Iowa Games: Ferry finds success on 2 wheels

By Matt Sulentic, correspondent

CEDAR RAPIDS - Tim Ferry started racing BMX on one wheel.

After setting the world speed record on a unicycle in 2001, the operators of the Cedar Rapids BMX track at Cheyenne Park asked him to make a celebrity appearance and ride his unicycle around the track.

He arrived with one wheel, but shortly added another.

“I fell in love with it and bought a (BMX) bike a week later,” Ferry said. “One is fun, but two is amazing. It's a blast.”

Ferry, the three-time defending Iowa Games champion, claimed another win Saturday afternoon, completing the 1,200-foot track in 36.2 seconds.

“I wanted to win this one so bad,” he said. Ferry edged out Akwasi Gyabaah of Iowa City and James O'Brien of Cedar Rapids in the final race.

He also competes in mountain bike racing, but his passion remains with BMX.

“I'm used to 1/8 of a mile sprint, not an eight-mile race,” he said.

While friendly competition exists between riders of all ages at Cheyenne Park, Ferry said the best thing about the track is the sense of family.

“When you're at a national event, you don't know who is on your right or you're left,” he said. “Here, it's like family.”

O'Brien, Ferry's friend, echoed that sentiment.

“I was in BMX until I was 16,” O'Brien said. “Then my kids got me back into it. My daughter met one of her friends out here and I thought, ‘Wow, there's still BMX, I thought that faded away or something.'”

Ferry and O'Brien ran the track in Cedar Rapids together for a year. They added tarps to help keep the track in good shape, and helped upgrade some equipment.

Computers have made the grouping for races fairer, and a computer even releases the gate at the starting line. Previously riders could time the gate, now there is anywhere from a one to four second hesitation before the gate drops.

Waiting for the gate to fall gives Ferry a moment to clear his head.

“It's important to stay loose and relaxed,” he said. “Pedal fast, keep your elbows out and just think. Sometimes you get all tense and start to freak out, and that's when you crash.”

Ferry knows that all too well. He listed three times in his career when he was seriously injured. Once, his bike broke and the frame took aim at his chest. Luckily, he avoided that, but ended up with a broken shoulder.

“It was like, in slow motion,” he said. “It was going frame by frame. I saw the broken end pop up and watched it come at me. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground.”