Member of the Month for January 2013

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Bill Blackford joined the Wheelmen in 2011 and quickly became a very active member of the Club. He has been the Woman Hollering Creek ride starter since 2012 and has also started the New Berlin ride. He volunteered to help with the Rider Education Series and will work with the Road Riding 101/201 series that starts in late February, 2013. He is also a member of the Easter Hill Country Tour Committee where he is co-chair of the Rest Stop Subcommittee. That is a very impressive record of quickly becoming one of our most active Club members.

Bill describes his bike as “a 1985 Lotus Challenger, steel-frame, 14-speed lead-sled”! He says he has yearly thoughts of trading the bike in but is too emotionally dependent on it to carry through. Since he is a very strong rider, the bike must be a perfect fit. When asked what bike he would like to ride he said “None. I’m afraid if I did I would never want to ride my Lotus again”.

Bill started road cycling in the mid 80’s when he borrowed his brother-in-law’s Raleigh 10-speed. He soon bought the Lotus, but after a few years kids, responsibilities, and other grown-up things intervened. Here is his description of how he started riding again. “Twenty years went by and forty pounds came on and that pesky doctor won’t lay off and I’m sick and tired of hearing about it! Why won’t you just butt out and leave me alone . . . but I digress. Pondering the need for some physical activity, I resurrected that two-wheeled dinosaur I had kept hang in the garage. That was about seven years ago. For the first few years I rode by myself in the ranch country north of Flower Mound and gradually met some riding buddies. Since then I have ridden many charity rides, the Hotter’N Hell 100 three times and the 2012 RAGBRAI.” In May of 2011, Bill found the Wheelmen web site and thought it would be a good way to meet other riders and he has been an active Club member and rider since then.

His favorite Wheelmen ride is the Kendalia 52 mile route. He likes the great scenery and the hills on Crabapple Road which he describes as “short but brutal and the downhill’s are unbelievably fast”. His favorite ride in general has been the Rock & Roll Marathon bike ride which is 22 miles through downtown San Antonio. He has been a Ride Marshal for the past two years working SAG. Although the ride is slow and flat, he enjoys riding in the back talking with and helping people who are struggling and need encouragement.

In addition to cycling, Bill has several other interests. He is an avid reader mostly of non-fiction American History and enjoys working on and around the house. While living in the Dallas/Ft Worth area he took up acting in some community theater productions but has been too busy to get involved again since moving to San Antonio 2 ½ years ago.

Bill has been married to his wife Karen for 33 years and they have two adult children and three grandsons all living in San Antonio. He grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska but lived in Albuquerque for five years and Texas for the last 15 years (6 years in San Antonio and 9 years in the Dallas/Ft Worth area). He has worked for an electrical distributor for 22 years and is currently the National Accounts Operations Manager.

Join Bill on one of the rides he starts or on any of the other rides he does. You can probably talk him into leading a moderate-paced stay-together ride.

Member of the Month for November 2012

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You have probably seen Andy Hinck and one of his two sons riding a tandem on some of the Wheelmen rides. Andy has been a wheelmen member for six years and is currently the Ride Committee Chair. You can thank him for all the great rides we have, for finding ride starters and for working to upgrade some of our older ride maps. He is also a ride starter and normally starts the Comfort ride plus other rides on occasion.

Andy does two totally distinct types of riding. He does recreational riding with the Wheelmen and commutes to work via bicycle. The bike he uses for Wheelmen rides is an older Trek carbon frame with a Campy Record Gruppo. For commuting he rides a Breakaway with a Campus Chorus Gruppo. His dream bike is a DeRosa Protos with a Campy Record Gruppo.

Here is Andy’s description of his riding experience. : “I have always ridden my bike – it started when I was a kid when I would ride around the area where my parents lived, both for fun and to deliver newspapers. I continued to ride my bike during college (when I had no other way to get around) – by the time I went to graduate school in Madison, WI, I finally got a car, but even then I didn’t use it much – primarily because Madison was so bike friendly; but also because the University had a policy of not issuing parking permits to students. I probably rode my bike least when I was a postdoc at the National Institute of Health (NIH), but over time I discovered some lightly traveled roads that would get me into Rock Creek Park, part of which is directly adjacent to the NIH campus on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington D.C. In the same manner, I also did not ride my bike much when I first came to San Antonio – however, over time I started riding with the Wheelmen about 6 years ago and really got back into it. I started riding my bike to work 4 years ago - part of my route is on the Leon Creek greenway, which I really like. I have taken my Breakaway along for trips to Germany (rode from Frankfurt to Berlin, from Berlin to Regensburg, and Regensburg back to Frankfurt, about 1000 miles), Switzerland, and most recently Montreal/Quebec City/Mont Tremblant.”

