Stan Crane

I stole this from Rich, hope he doesn't mind, race recap later.

Early last year Bp, Reed, Stan Crane and I went on a training trip to St. George. We put in some big miles on the Mesa near Hurricane and the next day rode the area around the St. George race course. The whole trip was filled with laughing and chit-chat about everything, but especially bike racing. Stan was getting serious -- devotedly following a training schedule, reading books on training, even switching to soy milk because Carmichael said it was healthier. He legs were trunks and his fitness was looking good.

A couple weeks later Stan was dead.

It wasn't anything he did or didn't do. He was born with a time-bomb that could tick so many times and then bang -- wife alone, boys with no dad. Lots of people get this same treatment due to unfortunate choices they or someone else makes, but in his case it was the mistake of a little segment of DNA encoding some protein a little wrong even before he was exactly a person yet -- the product of an imperfect world. Or something like that.

I don't think Stan looks back on his life and remembers cycling first and foremost as there were several other, higher priorities. He was a man that knew his priorities. Nonetheless, I'm sure he appreciates the fact that today, on Memorial day, we raced the Stan Crane Memorial race in Draper, in view of his final resting place.

His family was there, his best friends were there, and who knows? Maybe he was too. I like to think so.