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Alaska’s Fireweed bike race returns after hiatus, with One-Wheel Wonders along for the ride

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Alaska’s Fireweed bike race returns after hiatus, with One-Wheel Wonders along for the ride


The Fireweed road cycling race is being run this weekend after four years off.

Among the participants making the 200-mile ride from Sheep Mountain Lodge, near Matanuska Glacier, to Valdez is a group of unicyclists from Anchorage who go by the name of the One-Wheel Wonders.

“We’re not really like a formal group,” said Stolf Short, who helped form the team. “We’re just a bunch of buddies riding together. I’ve known some of the folks that I’ve been riding with for less than a year, but I feel like I’ve known them forever.”

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The race has generally been run by traditional two-wheel cyclists, but after seeing an advertisement for the race on social media, Short thought it might be a fun thing to try with a unicycle. But doing 200 miles on his own would be too much of a strain.

“I’ve always wanted to do 100 miles and I know a couple of people who’ve done 100 miles, and so I reached out to some buddies to see if anybody was interested,” he said.

At first, about 10 people showed interest before the list was whittled down to the seven unicyclists who make up the current team.

“We’ve been training together, whether we’re riding mountain unicycles out on the singletrack trails around Anchorage or with a bigger unicycle on the paved paths,” Short said.

They’ve been training for this particular race on and off for the last four months, and some members have participated in cyclo-cross competitions in the past.

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“I’m just excited to get out with some buddies and ride and camp and enjoy that camaraderie of a race,” Short said. “I really enjoy the way that people cheer each other on and I feel like I feed off of that enthusiasm, and I really like to give it back too.”

When he first posed the idea to participate in the Fireweed, he got some mixed responses.

“Some people very enthusiastically, instantly said ‘Yeah!’ and some folks were like, ‘Eh let’s talk about it,’” Short said. “We all kind of met eventually and talked about it. I think we’re all pretty pumped on the idea. Anybody who really wasn’t kind of fell to the wayside on this mission anyway.”

Race director and vice president Sarah Radonich has been on the board since 2014 and said they don’t restrict how groups run their relays, so they can swap out as often and however many times as they’d like — although they’re allowed to cross the finish line just one at a time.

“We’re all gonna try to do the last leg of it although we can’t cross the finish line together,” Short said. “We will all ride the last mile or two together and I think we’ll peel off and one person will cross through because I think that’s part of the race rules, but we’re all going to try to finish this thing together.”

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Radonich was “totally stoked” when the group expressed interest in participating in the return of the race.

“I saw them at the Tour of Anchorage, and they climbed up the Sisson, which is a huge wall,” she said. “If you can unicycle up that in the middle of winter on snow, then you can absolutely do this on the road.”

The team’s tentative plan was to swap out every 5 to 10 miles, although in some sections they’ll have no choice but to ride for longer.

“With unicycles we’ll just go a lot slower even though our tires are a lot bigger than a road bike,” Short said. “It’s just a single revolution, and we’re kind of hoping overall to have our average speed be about 10 miles an hour.”

While that’s not very fast in the grand scheme of a 200-mile race, their focus is on safety more than speed.

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Short took up unicycling during the pandemic, and has been enthralled with it in the three years since he started. He began riding cyclo-cross — featuring sort of all-terrain races — and met more riders.

Having fun is more important to him and the rest of the One-Wheel Wonders than how fast they can get to the finish line.

“We’re not really trying to compete for any time or anything like that,” he said. “We just kind of want to just do the thing.”

Rebirth of the race

Radonich had received a call from the organization’s director and president, Sara Wendling, around this time last year about preparing for the return of the race after Wendling’s father, Shawn Wendling, passed away.

“Her father was basically my board mentor,” Radonich said. “He really brought me on and tried to do a very solid transition with me. It was very important to her that the race continue, so we brought it back.”

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The Fireweed race took place every year from 2002 to 2018 and was one of six races that served as a qualifier for the Race Across America competition. It previously had four categories that included 400-, 200-, 100- and 50-mile races. Radonich said the race might have returned sooner if not for the pandemic.

