• For starters, when did you first start mountain biking and where were your trails of choice for fun in the great outdoors?
I received my first mountain bike - a GT Outpost - for my 13th birthday. In time I added some sweet bar ends and toe clips! The bike lasted throughout middle and high school. Growing up in rural central New York, it primarily served as a means of transportation. Fast forward two decades and now I’m teaching my sons to ride a bike. It was then that I discovered that within the greater Williamsburg area we have 50+ miles of singletrack. The joy of zipping through the woods was invigorating and addicting so I bought a mountain bike in late 2015 (I had been using my wife’s bike from HS to this point) and haven’t looked back since.


  • How long after starting to ride mountain bikes did you think about mountain bike racing? Was it your idea or did all your buddies start racing?
Shortly after buying my bike, I entered the world of Strava. The scientist in me loved the abundance of quantitative data associated with each ride while being able to compare my times with fellow riders on segments stoked my competitive drive. Frankly, the idea of racing terrified me. But I had been encouraging my boys to race and helped coach them through their inevitable pre-race jitters and figured it was time to “walk the walk”.


• But are there other sports that you take part in? We know some of you are ultra-trail runners and such. So…. What else do you do?
Just basic cardio to maintain physical fitness. I was a basketball junkie growing up, but it slowly dawned on me during HS that I probably wasn’t going to make it to the NBA after all. Bummer.


• Where is your favorite place to ride/train?
Freedom Park in Williamsburg is close by and offers 20 miles of singletrack. However, I really enjoy going on longer rides to explore rural, back roads, gravel roads, etc



• What’s your favorite mountain bike race or adventure story?
The feeling of completing the SM100 is like nothing I’ve ever felt. My first SM100 was in 2017. During the summer and over the course of a few days I pre-rode the entire course. It was hard for me to fathom putting all the pieces together in a single day! I had always heard about the wicked fun descents, but for this flat-lander, I may as well have been at Red Bull Rampage. Finishing and feeling (reasonably) good was amazing, finishing in the top 100 was icing on the cake. I thought perhaps doing it for the second time this year would somehow dampen the feeling I had of completing my first in 2017, but it wasn’t the case at all. I had set an ambitious goal of either completing the course in under 9 hours or finishing in the top 50. The course was pretty slow this year and the heat and humidity caused lots of carnage, so the sub-9 hour mark was not an option for me. However, I did finish in the top 50 overall.


• Do you have any other race accolades, podiums or standouts?
I was all in for the 2018 race season. In addition to being the Virginia State Champion (VORS Bootlegger’s Blitz) I placed 3rd at Mountain Bike Nationals (Snowshoe). I managed to get first place in the Stokesville Stoopid 50 (in the “Smart 40” race category) earlier in the spring as well as finish top overall in the 50-mile course of the Gravel Ride Up Spruce Knob (GRUSK) in WV.

• Are there any bike shops or other businesses you would like to give a shout out to?
Matt Bailey at Conte’s in Williamsburg keeps my bike going. However, with the amount of money I’ve spent there in the past 2 years, I’m waiting for my shout out!


• Do you have any big plans for 2019
I’ll be taking a hiatus from racing in 2019 to spend more time with my three active boys. I’ll continue to ride, of course, and am looking to do some longer, exploratory rides (both planned events and on my own).(which means watch out XCT Men Category!)