I was talking with my girlfriend last evening who told me she had just
gotten back from the grocery, where she had run into one of her old
students. They got talking and she asked him what he was doing and he
said he was racing bikes for a team in Belgium. He said he was home
(Geneva, Illinois) for a bit, but would be heading back to Europe
soon.
She said she remembered his name was Ben and wondered if I could do
some 'net research and find out more about him. Some googling turned
up the name "Ben Raby" from Geneva, but the only cycling related
references I could find were local races. He was a Cat 4,5 in 2000. I
even found my name in one of the same summaries of race results. ;-)
The only reference to either Belgium or Belgian I could find was
"Belgian Breweries", possibly a team sponsor.
So I called her back and said I found a Ben Raby (she recalled that
was indeed his name) but couldn't find anything that linked Ben to a
Belgian team and that perhaps he was riding for Belgian Breweries and
she was confused. So we left it there.
This morning I was headed out for a ride and passed local racer (and
former teammate) Paul Michna's house. Paul was out front doing some
home maintenance task. I pulled in and asked if he knew Ben Raby. He
said, "yes, tall skinny kid, strong rider". I told him what Julie had
related to me about running into him and Paul said he had heard Ben
was training in Europe (he thought Spain), so perhaps Julie had gotten
it right.
Does anyone know anything about Ben and what he's up to in Europe?
jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3