Bryan Leuenberger

Growing up in Northern Colorado, endurance sports were a part of life for me.  Nordic skiing, running, and bicycling were a natural part of the seasons changing in the Rockies.  And being an elite distance runner in Colorado during the seventies was a great place to develop and hone my competitive skills.  As life went on, and the eighties approached, it was clear that I needed to shift my focus from athletic competition to a career that had a more stable future, and paid better.  Multiple degrees in engineering along with an MBA combined well with the strong discipline, work ethic, and competitive acumen I had developed as an athlete throughout my career as an executive at several start-up as well as Fortune 500 high tech companies over the course of two-and-a-half decades.  During that period I continued to follow my favorite endurance sports, but did not make the time to participate in them.  But my dreams and memories were still active, still feeling what it was once like, and wondering what could have been.  Then in 2005 I decided that I should fulfill one of my dreams before any more of my life passed by.  I decided that I was going to be a part of a riding tour at that year’s Tour de France.  I hired a top coach, and trained as much as I could in preparation for the trip to France.  It ended up being the trip of a lifetime, and a trip that changed my life.  I remembered the exhilaration that came while riding a bike while at my absolute physical limits.  I promised myself that never again would I allow myself to stray so far from physical competitive challenges.  I also wanted to get actively involved with a cycling team/club that was mission bound to make a positive difference for its membership and its community (in areas other than just racing bikes), to help and mentor others with the experiences that I had gained.  The following year, at age 49, I joined Team Hotel San Jose, and I entered my first season of bike racing.