Despite cycling mishap, racer still has the last lap

No limp, no broken bone can slow him down.

In fact, 31-year-old Arthus Bucay of Marikina City is all psyched up for the biggest race of his life: an international sporting event for people with disabilities to be held in Europe later this year.

Bucay is a long-distance cyclist who will compete along with some 4,200 athletes from around 140 nations at the London 2012 Paralympic Games from Aug. 29 to Sept. 9, a multisport event for athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness and cerebral palsy.

He’s aiming for cycling glory—and, of course, for the cash prize which he said could finally finance the long-needed corrective surgery on his damaged hip joint.

“My coach told me that if I win this one, I would have the money for my surgery,” Bucay said in an interview last week on a hilly stretch of San Mateo, Rizal province, where he regularly tests his limits on the bike.

“I hope to win in London. It’s my only hope to be normal again,” he said.

According to Bucay, no one notices that he has a disability whenever he is whizzing by on two wheels. “It is as if I am perfectly normal when I bike,” he told the Inquirer.

But then, it gets obvious when he dismounts: His right leg is shorter than the left.

“When they see this, people tell me: That’s what you got for always going on a bike (’Yan kasi, bike ka nang bike),’ ” he said with a smile.

But he was not exactly joking: An accident during a local bike fest held in Marikina damaged his hip on Dec. 12, 2003, six days before his 23rd birthday.

He was then speeding through Marikina Heights when his bike skidded on wet road. He was violently thrown off his bike, hitting the pavement hip first.

“I tried but I couldn’t get up,” he recalled. He was confined at Philippine General Hospital (PGH), thinking he just suffered a minor injury, a bruise that would eventually heal in time.

Three weeks later, however, he still could not get back on his feet. X-ray results later confirmed that his right hip had suffered a crack, requiring surgery to repair.

By 2004, the injury had healed and he was soon back in the local racing circuit. But in 2006, he started to notice a change in his gait.

“There was no pain, but I noticed that my right leg had gotten a bit shorter than the left,” he said. His doctor at PGH said the fracture had grown worse and the needed surgery would now cost him P200,000.

It was quite a hefty sum for the bachelor and high school dropout who, since 1998, had been putting money in his pocket mainly by joining cycling competitions.

But he decided to keep pursuing his passion—limp or no limp. And to his own surprise, he found himself still topping several races and even outdoing the “abled athletes.”

“But my performance now is not as good as before,” he conceded.

Last month, Bucay competed in a paralympic competition— the Asian Cycling Championships 2012 held in Kuala Lumpur—where he bagged two gold medals that qualified him for the London event.

With six months to go before London, Bucay prepares muscle, mind and spirit everyday, covering several kilometers across uphill areas in Rizal and Laguna provinces.

“It’s about winning. I love the feeling of being the first to finish the race,” he said. “If you really want something, nothing can stop you from doing it.”

Marikina Mayor Del De Guzman was among the first to cheer Bucay on. “This shows that differently-abled persons are also capable of enjoying and competing in their chosen sports,” the mayor told the Inquirer.