Why We Ride

We ride because we love the sport.   We ride because the sport transcends the headlines.   We ride to Connect.   With ourselves.   With each other.   Our mental game translated through lungs, heart, legs, and through our bikes into fluid motion over pavement.   We ride because someone else taught us how to ride.   We ride to teach others.


A few words from our friend and bike sponsor Mike Zanconato:
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When I think back to when I started cycling, I realize how fortunate I was to have some incredible mentors and teachers. They took me under their wings (or grabbed me by the back of my neck) and showed me how this beautiful sport works. They weren't top racers, but they took pride in their craft. I soaked it up and appreciated every moment.

Fast forward to college, and again I was so fortunate to race for a club at UMass that stressed teamwork and the all-for-one and one-for-all mentality. I eventually ran the team for my last two years there. We had some incredible local talent who taught us how to train, race, and take care of ourselves. It was awesome. We raced hard, had a lot of success, and made memories that we all still talk about when we get to see each other.

Looking around at the cycling landscape these days, I worry that some of this style of mentoring is falling by the wayside. My good friend Stephen and I were discussing this last summer; we both had similar concerns. When he approached me in the fall with the idea of starting a road team with the long-term goal of developing a club that mentored juniors and new riders, I was all in. Stephen put together a group of guys, half in the DC area and the other half if the Salt Lake City area, who share our vision. The goal for this season is to start building some awareness of the team, train hard, do some awesome races, and start getting the structure in place. Long term, it's all about developing a solid club and race team that has pockets of riders all over. We hope to start pulling in more experienced riders, who want to teach, and lots of new riders and juniors, who want to learn. We want to pay forward what's been passed on to us.

Hey, thanks for reading. I'm just totally psyched about this and i wanted to share. There's so much to love about this sport. Nothing beats being around others who love it as much as you do.

-Zank