Joe Taschler

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mequon — With his wild hair, gentle smile and a physique that would seem best suited for the couch, no one who knows any better would believe Chris Kegel is a bicycling enthusiast.

Yet when it comes to bicycling, Kegel is as hard-core as they come — only without the attitude of a fitness fanatic, and without the washboard abs.

Driven by his passion for allowing people everywhere to experience the joy of riding, Kegel owns the Milwaukee-based Wheel & Sprocket chain of bicycle stores and is widely known and respected in the bicycling world.

He was diagnosed last week with a rare and aggressive form of liver cancer. Even with treatment, he likely has just months to live, doctors have told him and his family.

Kegel, 63, greeted the news with characteristic optimism.

"If you ask me how I’m doing, I would say I am doing perfectly well," he said during an interview in the intensive care unit of Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Mequon. "You don’t really get to know why things happen or how things happen.

"Cancer, it gets people so riled up," he said. "I really have this belief to just be in the day and the moment. You just don’t know what the next story is, what the next thing is going to be."

More than 1,000 cyclists turn out to honor Kegel

Doctors say Kegel has bile duct cancer, also known as cholangiocarcinoma. It afflicts about 2,000 to 3,000 people in the United States each year, according to the American Cancer Society. The bile ducts are thin tubes through which a fluid called bile moves from the liver and gallbladder to the small intestine, where it helps digest fats in food.

Kegel underwent surgery last week to open the ducts and restore some of his liver function. He was released from the hospital later in the week.

News of his illness spread rapidly through the cycling world, where Kegel is revered as a tireless if unassuming evangelist for people-powered transportation.

"This guy really is a larger-than-life character," said John Burke, president of Trek Bicycle Corp., the global bicycle company that was started in a barn in Waterloo in 1976. "This guy is something really special."

"Fifty years from now, when the history is written of the bicycle movement that took hold at the turn of this century, Chris will be listed as one of the national leaders who made it happen," Burke said.

As humble as he is friendly, Kegel describes himself as just a guy from West Allis who pursued a passion and ended up building a nationally renowned bicycle business. Along the way, he talked cycling in the Oval Office with two U.S. presidents, rode his bike across the United States twice and traveled the world preaching the gospel of bicycles.

Kegel hired on at Wheel & Sprocket as a bicycle mechanic in 1973, just a few weeks after the business opened in Hales Corners. By 1989, he had become president and owner.

"In the early 1970s when I got involved in the bike business, in my 20s working at the bike shop, I knew the joy people would get when they would ride a bike," Kegel said. "I knew the joy that I got."

As with many young businesses, the shop struggled in its early days. But Kegel stuck with it because he "just had an inner knowing that this would really work."

Building the business, he understood, would involve building a bike-friendly culture and creating more bike-friendly spaces in the U.S. — he recognized it as a quality-of-life issue long before fitness became a buzzword in America.

"Being a retailer and being close to the customers, I knew that making it easier for you to find a place to ride and encouraging customers to be involved with different events and having a support system — it was about more than just the bike," Kegel said. "I’ve always tried to bring people together. Working through a lot of organizations and charities and everything else, we made some huge differences in terms of making bikes more friendly and more acceptable.

"We put these coalitions together. We built a lot of bike trails. We put in a lot of bike paths. The genie was out of the bottle."

'Enjoy your ride'

Confronted now by a serious cancer diagnosis, Kegel has in a way come to embody one of his company's most memorable past slogans: "Life is short. Enjoy your ride!"

His physique notwithstanding, friends point out that he's an avid cyclist who has ridden through Alaska as well as the U.S. and Canadian Rockies. He is strong as an ox and doggedly determined when it comes to putting as many people as possible on bicycles.

He prefers to be seen as a bicycle retailer for ordinary people.

"...Drink a beer or two and go for a nice ride — that’s perfect," Kegel said, knowing that runs afoul of cycling dogma.

"That’s the whole thing, passing judgment and trying to decide what’s good or bad," Kegel said. "That’s not really our job in this life."

The attitude has served him well as he, his family and their co-workers have built Wheel & Sprocket into a fixture in southeast Wisconsin and a model for bicycle businesses across the nation.

