Tuesday, 6/17/08 at 12:46 PM
by Tara Llanes
by Tara Llanes
At Your Own Pace
As a lot of you may know I raced mountain bikes on the professional circuit for years. Thirteen years to be exact. During those years I learned so much from other riders that had already been racing for years and even some of the of the mechanics. I was so young when I first started that I had a lot to learn and was always open to any suggestions if it would make me a better rider. I distinctly remember two occasions that sound really silly right now, but at the time they were pretty important to me. Not only because I learned something, but because of who was helping me.
I was at a National in Big Bear and we were starting the round of 16 women in the dual slalom competition. Towards the end of practice I was having trouble with my derailleur because it kept, well derailleuring. Well, I came out of the gate in my first round and made it all the way to the bottom before the same thing happened. It was a good thing I had a pretty good lead or else I may not have transferred through to the next round. When I got back to the top one of my competitors offered to help. Her name was Michelle Bednar and at the time she was one of the fastest women on the circuit. I clearly needed some help when I got back to the top for the next run so she came over and offered some help. She quickly showed me a trick to help fix the problem and voila! Problem solved. I think I ended up making it through a couple rounds and into the top 5. But the fact that we were competitors and that she took the time to help me out meant a lot to me. She not only taught me something, but I think it was the first time I thought that I might be part of this whole mountain bike family thing.
The second time ironically enough was also in Big Bear. We used to do a lot of racing up in Big Bear, but I’ll save that for another story. I was about 16 years old when I started racing, but I had read up on who was who in the mountain bike world. Of course everybody knew who John Tomac was and even his mechanic was popular. Bicycle Bob is what everybody called him and he was the nicest guy. I had bumped into him a couple times the weekend of the race and he happened to notice that my front skewer wasn’t on tight because it was just dangling there. I was so green to the sport that I didn’t even know the right way to tighten my skewers. So he took me aside so that I wouldn’t be embarrassed and he not only showed me how to properly tighten them he pretty much went through my entire bike and made sure everything was tight and not falling off. I was so stoked that someone would take the time to do that for me. I mean I was nobody. I didn’t have any titles. I wasn’t in any magazines. I was just starting out and was like a sponge.
The whole point to this story is that I love mountain biking and I love the people in mountain biking. Those were just two of the people that helped me out through the years and I want to thank them. Who knows, maybe if they hadn’t helped me my experience at those two races would have been completely different. Maybe I wouldn’t have made it to the top five in slalom that year. But because they took the time out to teach me some things it made a huge impact on me. I have taken a lot of experiences with me throughout my race career and that was one of them. Always try to help someone out. Whether it was someone I was competing against or someone brand new to the sport. It was important to help make the sport grow and to each do our part in that. Mountain biking has always been like that for me. Of course everybody wants to win, but if a guy at the start line of an XC race gets a flat I guarantee there is someone right next to them that will offer up a tube and a pump.
Through the years I have had the pleasure of helping riders out when I coached at some clinics. It was strange to me when people couldn’t believe that I was coaching, but I loved coaching. It was so cool to me to see someone improve over the span of a few hours. If I could help someone walk away enjoying riding just as much as I did then I had accomplished what I wanted to.
Just remember never stop learning and have a blast ripping down the mountain!
Tara
I was at a National in Big Bear and we were starting the round of 16 women in the dual slalom competition. Towards the end of practice I was having trouble with my derailleur because it kept, well derailleuring. Well, I came out of the gate in my first round and made it all the way to the bottom before the same thing happened. It was a good thing I had a pretty good lead or else I may not have transferred through to the next round. When I got back to the top one of my competitors offered to help. Her name was Michelle Bednar and at the time she was one of the fastest women on the circuit. I clearly needed some help when I got back to the top for the next run so she came over and offered some help. She quickly showed me a trick to help fix the problem and voila! Problem solved. I think I ended up making it through a couple rounds and into the top 5. But the fact that we were competitors and that she took the time to help me out meant a lot to me. She not only taught me something, but I think it was the first time I thought that I might be part of this whole mountain bike family thing.
The second time ironically enough was also in Big Bear. We used to do a lot of racing up in Big Bear, but I’ll save that for another story. I was about 16 years old when I started racing, but I had read up on who was who in the mountain bike world. Of course everybody knew who John Tomac was and even his mechanic was popular. Bicycle Bob is what everybody called him and he was the nicest guy. I had bumped into him a couple times the weekend of the race and he happened to notice that my front skewer wasn’t on tight because it was just dangling there. I was so green to the sport that I didn’t even know the right way to tighten my skewers. So he took me aside so that I wouldn’t be embarrassed and he not only showed me how to properly tighten them he pretty much went through my entire bike and made sure everything was tight and not falling off. I was so stoked that someone would take the time to do that for me. I mean I was nobody. I didn’t have any titles. I wasn’t in any magazines. I was just starting out and was like a sponge.
The whole point to this story is that I love mountain biking and I love the people in mountain biking. Those were just two of the people that helped me out through the years and I want to thank them. Who knows, maybe if they hadn’t helped me my experience at those two races would have been completely different. Maybe I wouldn’t have made it to the top five in slalom that year. But because they took the time out to teach me some things it made a huge impact on me. I have taken a lot of experiences with me throughout my race career and that was one of them. Always try to help someone out. Whether it was someone I was competing against or someone brand new to the sport. It was important to help make the sport grow and to each do our part in that. Mountain biking has always been like that for me. Of course everybody wants to win, but if a guy at the start line of an XC race gets a flat I guarantee there is someone right next to them that will offer up a tube and a pump.
Through the years I have had the pleasure of helping riders out when I coached at some clinics. It was strange to me when people couldn’t believe that I was coaching, but I loved coaching. It was so cool to me to see someone improve over the span of a few hours. If I could help someone walk away enjoying riding just as much as I did then I had accomplished what I wanted to.
Just remember never stop learning and have a blast ripping down the mountain!
Tara
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