A series of unlikely events has brought Esther Lumsdon to participate in the Face Of America 2006 bike ride this weekend in Gettysburg, Pa.

When Lumsdon, 44, of Cary, was in the third grade she was struck by a car, becoming an amputee below her left knee. She would go on to do some youth level riding and rode thru college before becoming sedentary.

Then in the mid-1990s, while flipping through Bicycling Magazine, she came across some photos of Tour de France winner Greg LeMond riding across Vietnam with some disabled veterans on a World Team Sports event.

One of those pictured was Duane Wagner, whom Lumsdon later met at an Amputee Coalition of America convention.

"I knew I needed to get involved somehow," said Lumsdon of Cary, a contracted software tester.

So about once a year, Lumsdon would check the organization's Web site just to see what all was going on.

Cycling, meanwhile, also kept coming in and out of her life. Her husband, Scott Chilcote, was an avid cyclist and helped Lumsdon get back on the bike.

But cycling was at times more like work than recreation, so Lumsdon became disinterested and put away her bike a couple of times.

That is until she turned 40 in 2002 and her doctor gave her a lecture on impending diabetes.

"I have this horrible fear of needles," she said. "Since Type II diabetes can be avoided by adopting a healthier lifestyle through diet and exercise, this was the motivation I needed to take up bicycling more seriously than I had in the past."

So Lumsdon began cycling -- again -- for the third time in the last 13 years.

"I'm not sure exactly why it's stuck this time, but it has," Lumsdon said. Last fall, Lumsdon was making her annual pilgrimage to the ACA Web site when she found out about the Face Of America ride, which was originally scheduled for the fall.

About the same time, Lumsdon accompanied her mother-in-law, who was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for a an oncologist appointment.

"While I was waiting, I just saw all these fairly new amputees who had been in Iraq and Afghanistan," Lumsdon said. "I just saw all of these young men and thought to myself, there must be something I can do."

When the Face Of America ride was moved back to this weekend, Lumsdon knew this could be her way of contributing.

On Saturday, she and her husband will ride a red 27-gear Santana tandem bike along the two-day, 110-mile route from Gettysburg to Washington, D.C. The ride, which benefits World Team Sports, teams able-bodied individuals with disabled individuals, including servicemen just returning from the war.

Suddenly, riding has a purpose for Lumsdon. And maybe that's why riding has become fun again.

For information on the Face Of America ride, go to www.worldteamsports.org.