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His title was William Craig Henwood, and he was a gravel bike using machine.
Anyone might attest to that, together with his mom Kristine.
“Craig was a passionate, charismatic, caring and giving human being, and was profitable at his job, and earned the nickname ‘HEMI’ due to his uncooked energy on the bicycle,” Kristine Johnson stated of her son.
However Johnson, alongside together with her husband, former USA Biking President and CEO Stephen Johnson, misplaced Henwood whereas he was racing within the “Rage Towards the Chainring” gravel bike race March 9, 2019 at Cheney Reservoir west of Wichita, Kansas. Henwood was 47.
KAKE Information in Wichita, Kansas reported in 2019, “the Reno County (Kansas) Sheriff’s Office stated Henwood began to float left in entrance of a pack of riders when his bike left the highway and he flipped over the entrance of the handlebars, hitting his head. Though CPR was carried out, Henwood died on the scene. It was unclear whether or not Henwood suffered a medical situation, however one among his pals stated on Fb that he had a stroke.”
“After we misplaced our son, I used to be devastated. It was not wholesome for me to be alone in my automotive driving to accounts,” Kristine stated. “My disappointment and the grief had been too deep.”
“For our household, Craig was THE bike owner of the youngsters. We loved our time using with Craig on the highway, on the mountain bikes and gravel,” Stephen stated. “Craig was type of a monster on a motorcycle. He was a good time trialist, Kansas State Champion, we shared numerous nice instances on a motorcycle.”
Henwood, the “large engine on a bicycle,” and father to youngsters Krystiana and Joey (who just lately accepted at job at NORAD), first confirmed his drive for biking across the age of 15.
Kristine was a single mother again then and had ideas about how she was going to boost Henwood as an adolescent after a dry ice incident involving Henwood and one among his pals. A state trooper neighbor gave Henwood and his pal a “good speaking to” after the incident, she saide, then Kristine stepped in together with her personal approach of managing the scenario.
“I went to Chatfield Excessive and I took him out of college, him nonetheless pissed off at me and (he) requested ‘what are we doing?’ and I stated ‘we’ll determine it out’,” Kristine stated. “And I stated, ‘hey, would you begin using bikes with me?’.
Counterintuitive to all parenting fashions, Kristine rewarded Henwood with a $3,000 bike as a result of she noticed worth in getting him on a motorcycle over him stepping into bother.
Kristine would take her youngsters together with her to work repeatedly, bikes in tow, which she stated became “a summer season of journey” wherever they went. A type of instances was one among his first instances on Independence Move, west of Aspen.
These first rides Kristine took Henwood on started establishing his nickname “HEMI,” and a shared ardour between them.
However Henwood left the mountains of Colorado for the plains of Kansas after going to air visitors management college in Oklahoma, following within the footsteps of his uncle. But Kristine’s first remark to him was, “Oh my God, how are you going to remain match? You are not going to have the climbs?”
However in typical HEMI trend, Henwood discovered loads of rolling hills and interval coaching among the many Kansas plains to remain match. He joined SKC Racing in 2001 and have become a Kansas state champion, well-known for his time trials.
Whereas Henwood was in Kansas, Kristine would journey to race with him, making a well-known mother-son duo at races. “HEMI’s mother is out right here at the moment,” the announcer would say throughout a Criterium race Kristine was racing in. “I even left a bicycle at his residence so I might simply fly in and race.”
Kristine recalled a turning level for Henwood and his subsequent steps with gravel bike racing after an prevalence on what began as a fantastic Kansas morning in 2015. On June 7, 2015, Glenda Taylor — a girl who Kristine knew and raced towards a number of instances — was warming up in a large lane earlier than the Kansas State Time Trial Championships. Glenda was hit from behind by a pickup truck and killed immediately.
“The neighborhood was devastated, and Craig known as me sobbing, absolute sobbing, as a result of these items are unthinkable,” Kristine stated after her son heard the information.
