I grew up in small town in NE Iowa and had any typical childhood. Riding bikes, playing back yards sports, and countless hours at the town pool is how I spent my days. I got really big into BMX during my teenage years and had to work on neighboring farms to pay for all my bikes and parts and such. I had to have the best stuff. I even converted our utility shed into a bike shop where I would fix mine and all my friends bikes.

After high school I joined the Army and ended up being stationed in Texas for quite a few years. I didn’t really do a whole lot of biking at that time, but after I was discharged and moved back home, I found that all my child hood friends had gotten away from the BMX bikes and moved onto road bikes and mountain bikes. My first summer back I drove the bus for my now RAGBRAI team and had the absolute best time. I was hooked after that; let’s just say I haven’t driven a bus since. My affinity for bikes came back ten fold. I picked up an 80’s model Puch and started logging miles, then came the mountain bike, then came the touring bike, then came the cruiser, then came the conversion of the Puch into a fixed gear, and so on….

I’ve lived in both the Cedar Rapids and Des Moines metro areas and have met so many awesome people from biking, people from all kinds of backgrounds. That’s the best part, if you like riding a bike, you’re cool with me. If you want to talk shop, even better; let’s go grab a beer and chat a bit. I also love the fact that our great state is becoming more and more known for being bicycle friendly. I think is great that I can be at a rinky dink swap meet in Dallas, TX and tell people that I’m from IA and they say “AHH RAGBRAI”.

I have definitely grown as an advocate for cycling and building that presence in our state. It’s easy to sell something that you are infatuated with. The cycling industry is exploding and people can’t help but to jump on board. Riding bikes is just too much fun, and there is no such thing as having too much of it. I am super stoked to be part of the team here at Iowa Bicycle Coalition, and look forward to doing what I can to make our state a better place for cyclist alike.