Andy says his favorite bike ride was from Ancortes, Washington to Victoria, Canada via the San Juan Islands. He also appears to be fond of riding in the Texas Hill Country particularly in the area northwest of Comfort.

Andy grew up near Seattle where he enjoyed outdoor activities such as high country hiking and sailing. He found opportunities for these activities to be limited in San Antonio, so gravitated toward cycling which is generally much better here. He says, “The Wheelmen are a great group for riding; the rides are safe, fun, sometimes challenging, and always worth the time, no matter how busy I am in ‘normal life’.”

Andy and his wife Cynthia have two sons: Garret who is 17 and Bennett who is 12. He used to ride the tandem with Garrett, but more recently has been riding it with Bennett. Looks like there will be another generation of Wheelmen riders in the Hinck family.

Member of the Month for October 2012

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Those who have been around the Wheelmen for a few years will immediately recognize Vicki Smith as one of the most active club members. She started riding with the Wheelmen in the summer of 1999 after taking a “How to ride a bike” community education course taught by Dean Lewis. She says “that one course certainly changed the way I spend my spare time!”

Vicki is normally one of the first to volunteer when the club needs help and has served the Wheelmen organization as Vice President, ride starter, and for many years has managed club merchandise sales. She was the 2009 Wheelmen Easter Hill Country Tour (EHCT) Director and is currently advising the 2013 Wheelmen EHCT Director. She still finds time to attend many of the scheduled Wheelmen rides.

Vicki rides a Colnago Master Extra Light with what she describes as “the best paint job ever!” This has to be her dream bike since she did not mention an urge to get a new bicycle. She is a very active rider with a wide variety of riding experiences. She describes her favorite rides as: “Locally, my favorite ride is Cibolo, flat and don’t need a map. Annually, would have to be the Tour de Tucson. This was my first century and also the easiest. You get to always have mountains on the horizon, but don’t have to climb them. Fort Davis is also a great ride, but you have to climb the hills! Lifetime ride would have to be the Cycle America Tour in Wyoming and Montana when one day we rode from Red Lodge up to Beartooth Pass. This was a trip that I am so glad I did, but also glad I didn’t check out the terrain beforehand!! Other riding adventures include the 400+ mile ride on the Natchez Trace all the way from Nashville TN to Natchez, LA. Fall color, no big trucks, slower cars and lots of history. The Durango to Silverton ride was another experience – made it to Coal Bank but wisely made the decision not to go on to Silverton because my fingers had no feeling. Which turned out to be wise; it snowed on the downside of Coal Bank and the rest of the way into Silverton. Riding around the Coliseum and exiting Rome on the Apian Way will always be remembered – do you know how old the Apian Way is??? “

Vicki graduated from Cooper HS in Abilene and moved to San Antonio after a four year layover at SWTSU in San Marcos. She retired after 38 years in public education. Part of that time she coached volleyball and the remainder was as a librarian.

If you are interested in a ride with interesting conversation, join Vicki for one of the Wheelmen rides. You will particularly enjoy riding Cibolo with her as she knows a variety of interesting routes in that area.

Member of the Month for September 2012

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Bob Mezzone, his wife, Michelle, and son, Jeff, have been Wheelmen members for the past three years and are all graduates of the Rider Education Series (RES) program. Bob quickly became an active instructor in the RES program as did Jeff once he completed the Road Riding courses. Bob will be helping with the Road Riding class that starts on September 15th. Bob is also the co-committee chair for SAG and Safety for the 2013 Easter Hill Country Tour and Jeff will be helping him. This is truly a Wheelmen family!

