Tony’s Story

The need for speed and expanding exploration started with childhood bicycle races. This need only grew with the beginnings of a paper route delivery job at age 9 that grew to a massive number of papers.

The choice to use pedal power to get around locally was easy as it was a great way to burn off energy while providing time for introspective wellness, however, my group riding was limited to close friends and my growing family.

Almost every trip to local parks, beach and local events was done with kids on bikes.

2013 came with a major change as added care of my grandmother to my responsibilities ended all bike riding until mid 2020.

I had since sent my original road bike off to college with my youngest and donated the remaining kids bikes to Broward County for passing on to kids that did not have road bikes.

Shortly after my grandmother passed I was fortunate enough to find a bike that had been placed in bulk trash that I rescued and immediately put into service. I began using this bike for every errand I could possibly think of.

Shortly after my grandmother passed I was fortunate enough to find a bike that had been placed in bulk trash that I rescued and immediately put into service. I began using this bike for every errand I could possibly think of.  

My bulk trash bike was excellent to get me back on the road again and served well until the return of my original road bike. 

Now I actively searched out activities that I could ride my bike to such as outdoor concerts, musical events, car and motorcycle shows, city / county park events and such in the tri county area. Most rides involved me pushing to gain speed and stamina. 

I soon came across group riding events and gladly added them to my list of activities 

I met some very good people on these group rides and still do quite a few of them to this day, however they were all social slow rides. This still left an unfulfilled desire I had gained from my paper route days, the need for speed. 

One of the social rides I met a person named Kei. We began talking while on the ride mostly about the rides speed along with some useful tips about ways to train to ride stronger.

Kei invited me to ride with his group of riders on a long high-speed ride and I accepted!