Failure was a rarity in life of Henrico cyclist

By: Bill McKelway
Published: September 08, 2011 in the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Credit: Family Photo

More days than not, the first email would come about 4 a.m.

"He would want me to know his resting heart rate," said Susan Hefler, a nationally regarded bicycling coach based in Northern Virginia who describes Michael John Fawell as a man of indomitable will and self-discipline.

Hefler has three years' worth of daily training regimens that Fawell followed and filed to her from the home Fawell shared in western Henrico County with his wife of 10 years, Lara; daughter Cambelle, 14 months; and son Luke, 4.

Today, Hefler, Fawell's family and much of the Richmond area's competitive bicycling community will be at Fawell's funeral, an event marking a tragic end to a life in which failure was a rarity.

During a late-afternoon training ride Aug. 25, Fawell, 38, was wheeling toward Rockville in Hanover County on Pouncey Tract Road when his white Cannondale road bike, traveling 30 mph on fresh blacktop within a marked bike lane, collided with an oncoming pickup truck that had turned left in front of him.

The collision marked a rare instance when Fawell was riding alone, and his family said he remained without medical care with two collapsed lungs for as long as 30 minutes.

"It is one of the tragedies about all this," said Lara Fawell, who sells medical equipment and worked with her husband from the couple's home. "Mike never did anything wrong. He was always the one who made a point of being careful, of thinking of others, of doing the right thing."

"To him, cycling was a passion — it inspired him to succeed and provided him an outlet to feel free," Lara wrote of her husband, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and graduated from Northwestern University.

The powerfully built racer and nationally ranked time trialist died at VCU Medical Center in Richmond four days after the collision as the result of a massive head injury. He had been wearing a helmet and his distinctive black-and-white patterned training outfit.

Gerald Lee Anderson, 70, of the 600 block of Nelwood Road in Manakin-Sabot is facing an October court date in Hanover County, charged with failure to yield while making a left turn.

Fawell's death has drawn attention, his wife said, to the need for motor vehicles and bicycle riders to recognize one another on area roadways, especially on Pouncey Tract Road, which gets heavy use from both types of vehicles.

The fact that Fawell was injured in a marked bike lane should not offset the need for motor vehicles to recognize that bike riders have the right of way whether they are in marked lanes or not, she said.

"We would talk together about safety all the time," she said. "The tragedy is that we have a little boy now who adored his father and a little baby girl who will never know her father."

Fawell was a multisport athlete, triathlete and bodybuilder who turned to competitive bicycling as he began to age. But Hefler described him as born to ride, a man with powerful legs who seemed to know no competitive boundaries and whose infectious smile belied a rigorous work ethic.

"You have to be disciplined in cycling," she said. "You have to go at it every day, from an hour to three hours."

Shortly after he began training about three years ago, Fawell entered a 40-mile race in Charlottesville and told Hefler he was simply going to outdistance the other 120 riders, not wanting to chance the often-ramshackle sprints to the finish line that typify most races.

"I'm saying to myself, 'Sure. Go right ahead.' But I'm thinking, 'No way.' "

Fawell won against longtime, higher-level racers. "It taught me a lesson that I'll always associate with Mike and I've never forgotten as a coach: 'Never underestimate the power of someone who is committed.' "

"He was a coach's dream," she said.

Link to Original Article

bmckelway@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6601