Bill Giovinazzo:
Why do I ride? Actually, when my son was born I had always hoped that I could do something “epic” with him. That he and I could do something together that would be a memory we could have between us for our entire lives. Something to share before he went off into the world.
About a year ago, a friend of his got him interested in road biking. When trying to plan the trip that he and I could share I came upon the idea of doing a bike trip around Italy. He and I love Italy and are very proud of our Italian heritage. So a bike trip across Tuscany seemed to be perfect.
So I guess, I really do it so that I can be close to my son. He does it because he loves anything athletic.
Jacque Wheeler:
I was the first one to start riding. My story is unusual in that I learned to ride in my garage! I have some kind of undiagnosed sciatica which prevented me from running so my husband, Chuck, thought a bike might help. He bought an inexpensive Japanese mountain bike and a trainer and for three years I rode every day in the garage while I either watched the news, old movies, or training tapes.
I never planned to ride on the roads as I was too scared. A neighbor moved in who had ridden for 25 years in L.A. on the bike path so she wasn’t used to our hills. She persuaded me to go riding with her one day and on my first ride, I rode 31 miles which included a fairly good size hill. She turned to me and said you are a cyclist. I was 50. A few months later my husband had to have hand surgery because of a minor problem and it ruined his golf grip; he was a really good golfer and exercise enthusiast so for Father’s Day I bought him a bike.
After complaining at first that he would never be as good as I was at cycling it only took about three months before he started whizzing past me.
Chuck is now on his fifth bike and I am on my fourth. We ride for the exercise, for the beauty of our area, for the social aspects as we have a huge bike club here, and now of course for the chance to see the world in an unique way. This is the first time in 40 years of marriage that we have been able to share a sport and it has proven to be so much fun especially as Chuck is almost retired.
A long answer to a short question.
