Cycling About
I started riding a bike when I was about five years old, but never thought of competing. Football, baseball, basketball, rugby, tennis, or racquetball were my favorite sports until my first knee surgery, which happened on the football field. My good friend Elliott Varon gave me a bicycle to rehab my knee, which led to riding on the bike path in Southern California. I did my first team triathlon in Mexico with my girlfriend Toni Matz swimming, and my friend Wolf Larsen running. That was it. I was bitten. I’ve been racing for over twenty years. I’ve raced three summers in Italy, which was a blast, and rode one stage of the Tour de France. No, I wasn’t in the races, I just rode the 112 miles and 12,000 ft of climbing! I also rode the Maratona de los Dolomites, which is a Gran Fondo, in Italy. In 2008, I competed in the Masters World’s in Austria. Once, my brother Eric and I rode with Lance Armstrong and the entire Discovery Team after their winter training camp! WOW. It was like shooting hoops with Michael Jordan or playing a round of golf with Tiger Woods.
Racing was not easy for me, because of my then work schedule and trying to play music when I could. In 2008, I lost a lot of weight, trained hard, and won 4 Gold medals at the Huntsman Senior World Games. I was the overall winner in my category for road racing. I won one silver and two bronze medals in mountain biking as well. Not bad for my first showing at the World Games. Five years later, in 2013, I won the best overall rider in both road racing and mountain biking in the elite category with four gold and four silver medals at the Huntsman Senior World Games!
In 2009, I tore ligaments in my thumb, had surgery to reattach them, recovered, and won three gold medals and one silver in the California Senior Olympics and two more gold medals in the National Senior Games, becoming the National champion! Two gold medals in the Nevada Senior Olympics and at the 2009 Huntsman Senior World Games, I competed in Division 1 and I won five medals: a gold, two silver, and two bronze. At the 2009 Master’s Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic, I won a bronze medal in the time trial. 47 races in 13 months with 32 top-10 places! Not a bad year.
In 2010, I won two silver and a bronze medal at the Master’s Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba.
In 2011, was marred by injury, and 2012 was the worst year of my life.
In 2013, which would be my last year of racing, I raced 95 times in five different countries, winning a silver and a bronze medal in the Master’s World Games in Torino, Italy. And finally, after three years of absence, I won three gold and two silver medals in the Master’s Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico! At the Huntsman World Senior Games I won “Best Overall Cyclist” in both road racing and mountain biking. What a year…… I stood on the podium 27 times!
I still ride recreationally, but don’t race anymore. Music is now my focus, and that schedule isn’t conducive to racing bicycles!