MASTERS CYCLING : ‘Beast’ a Beauty on a Bike

SAN DIEGO — “Beast.”

Sounds more like reference to a 250-pound football lineman than a nickname for a 6-foot-1 1/2, 172-pound cyclist. But since 1979, San Marcos’ Danny Van Haute, now 32 and member of the Vita-Crunch/Gatorade/Schwinn racing team, has been stuck with it.

“There was a Belgium rider in 1905 named Carlton Ver Beste,” Van Haute said. “His event on the track was motor pacing, where you ride behind a motor (vehicle). One day he was going so fast, he ran into the motor and killed himself.

“In 1979, I was motor pacing behind my dad (Frank), and he forgot to tell me there was a pothole. I hit it and flew off my bike. I had to have 12 stitches in my head.”

A cycling friend, Eddie Van Guyse, who also then lived in Chicago but now resides in Long Beach, named him “Beast” in reference to Ver Beste.

And like Ver Beste, Van Haute has had his share of successes in his 20 years of cycling.

His latest was a fourth-place finish in the one-kilometer time trial at the Masters National Cycling Championships at the Velodrome Wednesday.

Van Haute, a six-time national champion and two-time Olympian, wasn’t pleased with his finish, despite a difference of just .17 of a second between second and fourth. Tony Vincenti of Santa Barbara won in 1:11.28. San Diego’s Peter McCurdy finished in 1:12.02, Tom Fritschen of Seattle in 1:12.08 and Van Haute in 1:12.19.

Van Haute, who turned professional shortly after the 1984 Olympics, quit his team, Wheaties-Schwinn, and returned to amateur status last year when he says he became frustrated with the team’s management. He said he’s considering giving up racing this year but plans to stay active in the sport either as a coach, a promoter or owner of a bike shop.

Frank Van Haute was Danny’s first coach and three months ago returned to help his son train after moving from Chicago to Vista with his wife, Josie. Frank lived until 1953 in Belgium, where cycling is a major sport. He introduced it to Danny when his son was 12. There was a velodrome close by in Chicago, and Danny trained there two days a week and traveled to races on the weekends.

He competed at the junior world championships at 18. Then, from the age of 19 until he was 23, Van Haute traveled to Belgium for six months each year “to train and learn to race.”

He made the Olympic team in 1980, but because the U.S. boycotted that year, he worked toward another shot at Los Angeles in ’84.

He was rewarded with two first-place finishes in the 1984 Olympic trials, in the 4,000-meter pursuit and the 50-kilometer point race.