Bob started riding seriously in 1986 while in college in Seattle and has been riding ever since. His longest and most fun ride was accompanying Jeff (13 years old at the time) on a two day and 204 mile ride from Seattle to Portland. He describes it as a beautiful trip which was extremely well supported and there were enthusiastic crowds providing support for the riders in Portland. They hope to repeat the ride with Michelle in 2013. Bob rides a Cervelo S/5 with SRAM Rival components and says he is very satisfied with it as his dream bike.

Bob, Michelle and Jeff frequently ride together in the San Antonio area. Their favorite family ride is starting from Old Helotes and riding one of the Toutant Beauregard routes. They enjoy the “lovely roads, pretty country and a few hills for a challenge”. They try to ride several times each weekend and on a trainer some evenings. Jeff is participating in the high school cycling league so the family will be on the road traveling to the rides in the spring. In his spare time Bob is working on his Master’s degree.

Member of the Month for August 2012

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Angela Hubner has been a Wheelmen member since 2008 when she started biking and took the Wheelmen Rider Education Series beginning rider course. She has been a very active club member joining us for many of the weekly rides, serving as Advertising Coordinator for the print version of the Pedaler in the Southwest Cycling News, and as an instructor for a number of Wheelmen Road Riding classes.

When Angela started riding in 2008, she bought a hybrid bicycle since she was not sure if she wanted to be a road biker or a mountain biker. She soon settled on road biking and currently rides a beautiful custom frame Parlee Z3. She loves her road bike, but would also like to have a light-weight carbon 29-er mountain bike. Her favorite ride is the Wheelmen Boerne ride. Her default training ride is going from her house in Helotes via Scenic Loop and Toutant Beauregard to the Starbucks in Boerne and back. Obviously, she likes riding hills!

Since starting to ride in 2008, Angela has mostly done rides in Texas. She rode the Hotter N Hell (her photo was taken at the end of that ride), did the MS150 twice, and has done several century rides. Most of her training rides are from 40 – 60 miles in the San Antonio area.

Angela was born and raised in Germany. She then lived in Michigan and in England (near London). She moved to San Antonio in 2007. She is a Mechanical Engineer and works as a Software Consultant for Siemens on projects in various locations throughout the US.

Angela’s hobbies and activities include Yoga, nutritional coaching, dancing and any other kind of fun recreational activities. She formerly competed in Taekwondo until her work travel schedule got in the way. Angela has a great personality and is fun to ride with – if you can keep up with her.

Member of the Month for July 2012

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Debbie Bauml has been a Wheelmen member for over ten years and has been a Training Ride Leader for several of the Club’s Road Riding classes. When Debbie started riding with the Wheelmen, she had a heavy steel bike with a kickstand! She now rides a very nice black Calfee. Don Schwartz, one of the Wheelmen founding members, took Debbie under his wing in her early riding years and helped her develop into the very strong rider she is today.

Debbie started riding when she took a bicycle education class in 1999 to learn how to ride a bike on the road and change a flat so she could take her Girl Scout Troop bicycling. She quickly caught the bicycling bug and started riding with the Wheelmen and the San Antonio Trailblazers. She then became the Merit Badge Counselor for the Boy Scout Troop at her church and has helped a number of Scouts earn their Bicycling Merit Badge. She is equally good at coaching new riders when they do their first hills keeping up with the fast crowd when doing a long ride.

Fast rides of 50+ miles are Debbie’s favorite cycling challenges. She particularly enjoys riding with her friends. One of her most memorable rides was the fifth time she traveled to Arizona for the 109 mile El Tour de Tucson. That year she received a certificate for being the first woman rider from Texas to cross the finish line. She was also a Platinum rider at El Tour de Tucson one year which meant she was one of the fastest women in the race that year and got to start up front (with the pro riders) the following year. That is a major cycling accomplishment!

Debbie and her husband Bob have been married for 31 years and have three children: Allison 26, and twins Emily and Tony 20. She grew up in San Antonio and graduated from UTSA with a degree in Health and Physical Education.

In addition to riding her bicycle, Debbie enjoys gardening and running. She is currently training to run her third SA Rock n Roll Marathon in November. She also enjoys fishing and hunting with her husband Bob. Look for Debbie at a future Wheelmen ride. She will be the rider with a blond ponytail, a great looking Calfee and a big smile.

