I've worked for over fifteen years as a professional cycling coach. And as I wrote that sentence I was hit by a flood of memories from my tenure as a coach. Just to name a few:

        A 3:00 a.m. call from a new pro in Italy exclaiming she was 30th GC in her first Giro d’Italia. (That, and she was running out of peanut butter.)
        Corralling 30+ USC and UCLA cyclists during a training camp in Solvang

    Then there are the memories of the ten years preceding my coaching years when cycling was the driving force in my life. It started at the University of Colorado when my college roommate introduced me to mountain biking. I was hooked. Soon I had scrounged together enough money to purchase a mountain bike of my own. As with all addictions, it did not stop there. My first attempt at racing was immediately followed by selling my car. I needed road bike training because getting trounced in your first MTB race is a miserable experience. The journey had begun...

    Thankfully my initial MTB race experience was not indicative of my cycling career. In road racing I discovered my calling. While I loved the physical challenge, the tactics (“chess at 30 mph”) fascinated me. Eventually I joined the professional ranks, which led me to Belgium. And Belgium, with its fields full of tough guys from all over the world, taught me how to truly race a bike.