A few weeks later, he known as Kristine once more and stated “mama, I couldn’t sleep all night time. I’ve an thought.”
His thought, create a brand new biking crew. The title, “3 Toes Biking.”
And so they had been to be advocates for bicycle security and schooling of each drivers and riders.
The crew exploded with the assistance of finest pal Jeff Peters and lots of different pals. Between group rides on Tuesday nights and sponsors starting from attorneys to automotive dealerships eager to help their endeavor, 3 Toes Biking took off.
In the meantime throughout that progress in 2017, a sport-revolution was starting in biking. Riders had been gravitating to gravel using and racing. Gravel bicycles turned the primary class of gross sales within the trade.
The Gazette out of doors reporter Seth Boster noted in an article from August 2020: “Bikes marketed for gravel reached about $29 million in gross sales in early 2018, almost tripling the full from the identical interval in 2017, as reported by Bicycle Retailer.”
“This turned a terrific resolution to visitors points and in Kansas, in addition to Colorado, these roads are limitless with little or no visitors,” Kristine stated. “My first gravel experience was with Craig in Kansas and it was not lengthy earlier than Steve and I had been equally addicted, like the three Toes guys turned. It has been an superior revolution.”
Craig and his crew started competing in gravel races and for the 2 years up till March 9, 2019, issues had been cruising alongside.
Henwood traveled to Wichita the day earlier than for “The Rage Towards the Chainring” gravel-race collection. Promoted by Josh Sears and Mark Moener, The Rage is the premiere gravel race in Kansas.
“We spoke on the phone on the eighth, as he was driving to the race,” Kristine stated. “Encouraging him, sure he would do effectively, and informed him to name us the subsequent morning after they had been carried out.”
However that was not the decision Kristine and Steve received on the morning of the ninth.
“I used to be working in my storage early, organizing tennis racquet. I got here again into the home and noticed that I had six missed calls from Kansas, none of which had been his quantity. I knew instantly that one thing was mistaken. I dialed his pal Sean Jackson (who was standing on the ambulance) instantly, once I heard the phrase, emergency. To listen to the phrases, ‘there was an accident’, and ‘Craig didn’t make it’, had been the final phrases I bear in mind as I threw the phone to Steve and started begging him to ‘repair this, please repair this.’ He helplessly spoke to Sean. Our beloved son had died,” Kristine stated.
Kristine’s sobbing took days to cease. The race promoters Sears and Moener thought it was unthinkable that they’d lose a life of their race, too.
“It was unfathomable that it may very well be their good pal and the biking neighborhood of Kansas was shaken to the core. His household, his youngsters, our household had been inconsolable and this was not possible to grasp,” Kristine stated.
Previous to Henwood’s funeral, droves of individuals confirmed up in help, pedaling in an enormous experience in his honor with even state patrol becoming a member of. One younger rider named Justin — who Henwood had taken below his wing by means of a juniors program 3 Toes Biking assist sponsor — couldn’t cease crying and fully devastated.
The HEMI lives on in Colorado
Getting riders off paved roads and onto gravel roads was Henwood’s different ardour. Being pivotal and inspiring “everybody to go gravel,” Kristine stated, had been phrases Henwood introduced out repeatedly.
Kansas was the right backdrop for gravel using promotion as a result of quite a few gravel roads all through the state. Then once more, so was the jap plains of Colorado.
“The massive races begin taking place. UNBOUND, Steamboat Gravel, The Rad (Dust Fest),” Kristine stated. “The blokes who began ‘The Rage Towards the Chainring’ Josh Sears and Mark Moener stated they needed to host a memorial race and name it ‘The HEMI’.”
The primary HEMI in 2019 began out small attributable to it being in Wichita. However Kristine and Steve knew the place biking was going, particularly after competing in The Rad and Steamboat Gravel.
“We found trails out east, out in Elbert, and we’re like ‘oh my God, that is simply utopia’, that is gravel-riding utopia,” Kristine stated. “Plus, there isn’t any higher biking thoughts and expertise than Steve’s.”
