Written by 13:45 Pro Cycling Story

The Career That Nearly Didn’t Happen

This sport is so good at testing us every day. There are so many variables to go through. Staying healthy, staying on a team, staying motivated. It’s very testing. The biggest challenge I’ve had to go through really set the tone for my career. It happened even before I got started.

I was racing with the USA National Team in Europe in 2007. I had just graduated from Lees-McRae College. I raced while at LMC and earned a few national collegiate titles. I grew up racing mountain bikes, and I was good, but I didn’t believe that I was good enough to go pro so first I was a student-athlete, focused on developing on the road and earned my college degree (biology).

After graduating, I found a team that would pay me a modest contract, so I was able to ride fulltime. The plan was to spend most of the year in Europe and give this cycling thing a full go.

Foto LaPresse – Massimo Paolone. Abu Dhabi (Emirati Arabi Uniti)

Then something happened that has impacted me forever. I broke my leg early on in the season while racing on the French/Belgium border. It was a compound fracture of my tibia, enough to the point where I could see the bone and could grab it with my hand. It was Easter Sunday, and everything was shut down. They had to call a surgeon in from home and did emergency surgery while I was awake.  They were using power tools and just had a sheet, so my leg was out of my line of sight.

The doctors on the scene were talking to my directors who were conveying this info to my mom on the other side of the world. They told her they were not sure they could save the lower part of my leg!! She appropriately was freaking out.

Fortunately, the doctors were great, and when I got to the US, the doctors there said the Euro docs did a pretty good job for such a traumatic situation. I had some knee trauma but not as bad as other guys in similar situations even though it was five or six months until I could put any weight on the leg.

The biggest setback that I felt during this whole experience was when I was about three months into my recovery, and I got the news that the bone had not healed and I would need another surgery.  I had to start all over and essentially double my expected recovery time. To this day, I still have the hardware they installed during that second surgery in my leg. It serves as a constant reminder of this chapter in my life.

I look at the sport as it exists today and I think to myself, no way could my story play out this way today.

Throughout that whole journey, I never gave up on my dream and never even considered making any other plans. After the second surgery, there was still great uncertainty if I would be able to come back. Luckily, some of the doctors (Dr. Max Testa and Dr. Eric Heiden) supporting me during this journey were part of the inner circle at a new American team– BMC Racing Team who was on the hunt for American riders. Dr. Max Testa had rapport with the team and management and his opinion carried a lot of weight.

Foto LaPresse – Massimo Paolone Abu Dhabi (Emirati Arabi Uniti)

The team signed me for 2008 even though it was unclear if I could come back. Even if I could race, we all wondered at what level? Fortunately, both Jim Ochowicz (BMC’s General Manager) and Gavin Chilcott, (Chief Operating Office of the team), liked me as a person, not just as an athlete, and they felt something in their guts and took a bet on me.

I look at the sport as it exists today and I think to myself, no way could my story play out this way today. I’ve worked extremely hard and been both persistent and tenacious, but I even more so—I’ve been blessed with my recovery and for the faith and confidence those people were willing to put into me. I got to grow with BMC, and that has been amazing. If BMC was at the level it is today back when I was recovering, there is no way it would have played out like this.

From the start, my development was slow as a cyclist and I was already behind my peers when I started that first year with the National Team. The crash definitely set me back, but my trajectory perfectly aligned with BMC’s. This is why we are still together 11 years later.

Without a doubt, a standout moment in my career is Cadel winning the Tour de France. That was surreal. The crash happened in 2007. My first year with the team was 2008, and he won in 2011. When I look back, winning on the Champs only four years later is bizarre. As an America kid who loves cycling, I grew up watching the Tour. I remember watching images of the peloton racing through the mountains and following the journey all the way to Paris three weeks later. When I was standing there, I had to stop myself and go, ‘wait a minute, I am here. I cannot believe what’s happening’.

For a while, it felt that my career was over before it even started.  Yet now I think this crash was meant to be. It led me to BMC. It also led me to my wife, Jaime. We met during my recovery and I can’t imagine not having put that time into building our relationship. This whole experience allowed me to grow and develop into who I am today. Without the crash, maybe I wouldn’t be starting my second decade as a pro. It was the perfect storm and I’m so thankful for everyone who believed in me, especially during a time that was so rife with uncertainty. I knew it wasn’t guaranteed that I could make it to the top level of the sport, but I believed in the BMC Racing Team as much as they believed in me.

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Last modified: Jan 20, 2020
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