Member of the Month for June 2012

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Maricela Guerra has been a Wheelmen member for two years and is currently in her second term as Secretary on the Board. She joined the club after purchasing a new bicycle and the bike shop recommended the Wheelmen as a good club to ride with. The Road Riding 101 class was starting within a month so she signed up and subsequently completed the Road Riding 101 and 201 classes plus the Intermediate 301 class. She then rode the Tour de Cure and MS 150 and now feels comfortable riding alone or with groups of riders. Her bubbly personality maker riding with her a lot of fun!

Mari rides a Scattante 660, but would like to have a Cervelo. While she enjoys road riding and particularly likes rides in the Boerne area because of the scenery, she lives in the King William area so prefers riding around the Missions and the South town area. She is looking into developing an evening urban ride for the Wheelmen with perhaps dinner and a beer after the ride. While she has not done any mountain biking, she would like to try it at some point. Mari has done road rides around San Antonio, Cibolo, New Braunfels, Austin and Castroville. She is now looking forward to doing some out-of-state rides.

Mari was born and raised in San Antonio. She attended St. John Berchmans for K-8th grades then went to Incarnate High School, graduating in 2002. She then moved to Chicago where she attended Northwestern University earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. She moved back to San Antonio in 2006.

She started her working career with Merrill Lynch then moved to a large medical group where she did Project Management. About a year and a half ago she took a job with Accenture, a large global IT management, consulting and outsourcing organization. She is a Volume Lead for the Health and Public Service Proposal Response Center and spends a considerable amount of time traveling for work.

Maricela was a Professional Folkorico dancer; a hobby she pursued for 13 years but had to quit when she entered college. She loved this hobby while growing up and spent most of her time dancing when not in school. She currently has very little free time from work, but enjoys traveling to visit her college friends who live in other cities. She would also like to have more time for cycling. Maricela has been in a long-term relationship (about 6 years) with her boyfriend Adolfo

Member of the Month for May 2012

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Lynn Blanco (left in the photo) is currently the Rider Education Series (RES) Administrative Assistant, providing information to individuals interested in the RES classes and communicating with the prospective- students. She supports the Rider Education Chairperson by assuring that instructors and students are informed on class schedules and other administrative matters. She has been a member of the San Antonio Wheelmen since 2010 and successfully completed the Road Riding 101 class in 2001. She has been a very active member of the Club and is willing to volunteer when help is needed.

In the summer of 2011, Lynn started riding with Team in Training (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). She truly believes in charity rides and fund-raising because 10 years ago her Mother was diagnosed with lymphoma. She is thankful she can bring attention, and raise money for this worthy cause, through Team in Training's outstanding cycling program. She is currently training with Team in Training for her first Century Ride in June at Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Lynn describes herself as a “baby” cyclist, since she has only been riding for 1 ½ years. Her “favorite” ride is the one with very few hills, a tailwind and good company on a cool morning! Her passion is what wakes her up at 4:30 a.m. in order to ride at 7 a.m. Her one and only bike is a Trek 2.1, which she LOVE”S because “it tries her hardest to help me get up hills!” Her dream bike would be any bike that “could help me climb hills!”

Lynn is one of four siblings from a military family, and was born in Virginia. She moved to San Antonio in 1971, graduated from East Central High School, and attended Texas A&M University in 1980, receiving a BA in journalism. She has been the CEO of The Rape Crisis Center for the last 13 years. Prior to that, she worked in Austin on the Texas Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program.

Lynn is the single mother of a 15-year-old daughter who is a freshman at East Central High School. Her daughter, has been competitively dancing with private studios since the age of 3.. She now is on her high school dance team, and still competes. Lynn describes herself as a '“dance diva” Mom.The next time you see Lynn on a ride say hello, suggest a good climbing bike, and ask her how her first century ride went with Team In Training. She is so passionate for nonprofit work and volunteerism that you will find that chatting with her during a ride will make the ride that much more enjoyable.

Member of the Month for April 2012

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Kelly Sile is the new Wheelmen “mapmaker” who is updating some of our older maps to add roads and doing maps for our new routes such as New Berlin. She joined the Wheelmen in 2009 and has been an instructor for Road Riding 101 and 201 and also helped with stay-together rides. Kelly is also very active with Team in Training where she raises money to find a cure for blood cancer.

