Secrest Continues to Hold Lead in Bicycle Race Across America

Mike Secrest of Flint, Mich., continued to hold his lead in the Race Across America transcontinental bicycle race Thursday, passing through Beloit, Kan., the 1,746-mile mark, in five days and six hours.

Secrest, who has averaged 14.75 miles per hour since Saturday’s start in San Francisco, has a 57-mile lead over Bob Forney of Evergreen, Colo.

Forney, who tore his right Achilles’ tendon while climbing the 11,307-foot Berthoud Pass in Colorado Wednesday, was placed in a plaster cast from the knee down Wednesday evening. Despite the cast, Forney gained five miles on Secrest in less than four hours Thursday morning.

Michael Trail of Colville, Wash., is in third place, riding 66 miles behind the leader. In fourth is Franz Spilauer of Vienna, Austria (72 miles behind), and Rob Templin of San Diego is a distant fifth (122 miles).

Secrest has 1,370 miles to go to the finish at the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.

In the women’s competition, Casey Patterson of Topanga crossed the Colorado-Kansas border at 5:28 p.m. (PDT), 57 miles ahead of Cheryl Marek of Seattle. Cherie Moore of Columbus, Ohio, is in third place, 150 miles behind Patterson.