Nicole Reinhart

For German flatwater canoer, see Nicole Reinhardt.
Nicole Reinhart
Personal information
Full name Nicole Reinhart
Born (1976-06-03)June 3, 1976
 United States
Died September 17, 2000(2000-09-17) (aged 24)
Team information
Discipline Road & Track
Role Rider
Infobox last updated on
September 7, 2008

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

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 in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, she won three U.S. fitness championships and excelled on Emmaus's cross-country and track teams in the highly competitive East Penn Conference (forerunner to the Lehigh Valley Conference).

Pan American Games and other championships

After graduating from Emmaus High School in 1994, Reinhart focused on cycling and won two national élite track championships and two gold medals at the Pan American Games. In 1999, she signed for Saturn Women's Professional Cycling Team and won nine races that year, followed by another 13 in 2000.

Death

On September 17, 2000, Reinhart was killed during a 42-mile circuit race held on a 3.5-mile course in Arlington, Massachusetts. Her left pedal and foot hit a concrete curb and she was thrown from her bicycle and struck a tree. (The accident that killed Wouter Weylandt in May 2011 happened in almost precisely the same manner.) This event was the last of four races comprising the 2000 BMC Software Cycling Grand Prix. She had won the previous three; the organizers offered $250,000 to any rider who won all four. The prize was donated to her family, who established the Nicole Reinhart Foundation in Macungie, Pennsylvania, in her honor. A park or playground at the Cutter School in Arlington, Massachusetts, was named in her honor as a memorial, and dedicated in 2001.[1][2]

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

Major cycling achievements

2000 – Saturn Women's Professional Cycling Team
1st Clarendon Cup
1999 – Saturn Women's Professional Cycling Team
1st Clarendon Cup
1998
1997
1994
1993
1992

U.S. national records

References

  1. ↑ "Selectmen Minutes 06-04-2001". Town of Arlington, Massachusetts. pp. 3–4. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "BMC2/Nicole's Weekend, Arlington, MA 08 July 2001". 2001. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
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