A cyclist competing in the popular LOTOJA bike race died Saturday night after crashing his bicycle and falling into the Snake River in Wyoming. 
 
 JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — A cyclist competing in the popular LOTOJA bike race died Saturday night after crashing his bicycle and falling into the Snake River in Wyoming. 
 
 Robert Verhaaren, 42, a Mesa Arizona resident, was approximately 8 miles south of the town of Jackson on Highway 89 when he crossed a bridge over the Snake River and came upon a hazard in the roadway, believed to be a pothole, according to a press release by Sheriff Jim Whalen with Teton County. 
 
 "Verhaaren swerved to miss the hazard, over-corrected, lost control of the bicycle and crashed into the guardrail," Whalen said. He catapulted over the guardrail and fell approximately 35 feet into the river, in water about a foot deep, Whalen said. 
 
 Other racers stopped and rendered aid until medical personnel arrived. Verhaaren was later pronounced dead at St. John's Hospital in Jackson. Coroner Kiley Campbell said the initial examination revealed Varharren suffered a possible cervical fracture. Deputies on scene reported minor abrasions on his face and minimal bleeding, according to Whalen. More details on the actual cause of death were not released. 
 
 Some local residents have complained about the poor roads in that stretch of the race. The guardrail is reportedly 2 feet high, Whalen said that it did not appear to be a high rail. 
 
 "We are questioning (the pot holes)," said Dave Bern, LOTOJA communications director. "There is some rough ground (there)." 
 
 Bern said that LOTOJA — named for the race that stretches from Logan to Jackson Hole, Wyo. — has been going over that bridge for 30 years. 
 
 "We've been fortunate, just blessed. People have been careful, motorists have been careful and this didn't even involve a car," Bern said. "We always thought that it would involve a car." 
 
 Representatives from the Wyoming Department of Transportation were not available for comment. 
 
 Verhaaren leaves behind a wife and three children. He was an avid cyclist and was the managing director of Universal Equity Group Funds Arizona. He received a bachelor's degree in accounting from Brigham Young University and a law degree from the New York University School of Law. 
 
 Verhaaren's brother, Michael, is married to Olympic BMX cyclist Arielle Martin, whose injuries in an Olympic practice run prevented her from competing this summer. 
 
 "Seeing life through new lenses today. Unbelievably devastated," Martin posted on her Twitter account Sunday. 
 
 LOTOJA, at 206 miles, is the longest single-day bike race in the country and annually draws approximately 1,000 cyclists from all around the United States. 
 
 Contributor: Jeff Finley 
 
 — Julian Reyes 
 
 Twitter: @_JulianReyes_ ||||| By Jon Larson 
 
 JACKSON HOLE, Wyo.— Tragedy struck LOTOJA Saturday afternoon as one of the competitors died before reaching the finish line. Details are still somewhat unclear, but roughly 18 miles south of Jackson Hole, Rob Verhaaren tumbled over the side of a bridge and into the Snake River. 
 
 Verhaaren fell roughly 30 or 40 feet into the river, and was later pronounced dead at an area hospital. 
 
 Verhaaren, who would have turned 43 next week, leaves behind a wife, Bridget, and three young children; Ansel, Helena and Karl. Ansel and Helena also have birthdays next week, Tuesday and Saturday respectively. 
 
 Verhaaren received a B.S. degree in accounting from Brigham Young University, magna cum laude, and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law. His most recent position was the Managing Director of Universal Equity Group Funds Arizona. 
 
 According to Jay Larson, Verhaaren’s neighbor in Mesa, Ariz., Rob and Bridget were both avid cyclists and loved the sport because it kept them fit and healthy. 
 
 “His whole family is awesome,” Larson said. “They would bend over backwards for anyone.” 
 
 Just this past Monday, the Verhaaren family was out putting up flags in their neighborhood to celebrate Labor Day. 
 
