I’m currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado – Boulder with a bit of a bicycle addiction. I began cycling seriously at the age of 13 when I completed my first century ride. After a decade of competitive Nordic skiing and sporadic mountain bike racing, I began to focus on road and cyclocross racing. While this type of racing satiated my competitive desires, it didn’t provide the same feelings of independence as did exploring the vast mountainous landscape of Colorado on a mountain bike. After my first multi-day mountain bike race last summer across the remote country of western Colorado and eastern Utah, I was hooked on the idea of self-supported ultraendurance events. This year I’ll be at the starting line of the longest mountain bike race in the world – the 2,780-mile Tour Divide – with the goal of finishing in
19 days.
After deciding to take on the Tour Divide, I realized that such a challenge would provide a fantastic basis for raising money and support for World Bicycle Relief. For every four people that donate one cent per mile of the race I ride (~$28), WBR can provide one bicycle to AIDS relief workers or students in impoverished Zambia. World Bicycle Relief will be helping more than 50,000 people in this project, and I love the approach WBR is taking. Knowing that I’ve committed to donors to finish this race, I’ll have an incredible incentive to keep pushing on toward Mexico. This will be invaluable on days when the going gets tough and throwing in the towel seems ever more tempting.
