Nicole Reinhart

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Nicole Louise Reinhart (June 3, 1976 – September 17, 2000) was a professional track and road racing cyclist who twice won gold medals in cycling at the Pan American Games.

In 2000, at age 24, she died from injuries sustained in a bicycle racing accident.

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[edit] Early life

Reinhart grew up in Macungie, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of the state. She was a nine-time USA Cycling Junior (18 and under) National Champion. As a student at Pennsylvania's Emmaus High School, she won three U.S. National Fitness Championships and excelled on Emmaus's cross-country and track teams in the highly competitive East Penn Conference (the forerunner to the Lehigh Valley Conference).

[edit] Pan American Games and other championships

After graduating from Emmaus High School in 1994, Reinhart focused her attention exclusively on cycling and won two Elite National Track Championships and two gold medals at the Pan American Games. In 1999, she signed a professional contract with Saturn Women's Professional Cycling Team and quickly won nine races that year, followed by another 13 races in 2000.

[edit] Death

On September 17, 2000, Reinhart was killed while competing in a 42-mile circuit race held on a 3.5 mile course in Arlington, Massachusetts when she was thrown from her bicycle and struck a tree. This event was the last of four races comprising the 2000 BMC Software Cycling Grand Prix. She had won the previous three races in this four-race series, which offered a $250,000 prize to a cyclist who swept all four races. The prize was subsequently donated to her family, who used the proceeds to establish the Macungie, Pennsylvania-based "Nicole Reinhart Foundation" in her honor.[1]

In 2004, Reinhart was inducted in the Lehigh Valley Velodrome Hall of Fame in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania.

[edit] Major cycling achievements

2000 – Saturn Women's Professional Cycling Team
  • 1st – BMC Software Tour of San Jose (San Jose, California)
  • 1st – BMC Software Tour of Houston (Houston, Texas)
  • 1st – BMC Software Downtown Criterium (Austin, Texas)
  • 1st, Prologue – Redlands Bicycle Classic
  • 3rd – Women's 25km points race, U.S. Olympic Track Trials
1999 – Saturn Women's Professional Cycling Team
  • 1st, Stage 3 (25-mile criterium) – Redlands Bicycle Classic
  • 3rd, Prologue – Redlands Bicycle Classic
  • 10th – Sea Otter Classic - Final General Classification
    • 10th – Sea Otter Classic (Robert Talbott Pro/Elite Circuit Race)
    • 20th – Sea Otter Classic (Robert Talbott Pro/Elite Time Trial)
    • 38th – Sea Otter Classic (Robert Talbott Pro/Elite Road Stage Race)
1998
  • 1st, Prologue – Redlands Bicycle Classic
  • 1st, Women's 3 km Scratch Race – EDS Spring Classic
  • 1st, Women's Miss and Out – EDS Spring Classic
  • 3rd, Women's 500 m Sprint – UCI World Track Cup
1997
  • 1st, Women's 500 m Sprint – EDS Track Cup
  • 1st, Women's Points Race – EDS Track Cup
  • Quarterfinals, Women's Match Sprint – UCI World Track Cup
1994
1993
1992

[edit] U.S. national records

  • 11.666 seconds – Junior Women Track Time Trial Flying Start (200 meters), Quito, Ecuador, July 26, 1994 (since broken).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Nicole Reinhart Memorial Fund. Retrieved on 2007-04-24.

[edit] External links