Big News: We’re signing with Jamis Bikes for 2016!
8 Jan 2016
A few months ago, I signed my first “big kid” contract as a professional athlete. And then I had to sit around and NOT TELL ANYONE FOR TWO MONTHS. As you can imagine, this wasn’t easy and January couldn’t come around fast enough.
Suffice it to say, Macky and I are both very, very, very excited to announce the following (which would have been a better surprise if I hadn’t given it away in the title):
We’ve signed with Jamis Bikes for the 2016 season!!!
Hip-hip-hooray!
This is good news on many, many levels. First and foremost, the obvious — I get to do what I love, pursue bike-racing as a career, and ride a rad, top-of-the-line bike that happens to be one of my favorite colors. And I get to do all this while living ABOVE the poverty line. Like, whoa, somebody crack open the champagne.
And secondly, less obvious but arguably far more important — I have a feeling that this is going to be a relationship that will work really, really well. As a company, Jamis is very down-to-earth, very real and very dedicated to what they do. They’re also one of the oldest bike companies in the US and one of the few with a female CEO (something that I like to think contributes to the “down-to-earth” bit). In general, they’re a “no bullshit” and “no unnecessary hype” kind of company and I like that. I like it A LOT. In past years, I’ve left Interbike feeling like that little raccoon who puts his cotton candy in the puddle in that viral video that’s currently going around, all “oh wow this great, hey wait, where did it go?” (Watch the video here). In other words, working with Jamis to put this program together over the past few months has been a refreshing experience — we’ve been able to have some frank, open conversations about sponsorship and put together something awesome, all without playing the game. Which is just plain nice.
Also, we’ll be riding a bike called the Defcon 1, which opens up a world of Cold War related metaphors and bad puns, which is a great use for my undergraduate degree in history.
Many thanks to Steffen Gronegger and Enduro MTB for the photos and the fun times playing on New Jersey rocks.
Congrats on the big kid contract! Earning money WHILE riding bikes is quite the opposite of what the 99% of us desk jockeys get to do. I actually remember seeing your subtle New Mexico jerseys at the 2014 Winter Park EWS, too, maybe come out to California for a race this season (the Mammoth Enduro course is a hoot). Race well and maybe see you out there. Give my regards to that Racoon if you ever meet him, I feel the same way when I explode a new derailleur.
We’ve been wanting to go to Kamikaze games for a few years now, maybe we’ll make it happen this year!