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June 7, 2009

FreeWheel takes off

WIll spend seven days traveling the Oklahoma landscape on bicycles

John Walker

DUNCAN — Tents dotted the horizon as the sun came up out of the east Sunday morning. It was early for a select 900 or so people who visited the Duncan area from all over the world this morning to start riding in the 31st cycling of the Oklahoma FreeWheel.

“There was a fellow from Australia who flew in just for this ride,” said Ellen Proctor, the director of the Freewheel. “He came the farthest.”

In seven days, the hundreds of riders will finish their trek across the Oklahoma plains and end up in Kiowa, Kan., for a total of 416 miles traveled.

“We try to show a different part of Oklahoma each year,” Proctor said. “We want to showcase different towns....We try whatever possible to stay off the main roads. It’s a ride, not a race. It’s great fun.”

Proctor used to ride every year in the FreeWheel back in the 1990s, but when she had an accident, she stopped riding, but she still volunteered.

“I never trusted myself again,” she said.

Then in 2004 when the director of the ride retired, Proctor took over.

As the director of the ride, Proctor determines the route the riders will take every year through Oklahoma. She starts with an idea for what part of the state she wants to highlight and then makes up a suggested route.

One of her assistants, a former member of the Corps of Engineers, then looks over the proposed route, drives it and tells Proctor whether it will work.

But Proctor doesn’t announce the route until one other planning item is completed.

“I don’t announce the route until I have booked the hotels for myself,” she said.

Throughout the ride, Proctor will sleep in a hotel while the riders enjoy the great outdoors.

The first leg of the trip this year took the riders all over Stephens County. They started in Duncan, made their way to Marlow and then headed west into Comanche County.

On Saturday, the riders began to congregate around the Simmons Center and the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center. They set up tents that night, ate, enjoyed some entertainment and went to bed in preparation for the early start.

All lights were out at 9 p.m. Saturday for the riders.

Throughout the coming week, the riders will sleep in tents, rise early, ride all day, rest at a designated location in a tent and begin again the next morning.

For Sunday’s official launch of the 31st riding, Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Jari Askins was on hand to give the official start at 6:00 a.m. in front of the Simmons Center.

“This is easy for me to come here this morning,” Askins said. “It’s my hometown. I hope you all have fun sometime this week.”

FreeWheel has started in Duncan before, but it has been a few years. The last time it started in Stephens County, it started in Comanche, again with Askins giving the sendoff signal that year.

Duncan Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Loisdawn Jones said that preparing for this past weekend has taken some work, but it has been smooth.

“The FreeWheel people are real congenial people,” Jones said. “There have been some long hours, but it was well done.”

Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum Executive Director Bill Benson agreed with Jones’ assessment of the people visiting Duncan this weekend.

“These are some great people,” Benson said. “They are very diverse. There are old and young here.”

Benson, along with Jones and other volunteers, were up long before the riders.

Some of the volunteers, including Stephens County Sheriff Wayne McKinney’s wife, Julie, was up at 3 a.m. to cook breakfast.

McKinney started cooking at 3:30 a.m. and started feeding the riders at 5 a.m. Sunday.

By 10 a.m. Sunday, most of the riders were away. Because it is not a race, the riders have the choice to set their own pace and start when they want.

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