 Verhaaren was a beloved scoutmaster who wanted his scouts to have memorable experiences. One time, without permission, Verhaaren registered his troop into a lottery for a chance to go spend their summer camp on Catalina Island at Camp Emerald Bay. The troop was lucky and thanks to him, more than 30 boys had the opportunity to go to California this past summer. 
 
 The Verhaaren family is no stranger to cycling accidents. Bridget crashed earlier this year, breaking her hand and separating her shoulder. 
 
 Olympic BMX cyclist, Arielle Martin, wife to Rob’s brother Michael, was also in an accident recently. Her experience at the London Games ended before it truly began as she crashed during a practice run a few days before her event. Since then, Martin has undergone numerous surgeries to repair damage to her liver and one of her lungs. 
 
 Dave Collins, one of Verhaaren’s training partners, nearly lost his life in 2009 during a cycling accident of his own. He collided with a car and went through one of the windows, severing his carotid artery. Luckily, an ER doctor was close by and was able to stop the bleeding before it was too late. 
 
 Race spokesman Dave Bern says the 206-mile race also was marred by serious accidents in Idaho and Wyoming that sent two bicyclists to the hospital and by flat tires experienced by roughly 200 cyclists early on. 
 
 He says it's the first fatality in the race's 30-year history. 
 
 LOTOJA, the annual race from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming is the longest single-day bike race in the country at roughly 206 miles and is sanctioned by USA Cycling. ||||| Dan Kneen at the start of his 2015 season. (Jon Jessop Photography/dankneen.com) 
 
 Every spring, the Isle of Man — a tiny island hanging between Ireland and Great Britain — becomes a high-velocity, all-stakes speed zone. 
 
 About 40,000 outsiders cram onto the island annually to watch and participate in what organizers call “the most dangerous race in the world.” 
 
 The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) is a series of motorcycle races. For two weeks, bikers blitz the public roads looping around the island at speeds approaching 200 mph. 
 
 More than 400 turns and corners kink the raceway, according to Sports Illustrated, making the contest among the most difficult high-speed races on earth — and one of the most deadly. Since the event began in 1907, more than 140 racers have died in the TT. Combined with spectators killed at the event and fatalities at other races held on the same route, the island’s knotty 37.7-mile circuit has taken more than 250 lives, TheDrive reported. 
 
 “As thrilling as the racing is, at times I’ve thought it shouldn’t be legal,” racer Dave Roper told Sports Illustrated in 2003. “Looking back, I can’t believe I even survived.” 
 
 On Wednesday, as the first week of qualifying races was underway, the high whine of bike engines suddenly halted in the evening. According to the event’s organizers, all racing was stopped after 30-year-old Dan Kneen was killed in a crash during his first lap. 
 
 The 2018 race’s first death underscores the danger of the event, which has led detractors to call it the “Isle of Manslaughter.” But that daredevil gamble is also the appeal. 
 
 “We all know that we accept the risks,” past TT champion John McGuinness told the Guardian in 2007. “Maybe we’re a bunch of hard-nosed bastards.” 
 
 When the races first started last century, the island was selected because of the region’s lack of speed limits, according to the Guardian (the Isle of Man still has no speed limits). 
 
 The first champion, Charlie Collier, had an average speed of 38 mph. In 1911, when a racer topped 41 mph in one lap, observers cried the race must be shut down — that kind of speed was too dangerous, they claimed. In 1913, protesters laid broken glass across the track to disrupt the race, and organizers worked overnight to clear the raceway for the next day’s start, Sports Illustrated reported. 
 
 As in the early days, the TT today presents many different obstacles because it winds along various landscapes. The course blasts through farmlands and villages, runs past hedgerows and stone fences and lifts from sea level to 1,300 feet on the island’s Snaefell Mountain. As bike technology has improved — and gotten faster — the TT course has thrown those obstacles at racers faster, leaving less and less time to react. 
 
 “If Roger Federer misses a shot, he loses a point,” former TT champion Richard Quayle told the New York Times last year. “If I miss an apex, I lose my life.” 
 
