Although he isn't following in my footsteps, our youngest man is becoming a fine cyclist in his own right. He turns 17 today, something I never could imagine 17 years ago. It's always been hard to wrap my head around the future and what it holds. A couple weeks ago, Eli entered his first Cat 1 local race and did a bang-up job. It was a hard nasty race and he did fantastic. Still 16 in this photo, happy as he can be holding his expensive mountain bike that has been thrashed for two hours in the mud. Sigh.
Never would I have thought he'd be doing what he's doing today. He was just a little dude with a bright future, whatever that might be. Not really thinking about bike racing then. Not really thinking about high school or college. Not really thinking about much except how to keep him in clean diapers and how to get him to fall asleep before 2am.
Just last weekend, he and I took a guy's trip to Arkansas for one of their State Series mountain bike races. Arkadelphia, to be exact. This was the dam just below Iron Mountain, and it was glorious. Eli was signed up to race, but I wasn't. There was a few moments on Sunday morning where registration was still open and I was feeling good, but something told me not to. I went on this trip with the idea that I was going to be the pit crew, so I just stuck with that plan.
Since this was a USA Cycling race, he had to race his category. We tried to sign him up to race Category 1 but he was technically only a Cat 3. We petitioned USAC and they upgraded him to Cat 2. The course was fantastic and Eli was quickly out front. He and another Cat 2 rider were flat out flying, passing through the older Cat 1's and looking every bit like they could have raced the higher category.
This was exactly why I didn't race. Why I shouldn't have raced. This moment right here. I was able to witness his first real mountain bike win. I was beyond proud. I'm sure everyone at the race knew that I was the proud father from my shouting.
Worth every ounce of effort. I constantly forget that he's so young because he carries himself like a much older person. I've worked very hard not to push my kids into things that I like to do, to not live vicariously through them. When I say that it has been 100% his decision to take up cycling, it's the truth. He even does it for different reasons, and gets something completely different from it than I do. He is truly someone a lot of people can look up to and gain inspiration from. To say that I'm proud of the person he has become is such an understatement.
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