Before the days of the Internet, the mailbox was the place where adventures began.

In 1994, Colorado handcyclist Steve Ackerman opened his mailbox to find an invitation from a non-profit group that was promoting a bicycle adventure around the world.

AXA World Ride '95 would be a 13,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe by athletes with and without disabilities. It was scheduled to begin in Atlanta, Georgia, in only a few months, and the organizers wanted Ackerman to help cover the miles. The ride would be a first.

“The letter announced this 14-stage ride and asked me to pick the three stages that I might be interested in doing,” says Ackerman. “And from those three, they said they would pick one for me. The more I looked at it and thought about the opportunity, the more I wanted to do all 14 stages.”

An Introduction on to Handcycling
While Colorado’s Front Range and Rockies offer terrain challenging enough for most athletes, Ackerman is the type who always wants more. Injured in February 1987, Ackerman quickly returned to work as an event promoter and marketer for an outdoor amphitheater in Denver, partly to deflect his energy away from his former life.

“It took up so much of my time that I never really had to face my disability head-on. I was somewhat resistant to handcycling when I first got hurt and told friends that if I wasn’t stuck in the wheelchair, I’d love to be active again.”

A chance meeting with a handcyclist named Dave Cornelsen at an Abilities Expo a few years later changed his mind.

“I saw a guy riding a Freedom Ryder around the conference hall, and he looked strong,” Ackerman explains. “His booth had a banner that said he was going to ride from California to New York City in 23 days, and I just laughed it off.”

Several weeks later, at the urging of friends who wanted him to enter Ride the Rockies, Ackerman dug out the business card of the handcyclist he had met in California and made a call.

“I phoned Dave and asked him in a half joking kind of way if he made it across the United States. He said that instead of the planned 23 days, it only took him 18.”

The seed was planted. Ackerman recalls, “Well, I thought that if this guy can ride across the country in 18 days, I can do Ride the Rockies in seven.”

Ackerman received his first Freedom Ryder as the Colorado snow began falling in late 1990. By that spring he was averaging over 400 miles a week through the Front Range and Rockies.

Handcycling Adventure Opportunity Awaits
There was something just too inviting about this World Ride '95 invitation to simply settle for a single stage. Ackerman was fascinated with the idea of cycling across the Gobi Desert, through China, and in restricted areas of Russia (not to mention handcycling completely across the United States). He decided to apply.

With the sport of handcycling still in its infancy, Ackerman had to convince the organizers that a paralyzed, arm-powered cyclist could endure the challenges and complete the distance.

“I contacted Dave Cornelsen and brought him onto the team. We were joined by another handcyclist named Rory McCarthy who had a great reputation, too. Together we became the core handcyclists who rode around the world.”

When Ackerman and his six core cyclist teammates pedaled into Washington D.C. in late 1995, they had completed the 13,000-mile, around-the-world bicycle journey that took them through 16 countries on three continents.

“At some point, my computer broke and I really didn’t care about the miles after that,” jokes Ackerman. “We shared so many memories and saw so many things that it became so much more than just about the miles.”

In the decade plus since World Ride ’95 concluded, Steve Ackerman has remained active in the sport of handcycling. He partnered with a group of athletes with disabilities and cycling visionaries to help form handcycling’s national governing body (now called the United States Handcycling Federation) and he began a career developing and representing handcycles.

As the new millennium rolled in, Ackerman took his cycling interests off-road.

“A friend had a prototype of an off-road handcycle called a One-Off,” he explains. “A few of us took it to the White Rim Canyon Trail and did an unsupported ride on our own. It was another first and sometimes it’s better to be first than best.”

If you are wondering what’s next for this handcycling world traveler, Ackerman has a few ideas up his sleeve. And with all the press that handcycling is receiving these days, chances are good that you might just read about Steve Ackerman again on your next trip to the mailbox.

To learn more about the sport of handcycling, please visit the United States Handcycling Federation at www.ushf.org. To contact Steve Ackerman, please send an e-mail to steve@freedomryder.com.

See Related Articles
Check out another disability documentary, Rolling: Life in a Wheelchair--Documentary, which gives viewers a glimpse into a world that most don’t see.

This adaptive handcylcist won a silver medal in the 2008 Paraylmpic Games and is busy making history.  Read more about this amazing athlete in Alejandro Albor: Journey to Beijing and Beyond.