If you have seen Kelly on a ride you will have noticed her beautiful 2011 Trek Madone with Sram red components (see the photo above). She ordered the frame and had the bike built with components she selected. When the weather is not great she rides her 2009 Trek WSD 2.3 to keep the new bike clean! While she has the road bike she wants, she would also like to have a Kona Mina mountain bike.

Kelly started riding mountain bikes over 25 years ago and has been riding road bikes for about 20 years. She has done six century rides: El Tour de Tucson (twice – 109 miles), Armadillo Hill Country Classic in Liberty Hill (twice), the Outlaw Trail in Round Rock, and the Honolulu Century. She will do her 7th century this June at Lake Tahoe. She has also done the local Tour de Cure and Fiesta Wildflower rides several times and the Conquer the Coast ride in Corpus Christi. She plans to do the Alamo Ride to the River in October 2012. She also did the cycling legs for two Triathlon’s: the Wurst Tri Ever in New Braunfels (no one else wanted to ride Hueco Springs loop!) and the Capital of Texas Triathlon. She used both events as a time trial! In her spare time Kelly leads training rides for Team in Training. Other Team in Training members call Kelly the Mountain Goat because she loves riding hills. When given a choice, she would rather ride hills than flat routes.

Here is Kelly’s description of her favorite ride. “My favorite ride was the 2011 Honolulu Century. It was the most beautiful route I have ever done. The scenery was breath taking and you can’t beat pineapple at the SAG stops and Coconut shave ice after the ride!”

Kelly’s father was in the Air force, so she went to elementary school in England and then came to San Antonio in 1977 and has lived here ever since. She works for an engineering company that does electrical studies for West Texas oil companies. In addition to cycling her favorite outdoor activities include fishing, hiking and photography.

The next time you see Kelly on a ride say hello, get a good look at her bike, and thank her for the new and improved route maps.

Member of the Month for March 2012

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Jose Rojas is an avid bicyclist and the new Wheelmen Executive Vice President. He joined the club in 2007 and has been an active participant in the weekly rides plus has started a number of rides including Rebecca Creek, Kendalia and Comal School. He is currently helping develop the Wheelmen social schedule for this year with plans for a social event every month. He is also leading the Club effort to develop route maps that can be downloaded to GPS devices.

Jose grew up in the Venezuelan Andes Mountains where he enjoyed hiking and fishing with his father. His love of the mountains led to enjoying climbing hills on his bicycle. On the Wheelmen rides he prefers the long, hilly routes. His favorite local rides are ones with hills, especially in the hill country. The more climbing, the better he likes the ride, so among his local favorites are Bullis Park, Comfort, Boerne, and Big Joshua Creek. While there are some good climbs on these local rides, he misses the big mountain passes in Venezuela.

Jose rides a custom made Steel Crown Jewel road bike from Independent Fabrication and also rides a Salsa Dos Niner mountain bike. His loves his road bike, which is only five months old, so he is not interested in replacing it. However, he says there is always room for another bike!

Here is Jose’s description of his riding experience: “I started riding in Caracas the last couple of years of college, back in 1987-88. I started with a borrowed bike from a friend. I used to travel with that bike everywhere. It was all rusty, but I did some minor maintenance and it was ready to go. No high-end components or carbon back then. I even used to ride it without a spare tube. I have never stopped riding for more than a few weeks since then.”

“I mountain biked full-time for many years, that’s when my passion (religion) really developed.  I still ride mountain bikes a lot. Before I moved to San Antonio I bought a road bike, because it was very convenient to ride out of my garage. I love it, it complements off road riding and it’s great for fitness.”

“I’ve done a lot of riding in the mountains back in Venezuela, off and on road. I’ve been to Moab, Utah and also climbed Mount Ventoux a couple of years ago. I have some good plans for this year that include some riding with my wife and also I’m training for an ultra-endurance race in South California that includes bike packing and riding a lot.”

Jose is an Administrator for Atique Orthodontics where he works with his wife Maria Atique- Rojas who also rides with the Wheelmen. They have two sons; Daniel who is 8 and Diego who is 6. Since the Rojas family all ride bikes, we can look forward to riding with the adults on Wheelmen rides and a future generation of hill climbing cyclists!