 By 1976, the race’s body count put it out of favor with many mainstream international racing organizations. As the Times reported, many people believed the event’s 100th anniversary in 2007 would be the last race. 
 
 Instead, Paul Phillips, a former finance professional, came on as the head of the event. Upping the safety standards, enlisting better quality drivers, and marketing the TT as an X Games-like event helped resuscitate the TT. 
 
 “Before my tenure here, there was an underlying there’s-nothing-to-see-here kind of mentality, and to the wider world, to me, it felt like we came across as a group as kind of bloodthirsty and ignorant,” Phillips told the Times. “Now, all of our marketing is about: ‘This is the most dangerous race in the world. These guys are the gladiators.’ ” 
 
 But the danger continues. Last year, three racers were killed in two days at the TT, TheDrive reported. 
 
 
 
 Isle of Man rider Dan Kneen after winning Enkalon Trophy showpiece at Bishopscourt in Northern Ireland in 2017. (dankneen.com) 
 
 Dan Kneen grew up amid the TT’s engine roar and death in Onchan, a village on the Isle of Man’s east coast. 
 
 He made his racing debut on the home track in 2008, at the Manx Grand Prix, another event on the TT’s route. That year he won three races, according to TT organizers. He started in the main TT race a year later, going on to start in 39 races at the annual event, the Belfast Telegraph reported. Last year he finished third in the TT’s Superstock race. 
 
 Kneen’s father, Richard, and younger brother, Ryan, were also motorcycle racers. 
 
 “Dan Kneen and his family — they’re a racing family,” a friend told Isle of Man TV this week. “Everybody knows the dangers, and nobody put a gun to Dan Kneen’s head to ride or any other rider’s head. They want to do this. The thrill of road racing is there.” 
 
 Going into this year’s TT, Kneen was riding for an Ireland-based team, Tyco BMW. During Tuesday’s trials, Kneen set his own record on the TT circuit, going 132.258 mph, according to the Telegraph. The timing put him third among the racers in the qualifying matches for next week’s official competition. 
 
 On Wednesday evening, as Kneen was starting his first lap of the course, he crashed near Churchtown, race organizers said. 
 
 Authorities told all other riders on the course to stop, quieting the island. From the silence, racers and observers knew something had happened. 
 
 “You can feel that eerie feeling coming right down over the paddock,” an observer told Isle of Man TV. “Everybody just changed their whole demeanor. It’s a sad place to be, this paddock, when something goes wrong.” 
 
 A second racer, Steve Mercer, was struck by a course car on its way to Kneen’s accident site. Mercer was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover. 
 
 Kneen died at the scene. His father released a statement on Facebook, the Telegraph reported. 
 
 “Dan lived for his racing and wild horses wouldn’t have torn him away from it. I was happy for him; he was in his element and loving it,” the father wrote. “Best wishes for all the other TT competitors. The TT show will go on.” 
 
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 Thousands of South Carolinians won the lottery on Christmas — or so they thought. Now some are suing. 
 
 Decades ago he abandoned his family and assumed a new identity. An Ancestry.com search unraveled his lies.
– An Arizona father of three plunged to his death from a bridge during a 206-mile bike race Saturday. Robert Verhaaren, 42, veered to avoid a pothole and catapulted over a guardrail over the Snake River in Wyoming, falling 35 feet into shallow water just eight miles from the finish line in the LoToJa race, reports the Cache Valley Daily. It was the first death in the history of the 30-year-old race. "it's the worst thing that can happen," a member of the race support team told the Jackson Hole News & Guide. “It’s always our greatest fear.” It "was devastating for us to lose a member of our LoToJa family," said race spokesman Dave Bern. "Unfortunately, these things go along with bicycle racing. Cycling is not for the risk averse." To date, "we've been fortunate," he told the Deseret News. "People have been careful, motorists have been careful." The contest, the longest single-day bike race in the country, starts in Logan, Utah, and ends in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Two other racers ended up in the hospital after serious accidents in Idaho and Wyoming.