By Paul Logan
Journal Staff Writer
Ben Hall
Racer Ben Hall, sporting shades and a foot-long beard, resembled a member of the Texas boogie band, ZZ Top, on a mountain bike.
Considered an artist in setting ceramic tile, the likable Albuquerque rider was fast becoming equally proficient in age-group racing, friends said.
Hall died instantly Sunday in "a freak accident" during a race outside Moab, Utah, said Dan Swinton, a friend.
While going through a pack of riders during the race, Hall's handle bars became tangled with another racer's. The two racers swerved to the left. Hall was killed when he hit a car pulling a trailer.
Swinton said the New Mexico racing community was shocked. Some of Hall's fellow racers had planned to celebrate Hall's 34th birthday last Monday. Instead, that night they gathered for a wake.
"It's just that somebody so young could be taken away from us," Swinton said. "You always think you're going to see your friends the next day. And you don't think anybody is going to be hit by a car in a mountain bike race either."
Bike racing experts say deaths can happen during training but rarely in an event.
Samuel Benjamin Hall, a lean athlete of about 5-foot-4, began racing seriously about two years ago, Swinton said.
Hall was an intense person who was successful at anything he worked at, Swinton said.
Hall stopped smoking when he became a serious cross-country racer, pedaling about 200 miles a week, he said.
"He was a witty, pithy, funny guy," Swinton said. "He was a vibrant guy who touched a lot of people's lives which transcended the biking community."
Hall started out in the sport class, winning the state mountain bike series his first year. So Hall moved up to the expert class for his age group.
Earlier this year, Hall and his friend, John Stevens of Albuquerque, won the 24-hour Old Pueblo Race near Tucson, in the men's duo category. Their entry name: "Dos Hairmanos."
"He was doing well," Swinton said. "He was successful."
A celebration of Hall's life will be held at 4:30 p.m. Monday at 1515 Princeton NE.
Other survivors include mother, Timmie Soreau, and her husband, Bob, of New Albany, Ind.; father, Sam Hall and his wife, Ann, of Fairfield Grade, Tenn.; brother, Chris Hall, of Kalamazoo, Mich.; and sister, Sarah Colglazier, her husband, Troy, and daughter, Kate, of Marengo, Ind.
Memorial donations may be made to the Fat Tire Cycles Memorial Fund for Ben Hall at any Wells Fargo Bank branch.
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