Team In Training blasts Lake Tahoe in fight against Leukemia & Lymphoma

Written by Tim Clark

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A couple weeks ago while riding my trusty bicycle up to the top of Spooner Summit I found my mind wandering. My thoughts slowly drifted from admiring the wondrous views of Lake Tahoe to thinking about all of the places I had ridden & raced bicycles in the past. This jarred memories of my parents who when I was a teenager couldn’t understand my love of the bike. I remember my Dad just shaking his head when I bought a TT bike, a Shogun Kaze, when I already had a Torelli road bike to race on. I remembered how mad my parents got when they found out I spent a large part of my college student loan money on a Specialized Tri-spoke wheel for that Shogun, while I was racing for my beloved Fresno State Cycling Team. My Mom was so worried about me when she found out that myself & two other teammates had gone off to the Davis 4th of July Crit with only enough money to get there & not enough to get back. The three of us thought that would be the motivation we would need to get one of us in the money so we could buy enough gas to get back. My parents begged & pleaded for me to get serious about anything, something other then bicycles, so I wouldn’t be so broke all the time.

That brings me back to Spooner & the company that I now keep. I race for a new team now. The pace in the saddle isn’t nearly as fast now as it was then. However, the stakes are much higher now. It is literally a race where life & death are on the line. Now I ride as the head cycling coach for the Central California Chapter of Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training (TNT). To think my parents never thought my passion for cycling would ever lead to anything. Showed them! This is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. There is nothing more amazing to me then to take someone who is ‘fresh off the couch’, and in 18 weeks give them the tools they need to ride a bicycle 100 miles. Most of our TNT participants are middle aged folks who have not been on a bike since they were kids. It is very common to have to teach them the VERY basics from day one, like how to shift or how to change a flat tire. We are not picky when we take people on in the program. If they have a helmet, Dr. note, are at least 18yrs old (16 with parent’s supervision) & a pulse we can make a cyclist out of them.

We took our team to Lake Tahoe’s ‘America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride’ two weeks ago. It was a fitting end to a great season for our crew. They rode along side about 1,700 other TNT riders from across the nation & parts of Canada who together raised about $6.8 million that goes to fight the battle against blood born cancers.

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There is no way to explain the amount of pride I have when I cross the finish line next to a participant who is about to cross the finish line at their first century. There is no way to explain the emotion that passes between participant & coach when the participant finally has that classic “Ah-Ha!” moment as they realize that for the past 18 weeks their coaches were not lying to them when they said over & over, “You can do it!” There is nothing better then seeing that same participant out in the foothills above Fresno weeks, months or even years later! That is my motivation! That is why I still ride my bike.
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