David Cornelsen

It's not every day you wake up to a cow mooing in your hotel lobby. Or snuggle into your sleeping bag beside a herd of wild camels. Or drift off to sleep in a birch forest under the watchful eyes of three former agents of the KGB. But when participating on World Ride '95, a 13,000-mile cycling expedition, you come to expect the unexpected. Just ask David Cornelsen of Huntington Beach.

It's not every day you wake up to a cow mooing in your hotel lobby. Or snuggle into your sleeping bag beside a herd of wild camels. Or drift off to sleep in a birch forest under the watchful eyes of three former agents of the KGB. But when participating on World Ride '95, a 13,000-mile cycling expedition, you come to expect the unexpected. Just ask David Cornelsen of Huntington Beach.

Before an automobile accident left him crippled three years ago, David Cornelsen of Huntington Beach was a champion bicyclist and avid hiker. Paralyzed from the waist down, Cornelsen can no longer hike. But he can cycle. On June 3 in upstate New York, he used an arm-powered, three-wheel bike to set a national record for handicapped competitors in a time-trial race.

Before an automobile accident left him crippled three years ago, David Cornelsen of Huntington Beach was a champion bicyclist and avid hiker. Paralyzed from the waist down, Cornelsen can no longer hike. But he can cycle. On June 3 in upstate New York, he used an arm-powered, three-wheel bike to set a national record for handicapped competitors in a time-trial race.

David Cornelsen is about to embark on the ride of his life. Cornelsen, paralyzed from the hips down, will use his arms to pedal a two-wheel hand cycle in a round-the-world adventure, departing Friday from Atlanta. Cornelsen, 43, will join other disabled riders in touring the United States and 15 countries in Europe and Asia as part of AXA World Ride '95. The 12,971-mile ride, organized by World TEAM (The Exceptional Athlete Matters) Sports Inc.

They're an unlikely group to have pedaled around the world on bicycles. But the half a dozen cyclists who slowly maneuvered off an airplane Thursday in wheelchairs and on crutches were peddling something more: hope for others with disabilities. Members of World Ride '95 arrived in Los Angeles from Japan to start the final segment of an eight-month, 13,000-mile odyssey that will end in mid-November in Washington.

David Cornelsen, 38, is in the process of remaking and redefining himself. For starters, the well-conditioned Huntington Beach man wants to become a professional athlete even though he is a paraplegic, the result of a head-on automobile collision three years ago in Mexicali, Mexico, that disabled his legs. "I'd like to make a living being a professional athlete who lectures on handicapped sports, at least for the short term," said the one-time USC sociology lecturer.

These days, it seems, uplifting stories are getting harder to come by. Well, here's one that will be part of the Ironman Triathlon's taped coverage on NBC Saturday from 1-3 p.m. Unfortunately, it runs opposite the 12:30 UCLA-USC game on ABC, but there's always the VCR. The story involves Darryl Haley, a 34-year-old, 6-foot-6, 300-pound former NFL offensive lineman. A 300-pounder in the Ironman?