BIKEMONKEY

With my “GUIDE” plate firmly attached to the front of my bike, Bobby and I towed the line for the 45-49 Beginner XC race, both of us nervous and excited about the 19 miles of fire road and single track that awaited. After our pre-ride learning experience, Bobby made a few adjustments to his bike that would enhance his chances of cleaning more sections of trail: he put 2.1 WTB Wolverines on, front and rear, and decided to run flat pedals so he could tripod the sandier sections without having to worry about clipping out.

Bobby had us line up at the rear of our group so that we could avoid a lot of the swerving, swarm race traffic, which was my biggest fear since we hadn’t had the extra element of other riders, both passing and being passed, on our pre-ride. We rolled out the Laguna Seca tarmac, taking the outside line with Bobby hugging my right hip, and breezed up the track and out onto the course with me barking commands. Bobby slowly rode into his cross country legs and we began to pick up speed on the upper fire road section that led into the first significant downhill. 

After nailing the gravel corner that had taken Bobby down during our pre-ride, I knew it was on, and we quickly got in a flowy groove on the preceding twisty single track descent and climb. At this point we were being caught by riders from the groups behind us, which meant that we had to pull to the side, let the train pass, and then quickly get rolling again. Bobby, ever aware of what was going on around him, would call out, “Riders back!”, indicating that I needed to give the directive as to 

what side of the trail was safest to pull over on. We met countless racers who shouted encouragement and were gracious when passing, to which Bobby always fired back with some complement of his own. Bobby blasted through EVERY sand section, surfing them with speed, grace and fearlessness. We passed many walking riders in these tricky sections who would quickly pull to the side as soon as they heard me yelling commands and stare in disbelief as Bobby bombed through these sand traps.

The short punchy climbs, some of which had proved tricky for Bobby on our pre-ride, were cleaned with pure grit and determination. We developed a somewhat precise call system that allowed him to know how long, how many pedal strokes and then how hard he had to push for each of the climbs. This was probably the most rewarding part of our ride, at least for me, because Bobby really pushed his limits in these sections, digging deep and nailing down with power when it really mattered.

The long gravel road fire road climb out was like a long parade lap for the two of us. We were both gushing with how STOKED we were with how well our ride had gone, firing off complements and thanks to each other, deeply proud of what we’d done. It was on this climb out that I came to the realization that too often we look at life obstacles, setbacks, injuries, arguments, etc. as limiters or barriers that bring our forward life progress to a standstill, literally. Watching Bobby tick the pedals over on the crunchy gravel, gritting his teeth on the final pitches out, made me think that we need to always reassess what is possible in life, even when we are faced with some sort of impediment. Seeing Bobby do what he does made any life struggle that I have, or could  possibly face in my life, seem small, insignificant  and unimportant. Here was a truly inspirational man pedaling by my side who can’t see, but yet he wasn’t letting that stop him from doing what he loves most: riding his bike and living his life without viewing his disability as a limiter, but rather as an opportunity to show others what is possible.

When we proudly crossed the line I had goose bumps on my arms from the emotional nature of my journey with Bobby. As if my life lesson from our ride wasn’t enough, one young fan asked the race announcer if he could come and meet the “blind” rider who had just finished. He shyly walked over to Bobby-you could tell  that he was really intrigued by the fact that Bobby can’t see-and began asking him questions about what we had just done. As they talked about bikes and the young boy’s ride/race earlier in the day, you could see the seeds of Bobby’s positive life message being planted and that one young boy’s perception of what is possible in life were forever recalibrated.