Bikers

Lance Armstrong and the 130-something other bikers on the Tour of California rode through our little town in the rain this morning, cheered on by a few people holding signs and yelling "Go, riders!" We watched from the back window with binoculars. A  blur of dark shapes blew down the Coast Highway, accompanied by motorcycles and cars whose headlights made long bright patterns on the wet road.

I have been wanting to write something about another biker we know, Kanellos Kanellopoulos. Kanellos was a 14-time bicycle champion in Greece, an Olympian cyclist, and still holds the world's record for human-powered flight.

In 1988, MIT, the Smithsonian Institution, NASA and the Greek government cooperated in the Daedalus Project, attempting to surpass the 1979 record for cycle-driven flight, the Gossamer Albatross passage of 22 miles over the English Channel. Kanellos piloted his craft from Crete to the island of Santorini, 72.44 miles, taking three hours, 54 minutes and 59 seconds.

The Daedalus broke up yards from its destination when a gust of wind snapped the tail boom. The wings folded and the craft settled into the surf, leaving Kanellos to swim and wade to shore. Asked how he was able to achieve this incredible feat, Kanellos said that Saint Nicholas, patron of sailors, had protected him.

The mythic Daedalus, of course, had no such protection when he and his son Icarus attempted their flight from Crete. According to mythology, Icarus was so exhilarated by flying that he flew too near the sun, which melted the wax on his homemade wings.

Kanellos Kanellopoulos still rides his bike through the congested streets of Athens, but for a living he paints religious ikons, teaches Byzantine art techniques with the Eikonourgia group, and coaches physical education classes in an Athens high school. Schematics and photographs of the cycle-powered Daedalus are in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology archives.

(The photo is Kanellos and me at a fasting-day luncheon prepared by the silent nuns at a convent near Athens where Kanellos was working on a fresco.)