Whether a Stoker or a Captain, It's All In Day's Fun

The sky had been threatening rain all morning Saturday, but that didn't stop about 20 bicyclists from gathering at Eldridge Park for the first Blind Stoker Tandem Bike Ride of the season.

For tandem bike riders, the cyclist in front, called the “captain,” steers, brakes and changes gears. In the back, the “stoker” provides the fuel for the ride, in the form of pedaling power.

All the stokers on the bike ride—a round trip from Elmhurst to Glen Ellyn—are blind.

A few drops began to fall gently, and Rudy Winfrey and Tim Paul, both of Chicago, held out their hands to test just how seriously this might affect the day’s bike ride. 

“The rain’s going to stop,” said Winfrey, a stoker from Chicago. “And if it doesn’t, we’re going to ride in it anyway.”  

Paul agreed.

“It’s just water,” he said.

Dr. John Loesch of Villa Park is a member of the Elmhurst Bicycle Task Force and has coordinated the Blind Stoker Bike Rides for the past 14 years. But Loesch is quick to give credit to special recreation associations, which are traditionally associated with park districts. They provide recreation services to disabled people, and in this instance, they rely on local bicycle enthusiasts to help provide those experiences.

“For 14 years, these rides have been happening in DuPage County,” said Loesch.

Originally, it was the Northeast DuPage Special Recreation Association in Addison that approached another group Loesch is in—Chicago Area Tandem Society—to help coordinate the rides. Loesch volunteered, and has been doing it ever since.  

“Evidently, I’ve been elected for life,” he said, wryly.

“We’ve since brought in the Western DuPage Special Recreation Association which is in Wheaton, and South East Association for Special Parks and Recreation,” he said.

Loesch said the reason he’s committed to the Blind Stoker Tandem Bike Rides is that it melds two things he’s very passionate about. Of course he is a biking enthusiast, often going on weeklong 500 mile tours over the past 20 years. 

“I’m also an optometrist,” he said. “That’s the visual link that got me interested in this. I can help people with glasses and eye disease, but I can’t cure blindness. This is something I can do for them.”

‘You Feel Kind of Free’

The rain was holding off, and Teri Kral from Evergreen Park was almost ready to get on a bike.

“This is my first!” she said, almost giddily. “I’m so looking forward to it.”

Teri heard about it from her friend Maureen, who invited her to come along.

Maureen Heneghen has been attending Blind Stoker Tandem Bike Rides for nine years. 

“I like the fact that I can actually do some bike riding. It’s great exercise. You feel kind of free just to be on a nice bike ride,” she said. “Without this volunteer organization, I certainly wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Despite his blindness, Paul has participated in two Boston Marathons and run two other marathons in Europe. He was in World Ride ’95, a bike ride around the world for people with disabilities.

“It’s done in 14 stages, and I was on the 10th stage,” Paul said. "I went from Ulan Bator, Mongolia, to Beijing. I did about 1,000 miles of biking over a two-week period.”

His friend Winfrey is no stranger to strenuous bike rides either. He’s done between 20 and 30 Blind Stoker Tandem Rides, and each summer, he does a 500-mile trek across Iowa.

“I’m a fanatic,” he said.

Besides biking, Winfrey also studies judo and enjoys cross country skiing.

“If I can do something that people who can see can’t do, it’s a feather in your cap,” he said. “We run into so many different obstacles, adverse situations and conditions. You get stressed out. This helps get rid of a lot of stress, doing something that you like to do. It makes a difference.”