{"id":65986,"date":"2020-03-14T21:38:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-15T03:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sonntag-family-travels-from-germany-for-memorial\/"},"modified":"2020-03-15T03:38:46","modified_gmt":"2020-03-15T03:38:46","slug":"sonntag-family-travels-from-germany-for-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sonntag-family-travels-from-germany-for-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonntag family travels from Germany for memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=7c9d5c34-0f42-4124-ac0d-963c20540526&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1300\" height=\"874\" alt=\"Rotem Ishay speaks bout his late friend Benjamin Sonntag on Saturday during the memorial service for the professional cyclist in the Exhibit Building at the La Plata County Fairgrounds.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Rotem Ishay speaks bout his late friend Benjamin Sonntag on Saturday during the memorial service for the professional cyclist in the Exhibit Building at the La Plata County Fairgrounds.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Klaus Sonntag knew something wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n<p>It was Wednesday, March 4, and Sonntag had phoned his son, Benjamin, in Durango from Germany. The two talked every day on the phone, but Ben was about to go for a ride and told his father he\u2019d call him when he returned from training.<\/p>\n<p>The call never came, and Sonntag got worried. That\u2019s when he got the call from Sarah Alsgaard that her boyfriend, Klaus\u2019s son, had not returned home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is very difficult to understand it,\u201d Sonntag said at his son\u2019s memorial service in the La Plata County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall. He spoke German, translated in an interview with <em>The Durango Herald<\/em> by a family member.<\/p>\n<p>About 150 people joined the Sonntag family \u2013 including Benjamin\u2019s father, his mother, Irmgard, and his brothers, Patrick and Daniel \u2013 for a memorial celebration of Ben Sonntag, <a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/317316-death-of-ben-sonntag-a-sobering-reminder-to-cycling-community\">who died at age 39<\/a> last week in a fatal crash in southwest La Plata County.<\/p>\n<p>Friends, former teammates and community members told stories about racing with Sonntag, a Fort Lewis College graduate and Clif pro team professional mountain biker. Some spoke through tears, others though the joy of fond memories of Sonntag.<\/p>\n<p>He had a joyous spirit through times good and bad \u2013 his unparalleled athleticism was often outshone by his infectious attitude, people said.<\/p>\n<p>The Sonntag family had been to Durango before; Klaus said he felt an emptiness in his heart without his son to show him around.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s difficult to comprehend the tragedy of his son\u2019s death, Klaus said the support shown Saturday by the community is good for him and his family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can see all that was lost with Ben,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:bhauff@durangoherald.com\">bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>150 people gathered Saturday to remember professional cyclist Benjamin Sonntag<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,657,13,28,29,4747],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-cycling","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-slideshow"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65986"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}