How I became a bike racer . . .

I've been asked a lot lately by various folks, how it was that I got into cycling.  I thought a lot about this question and looking back, I think it was the convergence of 3 different factors, that resulted in me becoming a road cyclist.   For me, it was an evolutionary process, it certainly did not happen overnight. 

The first was the gym where I taught Kickboxing in Omaha Ne.  I was big into martial arts, TaeKwonDo, JuJitsu, yes even the Billy Blanks videos.  I loved teaching kickboxing and in fact was teaching about 6 classes/week.  My supervisor said they needed more Spinning instructors at the gym and asked me to attend the Spin certification.  This was 1999 and I thought it was nuts that people would want to sit on a stationary bike and workout.  Nevertheless, I wanted to help out so I got certified and began teaching a spin class there.  I used words like "criterium" as though I knew what they meant.  We did things like "jumps" in class because that's what I'd been taught to do.  I bought a pair of "clip in" shoes to use on the spin bikes.  The whole things seemed silly to me, but the class members were fun and patient with me as I adjusted to lycra. 

The second was in 2002.  My parents lived in Chicago and I was out visiting them that August.  My mom was an executive for the US Postal Service and this was during the time that Lance and the Postal Team were dominating the cycling scene (not that I knew this, since I paid no attention to bike racing).  The USPS had a VIP tent set up at Downers Grove (the US Criterium national championships) where they entertained their biggest postal clients, and my mom had secured VIP passes for my dad and I to sit there and watch the bike racing, while meeting the postal team (Floyd Landis among them), getting their autographs.  The whole thing was pretty interesting to me, but the true moment of reckoning came during the women's pro/1/2 event -watching those women tear up that course, and watching Tina Pic win convincingly.  It caught my attention.  I said "I can do that" and vowed to return next year with a bike.  (Which I did in 2003, 2004, and in 2005 raced in the pro/1/2 event as a new CAT 2 . . . but I digress).

The third happened in late 2003.  I had done my first criterium in August 2003 and a few other races and was starting to figure things out as a new CAT 4 racer.  I raced a 1/2 ironman in the Ozarks and then decided to race the final criterium of the season the next day -as you might imagine, doing anything the day after a 1/2 ironman isn't smart, but something compelled me to drive to Lincoln NE for this race.  It was there that I met my now-husband, Rob.  On my way to register for the race, I dropped my race license and he picked it up.  Weeks later we were doing lots of bike riding together.  Rob had a lot more cycling experience than I did, and he began to teach me the sport.  I was in my final year of law school and was focused on my professional aspirations after law school.  But cycling became a really big part of my life (as did Rob -we were married in 2005 at a bike race!).

Fast forward to 2010 and I've been racing my bike for 7 years now.  I upgraded to a CAT 1 in 2008 (something I never thought possible!) and I started a women's team that has become a very successful organization (again - something I never imagined I'd be doing!).

So -that's how I became a bike racer ; )  (and in case you were curious, I've been teaching spin classes for 11 years now!)

Thanks for reading! 

• Posted by Megan Hottman over 2 years ago
• 0 comments