Halloween Story: Rik Van Gino

Rik Van Gino

Rik Van Gino was born in July 1924 in the small town of Bear Bluff, Wisconsin. Raised by his European immigrant parents, it was in his blood to ride his bike, and you could always  find him riding the gravel roads that led from his home in Bear Bluff to the nearby towns of Millston, Warrens, and Dexterville. When he was 18, he enlisted in the army and fought all across France and Holland during World War II. After the war, he returned back to Wisconsin and returned to the cycling he loved. He was a fast finisher, won many races, and competed on the wooden Velodromes as well as on the road in such races as the famous Elgin to Chicago. Local riders also also knew him to be a prankster, and one of his favorites was to sneak up behind a rider and gently grab the underside of his saddle and take a little tow. Once the rider could tell that some thing was amiss, he would look back to find Rik playing his little joke. Rik would laugh out loud: "HA HA HA!"and race off into the distance. Rik was so fast that no one could never catch him, but they could still hear him laugh to himself as he rode away down the road. 

One of Rik's goals was to compete in the 1948 London Olympic games, and the trials for the US Olympic team were that year were to be held in Milwaukee. The race was a long one, 135 miles, and Rik knew that if he was going to make the team that he would have to be in the best shape of his life, so he rode many many miles in preparation. He rode from Madison to Milwaukee, Milwaukee to Chicago, or all day from sun up to sun down from his city of Chicago home. As the day of the big Olympic trials race was approaching, Rik was putting in some big miles, but one day, he disapeared. He left early one morning, and never returned. Some think that he was hit by a car, others think he simply fell off his bike from exhaustion, probably into a deep ditch never to be seen again. Nobody knows.

 Even though that was many, many years ago, some local riders think that he is still out there riding the roads around Chicago, still training for that Olympic road race that he never got to compete in. So, if you're out riding, and you feel that something just isn't right, like some thing is dragging on your bike, listen carefully and maybe you'll hear Rik off in the distance - laughing, because he just got away with another prank ... this time on you.