TEAM: Team SpiderTech powered by C10

AGE: 29

HOMETOWN: Austin, Texas

THE BIKE: We rode Argon 18 Gallium Pro road bikes throughout the 2011 season. Argon 18 is really focused on making bikes with the best geometry and fit for performance. We use Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 components and, depending on the race, a few different Shimano wheel options. Most of the other components are from PRO, like handlebars, stem, seatpost and saddle. I just put a SRM on my bike; it’ll be the first time I’ve trained with a power meter in a few years.

HOW IT STARTED: My dad got me started riding when I was 14. I did my first Cat 5 race that year, and it went pretty well. I finished in the group, and my older brother won the race. I kept riding and doing local races and eventually realized I was good at it. Rather than going to college after high school, I went over to live in Belgium with the U.S. U-23 development program. I had some good results and learned how to race my bike. I figured out what kinds of races suited me and learned how to get through the ones that didn’t. When I was 22 years old I turned pro with U.S. Postal, which was a huge opportunity.

SETBACKS: My first year as a pro I started suffering from back and leg balance issues. My imbalance progressively got worse, and the more I messed with shoes, cleats and insoles, the more out of whack I became. Bike fitting wasn’t exactly the science that it is now, so I ended up going in circles trying to find a fix. I wasn’t riding very well, so I wasn’t racing much, and ended up jumping around to a few different top-level teams. I rode for Phonak for a year and then Slipstream for two seasons, but my imbalance wasn’t getting better. I didn’t want to quit because cycling was all I knew, and I was confident that once my body was straightened out I could succeed. I eventually got a full leg X-ray and realized that I didn’t have a leglength discrepancy like I had been told for years; it was a functional [muscle] imbalance that had left me limping along. I went back to a neutral position and have been working on pedaling correctly and am feeling good again.

THE TEAM: I went from being on some of the best teams in the world to racing as an amateur for Richardson Bike Mart last year—and because of that, I’m better off and appreciate what I have more than ever. I had a great race at Tour of Utah last year, and the timing was right since I was talking with a couple of teams about 2011. Team SpiderTech was growing and looking for riders with European experience, and they needed another climber/GC rider, so fortunately, things worked out. It’s almost all Canadians on the team, but it’s been a good fit for me.

2011 AToC: My goal going into Tour of California was to reaffirm my abilities as a bike racer. The team really wanted to go after a stage win or a jersey, but I wanted to finish in the top 10 overall. On Stage 4, the opportunity was there to take the King of the Mountain points on Mount Hamilton. That gave me enough points to take the lead in the KoM competition, and after that, I was all in for defending the jersey until the end. I wrapped up the jersey by being in the breakaway on Stage 7 and solidifying my points lead. We had a lot of sponsors at the Tour of California, so being able to win the KoM jersey—giving them a tangible result—was nice. It was a big turnaround from just a couple of years ago.

Advice: If you truly love cycling, stick with it. All the ups and downs only make you stronger as a person. That’s been the story of my cycling career.