For nearly a quarter of my life, I've been involved with the Arthritis Foundation's California Coast Classic...
In 2013, I was a 32 year old with a 3-month old baby when I came on this tour the first time. I had no clue how life changing that experience would be.
In 2014, I had the opportunity to ride on Day 4, from Big Sur to Cambria. The night before, the honoree had been a young woman, maybe 20 years old, and she had told a story about how her Juvenile Arthritis had kept her essentially bed ridden as a teenager. During this time, she had learned about the CCC, and used it as her motivation to go through the treatments and painful physical therapy. Her goal was to someday ride in the California Coast Classic. The next day, as I was riding up the first Twin Sister, she came up along side me. We chatted and encouraged each other up both climbs. When we got to the top of the second climb, I looked at her and told her what an inspiration she was and what an honor it was to ride alongside her. She looked at me and asked if I wanted to go back and do them again… I made up some excuse about how, as a member of staff, I had to keep moving forward. But, it was this experience that made me understand more about the amazing impact of this event.
Up until 2015, I was just a member of the support staff, driving the vans and transporting luggage. After that year, I got a call from Amy Daugherty, who used to be the Director of the Pacific Region. She asked me if I would be interested in taking on the Tour Director role moving forward. That was essentially the birth of what would become Sentio Cycling, a company dedicated to creating unmatched experiences using the bike as the vehicle. I did so not knowing if I had the knowledge I needed or the plan in place to make it work, but I was going to give it my best shot.
In 2016, now with a 3 year old and a 6-month old at home, I drove across the country to lead the CCC, which was the first Sentio Cycling event. Due to not know what I didn't know about this business, I worked tireless hours that year to make sure everything was incredibly organized, and I was relieved to end the tour with more notes of appreciation and thanks than I could have imagined.
I came into the 2017 with yet another level of gratitude for what this event stands for. That year, I had been diagnosed with an Arthritic condition that flares up without warning from time-to-time and leaves me writhing in paing, and sometimes without the ability to walk for up to a couple of weeks. So, this quickly went from a job and an event that I was proud to work for because of the positive impact it had on others, to something I had a very personal connection to.
I have incredible memories from every year of this event, and have made many amazing friends and lifelong connections. In addition to this event, Sentio Cycling has afforded me the opportunity to work with many other world class events as well. However, it came at a huge sacrifice to my family. In 2022, I sat down and took a long hard look at what I've been doing, and trying to align my priorities at this point in my life. The more I evaluated things, the more it became clear that my personal priorities and my business priorities weren't aligning, and neither were truly succeeded. So, with a heavy heart, I announced at the end of that year's tour that it would be my last in the role of Ride Director. However, my final words in that announcement were "I want to make it clear that this is not a goodbye for me. I have far too much invested in this event to completely leave it. I will be working with the Arthritis Foundation to help them transition into the next phase. And, I will be back. However, when I come back, it will be with a rider tag that says 'First Year Rider'"... As a man of my word, I'm excited to ride in my very first Arthritis Foundation California Coast Classic in 2024!
Please donate to help me reach my fundraising goal and help the Arthritis Foundation conquer arthritis once and for all.
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https://events.arthritis.org/participant/308409