This article first appeared as the Cyclist of the Month column in the February 2012 issue of the Cascade Courier, our membership newsletter.
Nominate a Cyclist of the Month!
Cyclist of the Month: WILL SEEGERT
Age: 7
Wheels: Fuji Ace 20
Occupation: Student
Rider #813, all suited up and ready to ride.
Paul claims that his son, Will, is “just a normal kid.” And it’s true, he does look pretty normal. This mild-mannered seven-year-old weighs in at 50 pounds and is about three-and-a-half feet tall. He has brown hair. He likes hot chocolate.
But there’s something extraordinary about this “normal” kid. Last year, when he was just six years old, Will rode Chilly Hilly.
Anyone who stood in the ferry line on that Sunday morning in February 2011 knows that the weather was more than just chilly. It was freezing cold. There was hail. Lots of seasoned bicyclists stayed home in their pajamas.
But not Will, and not his dad.
What was the hardest part? “Walking up the hills with all the other bikers,” Will told me. And yes, they did walk. But Will rode or pushed his bike for all 33 of those hilly miles, without any help at all from Dad.
“I thought that it was the hardest thing that he could do, but that he could do it,” Paul told me. When Will was out of earshot, he added, “I could have carried his bike up the hills for him. But I didn’t need to help him.”