[Fireweed 400 bike race calls it quits after 16 years]

“I think we’re more interested in longer rides, so probably 200-plus,” Radonich said. “It’s very complicated to run at 50 or 100 that finish in different places. You have to have two sets of finish lines and essentially two sets of staff when they finish in two different places.”

Even though this year’s Fireweed isn’t a Race Across America qualifier, organizers still had a lot of interest from road cyclists from all over the country. This year’s race had a solo option, two-person teams, four-person teams and the open division that the One-Wheel Wonders are competing in.

“We have Fairbanks, North Pole, Tok, Skagway, Juneau, and then we have all over from the Midwest, California, Texas, and I think there’s some Wisconsin people,” Radonich said.

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The race is also a fundraiser for youth cycling ventures. This year, it will donate funds to Mighty Bikes and G.R.I.T. (Girls Riding Into Tomorrow).

Roughly 400 people are registered for this year’s 200-mile race — an impressive return, considering in 2018, the last time the race was held, the Fireweed drew around 600 participants across all four categories.

“We love finishing in Valdez,” Radonich said. “They’ve been phenomenal in bringing this back. They have made everything so easy for us. They’re so easy to work with. They’ve done a lot to help us with permitting on their end, with logistics, and with signage. They’ve pretty much bent over backwards to help us bring this back.”





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Alaska

Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Gets Fired For Twerking On The Job

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Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Gets Fired For Twerking On The Job


A flight attendant’s viral TikTok video ended up costing her job. Nelle Diala, who was working as a flight attendant with Alaska Airlines for over six months was reportedly fired from her job after recording a twerking video while at work, the New York Post reported. After losing her job for “violating” the airline’s “social media policy”, Diala set up a GoFundMe page for financial support. The twerking and dancing video, posted by Diala on her personal social media account, went viral on TikTok and Instagram. The video was captioned, “ghetto bih till i D-I-E, don’t let the uniform fool you.”

After being fired, Diala reposted the twerking video with the new caption: “Can’t even be yourself anymore, without the world being so sensitive. What’s wrong with a little twerk before work, people act like they never did that before.” She added the hashtag #discriminationisreal.

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According to Diala’s GoFundMe page, she posted the “lighthearted video” during a layover. The video was shot in an empty aircraft. She wrote, “It was a harmless clip that was recorded at 6 am while waiting 2 hours for pilots. I was also celebrating the end of probation.”

“The video went viral overnight, but instead of love and support, it brought unexpected scrutiny. Although it was a poor decision on my behalf I didn’t think it would cost me my dream job,” she added.

Also Read: To Wi-Fi Or Not To Wi-Fi On A Plane? Pros And Cons Of Using Internet At 30,000 Feet

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Talking about being “wrongfully fired”, she said, “My employer accused me of violating their social media policy. I explained that the video wasn’t intended to harm anyone or the company, but they didn’t want to listen. Without warning, they terminated me. No discussion, no chance to defend myself-and no chance for a thorough and proper investigation.”

The seemingly “harmless clip” has led Diala to lose her “dream job”. She shared, “Losing my job was devastating. I’ve always been careful about what I share online, and I never thought this video, which didn’t even mention the airline by name, would cost me my career. Now, I am trying to figure out how to move forward.”






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Federal funds will help DOT study wildlife crashes on Glenn Highway

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Federal funds will help DOT study wildlife crashes on Glenn Highway


New federal funds will help Alaska’s Department of Transportation develop a plan to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife on one of the state’s busiest highways.

The U.S. Transportation Department gave the state a $626,659 grant in December to conduct a wildlife-vehicle collision study along the Glenn Highway corridor stretching between Anchorage’s Airport Heights neighborhood to the Glenn-Parks Highway interchange.

Over 30,000 residents drive the highway each way daily.

Mark Eisenman, the Anchorage area planner for the department, hopes the study will help generate new ideas to reduce wildlife crashes on the Glenn Highway.

