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Arizona will be surprisingly chilly in November. As anybody who’s ever lined up for El Tour de Tucson will inform you, the predawn begin is decidedly frigid. But it surely often doesn’t rain. And once I travel to the race, I not often pack a rain cape. In 2013, it poured. I had simply spent my cash on the then-revolutionary Castelli Gabba jersey, however I used to be nonetheless removed from enthusiastic about racing—in what was presupposed to be my low season—109 miles in 50-degree temperatures and downpours. It rained a lot that we crossed hub-deep rivers that had been dry, sandy beds the earlier evening. I can truthfully say the 2013 El Tour de Tucson was one among my least nice bike rides.
A few hours after I completed (as I sat wrapped in a tinfoil blanket like a spandex burrito), my pal Jose crossed the road. He wore solely shorts and a jersey and rode a donated 1989 blue Bottecchia. He crawled off the bike and onto the curb beside me.
A long time of boxing as a professional fighter and as a coach on a reservation in southern Arizona had made Jose nearly unfathomably powerful. Too chilly to shift, he mashed out the previous few miles of El Tour within the bike’s largest gear, praying he wouldn’t need to brake. However even for a man who made a dwelling getting punched, six hours of driving rain is so much. I unwrapped his sandwich as a result of his palms barely functioned. We sat collectively and shivered, laughing as we picked the grit out of our enamel. And 9 years later, I can nonetheless keep in mind how good it felt, sitting there with him.
As a biking journalist, I get to journey some good bikes—a few of which price greater than I earn in a 12 months. However none of these bikes is my favourite. The bike that I’m most keen on is outdated, heavy, too small for me, and the shifters are on the down tube: that 1989 Bottecchia. In reality, the bike was by no means really mine; my pal Nick had given it to me to present to Jose.
Even when Jose’s bike didn’t have that story behind it, Bottecchias are nonetheless particular to me due to the story behind the model. Ottavio Bottecchia fought in World Struggle I earlier than starting his biking profession and solely realized to learn after turning skilled. He received the Tour de France twice, in 1924 and 1925. However in 1927, on the peak of his powers, he died in suspicious circumstances—he was discovered useless, however his bike seemed like he hadn’t crashed. Some recommend he was killed due to his anti-fascist politics, whereas others declare {that a} farmer killed him over stolen grapes.
I first met Jose on a sizzling day within the desert. I used to be hanging out on the tribal welfare heart fixing bikes, and he was within the fitness center educating youngsters to combat within the ring and never with their of us. We each simply wished to share our passions. And we hit it off straight away. Jose is probably the most selfless individual I do know. I’ve seen him go away work with out sneakers as a result of a child turned up and not using a pair. And as soon as, when my truck broke down, he dropped all the things, drove to a junkyard, and pulled one other truck aside so I might get dwelling. Jose evokes me to be higher, kinder, and extra compassionate.
Bike racing by no means made me a greater individual, however serving to different folks journey bikes actually did. It began once I was 16. As a volunteer in a Romanian orphanage, I discovered a locked shed of bikes and stuck them for the children to journey. One other time, I taught a pal’s mum to journey in a parking zone on a seaside cruiser somebody donated as a result of it had been sitting unused of their storage. Over time, I constructed a variety of bikes for myself, however irrespective of what number of gears or inches of journey my bikes have, I can’t do something with them that feels fairly as vital as serving to others journey.
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