Wheel & Sprocket has stores in Hales Corners, Fox Point, Brookfield, Delafield, Appleton, Oshkosh and Evanston, Ill. The company is the largest bike retailer in Wisconsin.

"He’s always been one of the best, most influential bicycle retailers in the country, known for being an innovator and at the same time doing all the things that anyone could imagine to encourage people to ride," said Tim Blumenthal, CEO of People for Bikes, the largest bicycle advocacy group in the U.S.

Blumenthal, interviewed by phone while he was attending Interbike, the largest bicycle trade show in North America, said news of Kegel's health was top of mind for many of the thousands of people who were at the show in Las Vegas.

"Everybody is shocked and stunned," Blumenthal said. "I’ve never seen the entire bike industry come together and rally in support of one of our leaders like this. Chris would be, without question, one of the top five most recognizable stalwarts at the show every year. Everybody knows him."

Blumenthal added: "We’re all wearing liver cancer bracelets. There must be a couple thousand of those that were distributed at the bike show."

Pivotal to Kegel's success, Blumenthal said, has been his knack for broad mainstream appeal. Wheel & Sprocket's advertising for years was anchored to the comics pages, and its earliest days featured Kegel in zany, self-deprecating television commercials.

"Chris in some ways is the perfect role model for bicycling in America because I think there is a perception that people have, ‘Oh, I would look funny in Lycra. I couldn’t wear that pointy helmet. It’s way too hard. I don’t look like I’m ready for the Tour de France,'" Blumenthal said. "Chris breaks down the stereotypes in a good way about what is required to be a bike rider."

A website has been set up where folks can post memories about Kegel. This entry on the site is fairly typical:

"The first time he was coming to our home for dinner, I got a call the day before. Would I mind if Chris used our shower when he got to the house? He was biking from work.... Well, sure, why not. He is the ONLY dinner guest we have ever had that showered upon arrival!"

Overwhelming response

Kegel's daughter, Amelia Kegel, said the response to news of her father's illness has been overwhelming.

"He’s always been nice to everyone, and it’s all coming back to us right now," she said. "It’s been flooding us with hope and prayers and positivity. That’s the stuff that actually matters. It’s been phenomenal.

"People have flown in from all over this country to see him."

Like so many others, Amelia has stories to tell about her dad.

"In third grade, when all the kids went around and said what they wanted to be when they grew up, he said he wanted to be a bartender, and they sent him to the principal for a psychological examination," she said. "What third grader wants to be a bartender?"

There were some big things, too — most notably, perhaps, his two visits to the Oval Office to meet with Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as an advocate for cycling.

"We got to pick out my dad’s tie when he was going to see the president," she said. "He was able to get all the big guys on the same page. The reason why we have bike lanes and bike paths and bike infrastructure in this country is because of people like my dad going and asking for it at a national level."

Chris Kegel's family intends to start a foundation in his honor, Amelia said.

"The important thing is that it is not a 'bile duct cancer' foundation. It is a 'ride your bike to stay healthy and hopefully never get cancer' foundation," she said. "It’s in the works."

As for Chris Kegel himself, there's no cancer-caused sadness.

"If my time’s up, my time’s up," he said. "But you know, miracles happen, too.

"I understand it’s hard to accept these hard-to-accept things. I actually want people to be happy. I’m about celebrations. I like parties."

He adds: "I’ve lived a great life. I have no regrets."

Slow Roll

Chris Kegel's family is sponsoring a bike ride and party in his honor on Sunday.

Chris Kegel's Slow Roll gets underway at 9 a.m. at the State Fair Park and Ride Lot, 76th and Main in West Allis.

The casual, "slow roll" bike ride begins at 10 a.m. and will make its way from State Fair Park and along the Hank Aaron State Trail to Lake Shore State Park. At the park, there will be banners to sign to pass along well wishes for Kegel. On the return trip, the ride will head south off the Hank Aaron at the 56th Street exit and end at Kegel's Inn, a bar that bears the family name, for a big tent celebration that includes a big screen showing of the Lions-Packers game at noon.

For more details, visit www.chriskegel.com