Flip Side

So, yesterday I posted about how badass Jens Voigt is for his exploits on the bike. Here's the flipside of it, from an article in the Eagle-Tribune back in Massachusetts:

NORTH ANDOVER — In August, cancer survivor Jeff Wdow will bike from Sturbridge to Provincetown as part of the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge. He will do so with a prosthetic leg, one lung and a transplanted kidney.

"It sounds pretty extreme," said Wdow, 45, of Forest Street. "I'm not the speediest guy on the road. I'm not the first guy up the hill when there's a hill. You just have to modify your style to fit your situation. The 192 miles is very doable."

Wdow had his right leg amputated below the knee two weeks after he was diagnosed with bone cancer at age 20. After undergoing chemotherapy, the disease eventually spread to his left lung, which was removed when he was 23. Though Wdow has remained cancer free since the operation, he was later diagnosed with kidney failure in late 2000. Wdow said he believes a cancer treatment damaged his kidneys.

Luckily, Wdow's best friend and Andover resident Robert Hanscom stepped up. The two underwent kidney transplant surgery in April 2001, and both have remained healthy since.

Now that's bad-ass--both what Wdow is doing, riding a double century short a leg, a lung, a kidney, and at least one vowel in his last name, and what his best friend, Hanscom, did. Jens Voigt may be amazing, but he's got nothing on these guys.