A man competing in Alaska's biggest and longest bicycle race died Saturday after he fell off his bike and slid under a guardrail on the Glenn Highway just a few miles past Eureka Summit.
It was the first fatality in the seven years of the Fireweed 400, which drew more than 500 cyclists Friday and Saturday for races ranging in distance from 50 to 400 miles.
A trooper report said 64-year-old Robert E. Johnson of Unalaska "apparently fell over the front of the bicycle for no apparent reason."
The accident happened at mile 134.8, a little more than 20 miles into the 100-mile road race that began Saturday morning at Sheep Mountain Lodge.
Race organizer Peter Lekisch said Johnson was traveling north on the shoulder of the two-lane highway. He was descending from the 3,322-foot Eureka Summit, which is at mile 129.3.
According to the trooper report, Johnson "slid under the guardrail where his head struck a steel guardrail post."
Johnson, who was wearing what troopers described as a lightweight helmet, reportedly suffered severe head injuries.
By the time troopers arrived, Johnson was already being treated by three physicians, a paramedic, an EMT and a nurse. The report didn't say if the responders had been summoned by race officials, were volunteers working the race, or were racers.
The accident happened a little before 11 a.m. Johnson was medevaced to Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage, where he died around 5 p.m.
Lekisch, a cycling enthusiast and longtime Anchorage attorney who created the Fireweed 400 in 2003, said race officials were devastated by Johnson's death. He referred all questions to troopers.
Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.
By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com