Steve is a former world and a number of nationwide champion bike owner and was recruited by USA Biking to create a Excessive Efficiency plan for American biking.
Kristine and Steve offered the thought of renaming, with Sears’ and Moener’s blessing, the “The HEMI Memorial Race” to simply “The HEMI,” but in addition carry it out to Colorado from Kansas.
“Josh and Mark kinda did it (the unique HEMI) on their very own, did not have huge sponsors, and I knew that with our neighborhood, with Steve’s affect and status within the trade, I knew we’d have the ability to create one thing epic,” Kristine stated.
Sears and Moener agreed to maneuver The HEMI to Colorado, however Kristine and Steve did not have the racing background to take the subsequent steps.
A fortuitous assembly between Kristine and Steve and race promoter Dave Muscianisi occurred at a mountain bike race in Bailey, Colorado in 2020.
Kristine’s grandson Kade, then 11, was racing that day in Bailey when Kristine met Muscianisi and Rattler Racing. The Johnsons and Muscianisi shared the identical imaginative and prescient of the place gravel racing was headed and talked about the right way to fold The HEMI into the Colorado neighborhood.
Muscianisi and pal/race director Paul Raemer noticed the pattern in gravel and so they thought it could be enjoyable to take their race skillsets and host a gravel race.
“The inaugural yr was imagined to be 2020 in Salida, which after all was cancelled (COVID pandemic). That summer season we determined to maintain it native and transfer it to Elbert County,” Muscianisi stated. “I’ve heard some say that Highway Biking and Mountain Biking had a child and that is gravel. There’s a larger contingent of parents who take a look at gravel as extra of a problem than a race. It’s for that motive we determined to host Mad Gravel.”
After Kristine’s dialog with Muscianisi, the Johnsons signed as much as race within the Mad Gravel 2020. After their race, they knew The HEMI wanted to be with Mad Gravel and in 2022 it was added to the Mad Gravel Memorial Day weekend on the McNeil Scout Ranch at Peaceable Valley outdoors Elbert.
Days later at a dinner on the Johnson’s residence with Muscianisi, the solidification of The HEMI into Mad Gravel turned full and in 2023 The HEMI was supplied at Mad Gravel 2023 with three races; “The HEMI Hustle,” “The HEMI 5-0” and “The HEMI.”
With the merger, the Junior Biking Challenge was born as effectively — a non-profit part necessary to the Johnsons.
“It’s our shared objective to develop this basis, to contribute to junior improvement applications in Colorado,” Kristine stated. “The biking neighborhood gave again to us after our loss, and we needed pay the generosity again.”
The expansion of the race in 4 years has been good as effectively. The Wichita race drew a few hundred racers in 2019. The Elbert race drew 600 in 2023 and Kristine believes the 2024 race is ready to host 1,000 riders.
Phrases to pedal ahead with
“Serving to Craig transition Energy Companions Racing into 3 Toes Biking was an amazing privilege,” finest pal Jeff Peters stated of Henwood. “I used to be honored that he requested me to be VP on this journey. Craig was the man who might carry everybody below the tent and make them really feel welcome and appreciated by means of an abundance of heat, ardour, power, and humor. 3 Toes Biking was actually a ardour undertaking for him, and the biking neighborhood continues to profit from his contributions. Craig was everybody’s buddy, and we had been instantaneous finest pals. I take some consolation figuring out he’d be happy with the path the crew continues to develop, although all of us miss his infectious laughter.”
“Craig would’ve beloved the Hemi; it was a super-fun day on the bike and a beautiful solution to bear in mind my pal. I hope I’ve impressed many extra of Craig’s and my mutual pals to hitch me subsequent yr.”
“All of us miss our son daily,” Kristine stated. “Creating this occasion, submerged our energies within the duties at hand, crammed our hearts, and reminded us always how valuable and brief life is.”
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