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“That’s one of the things we’re hoping to get out of this is to also have the study look at what’s been done, not just nationwide, but maybe worldwide,” Eisenman said. “Maybe where the best spot for a wildlife crossing would be, or is a wildlife crossing even the right mitigation strategy for these crashes?”

Eisenman said the most common wildlife collisions are with moose. There were nine fatal moose-vehicle crashes on the highway between 2018 and 2023. DOT estimates Alaska experiences about 765 animal-vehicle collisions annually.

In the late 1980s, DOT lengthened and raised a downtown Anchorage bridge to allow moose and wildlife to pass underneath, instead of on the roadway. But Eisenman said it wasn’t built tall enough for the moose to comfortably pass through, so many avoid it.

DOT also installed fencing along high-risk areas of the highway in an effort to prevent moose from traveling onto the highway.

Moose typically die in collisions, he said, and can also cause significant damage to vehicles. There are several signs along the Glenn Highway that tally fatal moose collisions, and he said they’re the primary signal to drivers to watch for wildlife.

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“The big thing is, the Glenn Highway is 65 (miles per hour) for most of that stretch, and reaction time to stop when you’re going that fast for an animal jumping onto the road is almost impossible to avoid,” he said.

The city estimates 1,600 moose live in the Anchorage Bowl.



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Flight attendant sacked for twerking on the job: ‘What’s wrong with a little twerk before work’

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Flight attendant sacked for twerking on the job: ‘What’s wrong with a little twerk before work’


They deemed the stunt not-safe-for-twerk.

An Alaska Airlines flight attendant who was sacked for twerking on camera has created a GoFundMe to support her while she seeks a new berth.

The crewmember, named Nelle Diala, had filmed the viral booty-shaking TikTok video on the plane while waiting two hours for the captain to arrive, A View From the Wing reported.

“I never thought a single moment would cost me everything,” wrote the ex-crewmember. TikTok / @_jvnelle415

She captioned the clip, which also blew up on Instagram, “ghetto bih till i D-I-E, don’t let the uniform fool you.”

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Diala was reportedly doing a victory dance to celebrate the end of her new hire probationary period.

Unfortunately, her jubilation was short-lived as Alaska Airlines nipped her employment in the bum just six months into her contract.

The fanny-wagging flight attendant feels that she didn’t do anything wrong.

Diala was ripped online over her GoFundMe page. GoFundMe

Diala has since reposted the twerking clip with the new caption: “Can’t even be yourself anymore, without the world being so sensitive. What’s wrong with a little twerk before work, people act like they never did that before.”

The new footage was hashtagged #discriminationisreal.

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The disgraced stewardess even set up a GoFundMe page to help support the so-called “wrongfully fired” flight attendant until she can land a new flight attendant gig.

“I never thought a single moment would cost me everything,” wrote the ex-crewmember. “Losing my job was devastating.”

“Can’t even be yourself anymore, without the world being so sensitive,” Diala wrote on TikTok while reacting to news of her firing. “What’s wrong with a little twerk before work, people act like they never did that before.” Getty Images

She claimed that the gig had allowed her to meet new people and see the world, among other perks.

While air hostessing was ostensibly a “dream job,” Diala admitted that she used the income to help fund her “blossoming lingerie and dessert businesses,” which she runs under the Instagram handles @cakezncake (which doesn’t appear to have any content?) and @figure8.lingerie.

As of Wednesday morning, the crowdfunding campaign has raised just $182 of its $12,000 goal.

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Diala was ripped online for twerking on the job as well as her subsequent GoFundMe efforts.

“You don’t respect the uniform, you don’t respect your job then,” declared one critic on the popular aviation-focused Instagram page The Crew Lounge. “Terms and Conditions apply.”

“‘Support for wrongly fired flight attendant??’” mocked another. “Her GoFund title says it all. She still thinks she was wrongly fired. Girl you weren’t wrongly fired. Go apply for a new job and probably stop twerking in your uniform.”

“The fact that you don’t respect your job is one thing but doing it while in uniform and at work speaks volumes,” scoffed a third. “You’re the brand ambassador and it’s not a good look.”

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