Avid Sheldon cyclist suffers fatal injuries

Tue April 08 2008
Posted Apr 8, 2008
10,028

By TOM ALEX REGISTER STAFF WRITER Sheldon bicyclist who once finished a race across the United States despite a broken pelvis has died from injuries he suffered when a car struck his bike from behind near his home. Randall Van Zee, 56, was fatally injured Friday along an O'Brien County road. The driver, Sarah Johnson, 21, of Archer, was charged with failure to stop at a safe distance and no proof of insurance, the Iowa State Patrol reported. "Randy was very smart about riding," Van Zee's longtime friend, Dave Eekhoff, owner of Brothers Bicycle Shop in Sioux Center, said Monday. "He knew every trick about avoiding accidents. He'd been riding for 15 years and he was riding about 1,000 miles a week, about 50,000 miles a year. "I've heard of people who ride a lot, but I've never heard of anyone who trained like he did." State troopers said in a report that Van Zee was wearing a protective helmet when he was struck. The accident remains under investigation. Van Zee took a spill in Troy, Ohio, in 2004, then rode the final 700 miles of the Race Across America. He pedaled 2,958 miles from San Diego to the New Jersey coast in 11 days, 16 hours, 26 minutes. Five miles from the Atlantic City Boardwalk he fell again, but he managed to finish. Relatives said Van Zee always biked for others: to raise money for wheelchairs overseas or a variety of medical causes. Rachel Carlson, his youngest daughter, said the last thing her father said to a co-worker before he headed out Friday was, "It's going to be a great ride." Carlson said her father was a "couch potato" who quit smoking and joined the jogging craze in the 1970s until knee problems set in. "He became an avid bicyclist. He fell in love with it. He did RAGBRAI in one day in memory of Bob Breedlove." Robert Breedlove, 53, was a Des Moines orthopedic surgeon and ultramarathon bike rider who died June 23, 2005, five days into the Race Across America, while in Colorado. Van Zee was a state vocational rehabilitation counselor and last year won a governor's excellence award for job performance. "I used to tease him that he rode too hard," Eekhoff said. "We had a fun relationship, and he was a fun guy. He laughed almost like a little kid. But when he got on his bike, he looked like a shark. He was so focused on riding, he would forget to eat." Van Zee graduated from Dordt College in Sioux Center with a social work degree in 1974 and later earned a master's in counseling from Boston University. Services will be at 1:30 p.m. today at United Methodist Church in Sheldon. Burial will be in East Lawn Cemetery in Sheldon. Reporter Tom Alex can be reached at (515) 284-8088 or talex@dmreg.com