This article was first published in Issue 138 of Rouleur
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I wanted to be a professional athlete. I didn’t know which sport I wanted to do yet, but I wanted to make athletics my profession. In high school, I did everything I could do to chase that, from triathlon to cross country, then mountain biking, and finally I settled on road cycling. There were a few forks in the road, but they were always tied to athletics. When I was running in high school, I had some universities scouting me to give me a scholarship for cross country. I thought about that for a while because my mom was a runner, but really I just fell in love with cycling. I loved being on my bike and the speed and adventure it brought. I loved seeing the Tour of California when I was in elementary school. That was really inspiring. Cycling just sunk its teeth into me at a very young age and I really wanted to be a cyclist.
What is your least favourite thing about cycling?
Probably having to leave the United States. There are a lot of great things about Europe and about having this life, but at the same time it has been a bit of a disconnecting lifestyle from what I was used to growing up. But I am really lucky to have found my wife Frances and now we’re together in Nice. But she also had to leave her family for my career as well, so we are in it together. Now I have family in Europe, which is really incredible.
Who is your funniest team-mate?
Odd Christian Eiking was probably one of the funniest guys I’ve ever had on a team. The things he would come up with at the dinner table were just so out of left field. Whenever I see him at a race I just try to talk to him as much as I can because he is really entertaining.
Where is your favourite place to train?
Nice, where I live right now. I love the roads I grew up training on in northern California between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, but being able to train on roads that you race on is a whole other level. And in Nice you can get out of town really quickly. It takes me less than five minutes to get out of the city. It’s pretty incredible.
Do you have any annoying habits?
I think I do a lot of things that my wife finds annoying. I think she finds it annoying that I can just fall asleep without decompressing at all. I can just pass out as soon as I go to bed. But other than that, you probably need to ask her.
What do you think is your strongest characteristic as a cyclist?
I think I am good at compartmentalising. I think I am good at keeping the job the job, and keeping my off-the-bike life off the bike. I can disconnect myself as soon as I am done training and just relax. I think that is a big strength. Certainly, I can go back over things that happened in a race if I think there are things to learn, but if it is not worth wasting time over, I think I am good at just moving on and focusing on the next goal. I think a goldfish memory is beneficial sometimes.
What was your earliest memory of riding a bike?
One of the earliest memories that I have was a pretty bad one. It was of crashing on a gravel fire road. I think I remember it mostly because it was so traumatic. I was riding with my dad and I just lost control. I don’t know how really, but I just slid on the gravel, and my dad had to carry me back to the house and clean up my road rash. I don’t know how old I was – probably six or seven – but it was my first experience of road rash and the pain of cycling.
Who is the person you most admire in history or currently?
When it comes to historical figures, I try not to put anyone too much up on a pedestal if I didn’t know them personally. So, I’m going to say my parents. Now that I am a dad and I have a daughter, I am just blown away by how much my parents did for my sister and me, getting us involved in athletics and exposing us to all sorts of things. Looking back, I see how much energy they had for us, and I think, wow, those are some pretty big shoes to fill. Sometimes I am just so smoked from my training or whatever I am doing in the day that it is hard to have the energy, but I want to do as much with my daughter as they did with us.
Do you have a bucket-list holiday destination anywhere in the world?
Maybe Hawaii. It is such a gorgeous place. I have been there a few times for racing, but never for a true vacation, and I always think that it would be a great destination. I don’t know when I would have the time to go there now, when I am racing, so it might have to wait until I am done with my career. But I think we could really plan some incredible excursions, maybe on a helicopter or swimming or scuba diving.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
I’ve actually been listening to some podcasts by Trevor Noah (What Now?) and there are a lot of interesting ideas there. It is a difficult question actually, because if you change one thing, it has a lot of impact on so many things, but if I was going to go for an easy one, I would say that there would be this big running lottery and everyone in the world would have to take a mandatory trip out of their home country. They couldn’t choose the destination, but that would be a really good way for people to expand their perspectives and understand people from around the world better. I think that if we all could understand different people from different places, if everyone could just understand a little better where other people come from, then the world would be a better place. In our team, for example, we are really diverse, coming from all kinds of different countries and nationalities. And at our team camp, we all have to ask those we don’t know, where they came from and what their backgrounds are. I think that if you understand your team-mates better, you will work better together.
What is the last book you read?
Currently I am reading The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida. It’s a sort of feelgood book, but it is really good. It’s quirky, but it is also soothing to me. If you have ever been to a convenience store in Japan, you know, they just have so many things. It’s a one-stop shop where you can find anything from ingredients to make a smoothie or little toiletries. This book is made up of a lot of short stories about things that have happened there. It’s very impressionistic and it really relaxes me.
Tea or Coffee?
Coffee. Most of the time I just drink black coffee in the morning, but sometimes I treat myself to a flat white.
What is your favourite band or musician?
I really got into The Black Pumas this past winter. I didn’t really know about them until last year, but my brother-in-law came to Japan and South Korea last winter and we would go to some vinyl bars and he was making the selections for us, because his taste in music is much more sophisticated than ours. He was playing all kinds of stuff for us and The Black Pumas were just one of the great groups he introduced us to.
What has being a Native American most given you in life?
It has given me a sense of identity, perhaps more than most Americans, I’d say. Most Americans come from a melting pot of all different kinds of nationalities, but growing up as part of a group that is very small and very local to a specific area, helped root me in a lot of ways. Travelling around the world, I always know where I belong and where I am from.
