Part 3: The Becoming

It’s the second lap and I am absolutely pegged. On the rivet. In the red. I am wondering what I got myself into. Looking at my heart rate monitor only made it worse, as I am pinned at 175 bpm. How I am going to go this fast for 45 minutes? Do all bike races go this fast?

All these thoughts and doubts were racing through my head, as I was just trying to finish. After this short track mountain bike race, I was completely hooked into racing. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. It put any sport or any workout I have ever done into ultimate shame.

After realizing that I had no idea what the hell I was doing, I sought help in our Directeur Sportif, who also ran Colorado Premier Training. After a few meetings, I decided that hiring on a professional coach was the quickest way to improve.

Through some excellent guidance, I began training with a purpose and saw exponential gains. After working hard all winter I went head first into my first road season with CSU not knowing to expect. I came into the season prepared, and during my first year I had great success with various podiums and some top 10s in the Men’s “A” division. I was selected as an alternate rider for Collegiate Nationals, but was unable to attend due to a punctured lung. I was able to take some rest, and during the Colorado road season, I was able to go from a Category 5 to a Category 3 rider in that same period.

Moving into my final year of college, I was setting and achieving goals early on in the season and was learning a lot about myself and how I fit into races. I had the great support of the Rio Grande Cycling Team, to make sure that my grades didn’t dip down because of my cycling commitment, and also good team building in the races where everyone had their chance to ride for the win. Being my last year at CSU, my only goal was to race Nationals.

I was so focused on this, my training started in December and every race was in preparation for Nationals. My fellow teammates and I would spend 10-15 hours a week together, over the next four months, prepping for the race. As the dates got finalized, I noticed that Nationals coincided with my graduation. I had been waiting to race Nationals for two years and I was not giving up the opportunity, so I skipped graduation, much to the dismay of my family, even though they had given me full support and were very proud of what I had accomplished.

Nationals were a big event and I was in a state of shock at the environment of the event. The rider fields were massive, and the depth of talent was amazing. I was racing with guys that years before I had only read about. The crit even was amazing, and despite having some rain, it was the fastest race I had ever done. I was able to avoid all the crashes and came in a respectable 44th place out of 163 starters.

The road race was set to be an even harder course, rolling all day with a 15% finishing climb, which we were set to do 4 laps on. From the start the race was every bit as fast as the crit and with the wind, we sat in the gutter, single file all day. Luck was not on my side, and as the field shredded down to about 60 guys with 20 miles to go, I came completely unglued and couldn’t even turn over the pedals.

After some immense hydration, I was functional again and ready for the coveted Team Time Trial, the event we had been practicing all season. After a good warm up, everything was looking good as we blazed the fastest time to the first turn around. Unfortunately, our bad luck continued as our team captain flatted. We kept it together and finished 23rd out of 40 universities. This weekend helped lay the foundation to see what its like to race at national level and planted the seed to get to that level.




After a few months back in Colorado, my family convinced me to relocate with them to Florida. I spent some time researching cycling and got in contact with Darrell Cunningham from Orlando Velo via email, and Darrell was very welcoming and helpful in guiding me to the group rides and online information about racing in the area. After a weekend of Errol and Windermere rides with Darrell (who owns B3 Café in Orlando) and Darrell Pounders, I was welcomed into the Orlando Velo family with open arms. The guys were very enthusiastic, and I was very excited to be a part of their team.

to be concluded...