Van Dam pedaling uphill in attempt to dethrone Bennett

To sum up the U.S. Senate race in Utah this fall, we have Republican Bob Bennett, the incumbent candidate, being challenged by Democrat Paul Van Dam, the recumbent candidate.

That's not to say Van Dam is lying down on the job of trying to take away Bennett's job — quite the opposite, in fact. The recumbent label simply refers to the mode of transportation oft-used by the former state attorney general.

Throughout his campaign, Van Dam, 66, and his wife, Mary Dawn Bailey, are taking a Tour de Utah on a tandem recumbent bike. They once cranked through Vietnam on a similar trek — minus campaigning for U.S. Senate, of course. Though not quite ready to take on Lance Armstrong, Van Dam, also a former Salt Lake County attorney, has logged more than 900 miles around the Beehive State the past year pedaling for votes — for a chance to meet and greet Utahns from St. George to the Cache Valley, for the opportunity to spread his ideas about the country's future and for killer calf muscles.

The road has been dangerous at times — and not just because he's a vocal Democrat tooling through Republican country. The Senate hopeful and his partner in climb were cruising down from Brian Head Ski Resort after an 11,000-foot-high lunch in late May, when their brakes went out. Next thing they knew, they were dangerously zipping down Parowan Canyon — with a 13 percent grade — at speeds reaching 60 mph.

Van Dam weaved through hairpin curves, just missed smacking a retaining wall and steered through the wrong lane to avoid venturing off the side of the road. An experienced motocross racer, the athletic and sharp-witted Van Dam managed to guide the fleeting bike through the downhill course, at times planting his foot to handle S curves. His communications director, who was following in the campaign van, lost sight of them and occasionally looked off the side of the road, fearing his boss had soared off an embankment. He was relieved to see them at the bottom — safe, sound and startled.

"I really thought we were going to get killed," Van Dam said. He added that in all his wild adventures on motorcycles, bikes, sailboats, river rafts and horses that this "was the worst feeling I've had about my impending doom."

It's not the first time Van Dam has tempted fate. In August of 1990, he was sailing with a friend on the Great Salt Lake when a windy thunderstorm hit. Their 22-foot sailboat was smacked by a squall and capsized. They bobbed on top of the vessel in 4-foot-high waves overnight before finally being rescued at about 4 a.m. To stay warm, they ripped apart a floating sail bag and wrapped themselves up in it.