
His grandfather had died and left his family some money. ``My mother wanted me and my brother and sister to have something to remember him by and bought bicycles for each of us," he said.
Kross said he tends to be a loner, which is how he got into long-distance cycling in the first place. An avid cross-country skier, Kross joined a ski club in North Conway, N.H. He keeps a footlocker there in the summer and rides up on weekends. Kross starts the 150-mile ride at sunrise and finishes close to sunset.
Throughout his years of biking , only one incident stands out as being extremely odd: One afternoon, while riding up a hill in the Central Massachusetts town of Hubbardston, he heard a car approaching from behind and a dog barking. ``The next thing I knew I saw a dog jump through the car window and fly in the air toward me." Dumbfounded, Kross said, he got off his bike and stood behind it. ``The dog finally got up, looked back at me and remembered why he'd jumped out the window." But by then the dog had lost the element of surprise.
It's a mere 48 miles from his home to his office in Beverly, but Kross usually drives. A single guy, he often has something going on after work.
After all, there is more to life than pedaling.
To make a donation to support Team Athletes Racing for Charity, log onto www.team-arc.org. AROUND THE TOWNS: Rebecca Valette, a professor emerita of French at Boston College, was recently named by the French government as Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Her husband, Jean-Paul Valette, was promoted to the rank of officier. The Newton residents have written French textbooks that are among the most widely used in American classrooms. L'Ordre des Palmes Académiques was founded by Napoleon in 1808 to recognize accomplishments in scholarship . . . . In another Continental honor, the queen of England has named Terri Evans of Natick as an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire. Evans had served as a vice consul for Great Britain, helping to handle its political, press, and public affairs in Boston, from June 1991 until March.
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