Relationships

I believe in connections to be successful in life. Every so often I will notice myself accomplish a goal that would have been very difficult or even impossible to do without the help of another. I believe that without relationships an individual is limiting there potential to do well.

One day I was flipping through the channels and stumbled upon a downhill mountain bike race. As soon as it was over I called my dad over and said I wanted to race DH bikes. Later that year for my 9th birthday I received a brand new bike. I had a desire to still race but when my dad looked into it, we just couldn’t afford joining a team and paying for the races, traveling, and hotel rooms. I was determined to find a way to race though. This was my first experience with relationships helping me find a way to earn money. My neighbor helped me get a few lawns around the neighborhood each week to start making money. Eventually he helped me out with a flyer so I could mow more lawns. I kept on mowing and by the time I was 13 I bought my first DH bike.

My best friend too was into mountain bikes so we were always riding and watching videos of all the pros. However, we both were having trouble finding rides to the mountains to enter races. One night we were on pinkbike.com and saw a picture of a guy from Parker who had a bike team called Kozos. We shot him an email and asked if we could join. He said that the team was full but could maybe make something work out. About a week later he brought us up to Keystone to ride and see if we would be a good addition to his team. From there on out racing DH became a reality for me. My team had weekly DH shuttle training up in Idaho Springs and I started building up hours on my bike and my skills improved rapidly. But just when things started to get going it came to a dead end when I started breaking parts and not having the money to cover for them.

As I was starting to lose faith I was bounced right back up to my feet when Mike Patterson a local pro I had been riding with for a while understood my situation and helped me out by covering the cost to repair my bike. He sold my bike that was decent but by know means a stand out bike. He kept the money but gave me his spare bike, which was top of the line! I could only dream of having such a nice bike at the time but he made it happen.

I still am racing with Kozos and just got a new 2010 bike with our team sponsors. Even though my biggest desire and goal was to make DH a possibility, I couldn’t have made it happen without the relationships I established along the way. I truly do believe that to be successful, connections and relationships are needed to fully utilize ones own skill and determination.