Shane originally joined LGBRC in 2015 as a cat. 5 racer and is now more like an old cat 6 (still connected but just not as fast as everyone thought a few years ago). When we asked him how he got interested in cycling he responded, "In 1991 my college roommate and I were chatting about our pre-college experiences. He was riding for pro-continental Dutch team at the same time I was traveling in Germany and the Netherlands on a USA U19 soccer team. Turned out I had watched one of his races in the Netherlands not knowing he was in it! He had an extra bike and convinced me to train with him. I would have turned him down had I known the suffering that hell-bike would elicit from my body, mind and soul."
"After about 3 months I rode my first race in the Bok Kai Festival in Marysville, CA and took 2nd place due to an over excited and terribly timed sprint. But I was hooked on cycling..well.. kind of. After a couple years I stopped cycling after my bike was stolen."
"In January 2008, I was whining to the same college roommate about how fat and old I was getting. So he asked me to accept a blind challenge (like we used to in high-school). After the zipped folder of crazy challenges our group endured was uncompressed, reviewed and quickly zipped again ...and MUCH hesitation, I accepted. He said we'd be doing the Markleeville Death Ride in July. After the pure fear from hearing that only a ‘couple people died’ subsided into commitment, I bought a bike that weekend. I took it home, and the next day rode to the top of Mt. Diablo, during which I swore a lot and was convinced I was going to break off a crank or a leg. Nonetheless, I topped it and called him to brag.. but he just laughed and laughed, eventually regaining composure to tell me ‘you have a 52/36 and 11/23 we need to change your gears to climb mountains’. I didn’t know enough….clearly. That said, I may not be fast but I’ll get to the top eventually"
We asked him what he considers his best cycling achievement so far. He responded, "I have 2, the first was surviving the "death ride training" (read "countless intervals, relentless pacing, blurring hill climbs, and a demand for "perfectionism" that was icing on the cake of pain). Secondly, that I am the proud owner of a 5 pass jersey earned on my first attempt due to said "death ride training".
He continues, "As for my day job, I work at Dolby Laboratories in the CTO’s office as the Advanced Imaging Systems Creative Lead. In my free time, I love to read about the history of cycling or a mind-bending sic-fi novel, watch movies (especially b-movies, sci-fi, anything with conspiracy or Alien in the title), hike, cook and re-invent left-overs as an art. In 2019, I married the love of my life, no not my bicycle…my wife Jenny. She’s an amazing woman who recently told me to “stop thinking about it and go buy my dream bike….or else”… yikes and YAY Jackpot!
"My background is a mishmash of pursuits, or was it the pursuits that mishmashed my background...hmmm... either way I was a DJ at 13, I studied Computer Science for 3yrs and on the 4th decided to get a Philosophy degree to which I doubled-up with Law & Society. I practice the idea that we should play harder than we work, and I work very hard, so if there's a theme-party, just know I go all out ."
LGBRC welcomes Shane!
