Paul's Cycling Team - 2006

Richard Sweet, aka: General Coonskins or The General

Team Captain-self proclaimed.

Bikes: To many to list them all, my favorites are my SS Vulture, SS Salsa CX, & Orbea Starship.
 
Favorite thing(s) to do: hang out with my family, ride my bike, enjoy life, promoting events.
 
Things I don’t like: the things that keep me from riding my bike and hanging out with my family.

 
Ride history: started riding mountain bikes in 1993, the rest is history….
 
Race history: started racing in 1995 in local mtb events, moved onto the road in 2001 for some better training. Finished 6 of 7 Cascade Cream Puff 100’s started, 2 time SS champion, 3 top ten overall finishes. I enjoy road racing more than mountain bike racing because of the strategy involved.

 
Listed in order of preferred type of riding:
1)       Mountain biking with my wife and dogs.
2)       Mountain biking with friends.
3)       Anything long, mountain or road, as long as it is fun.
4)       Road riding
5)       Road racing
6)       Cyclocross
7)       MTB racing

Describe yourself:
I try to keep things fun, I like riding my bike and I really enjoy it, if I don’t enjoy it I don’t do it. I love long rides, long means 6+ hours on the mountain bike or road bike. I love adventures and increasing the limits of what my mind and body can do. Just because it’s there doesn’t cut it for me, it needs to be fun and have a good outcome for me to do it. I tried RAO once, enjoyed the training for it, got bored before the race started and dropped 1/2 the way through while in the lead. I really enjoy the road racing, the tactics, the variety, the speed and the challenge of always improving. I like promoting events, to help build the sport of cycling, to put on races I would like to do, to promote our sport to the outside world, and for the challenge of bringing a small group of people together and pulling off an excellent event that people enjoy.

 
What’s next:
I don’t know exactly, my mind is always going. One new thing in 2006 will be the addition of a Stage Race in the Willamette Valley. I am always debating on what I want out of life and cycling, it always comes down to I already have it and as long as I can keep both fun I will be happy. From a cycling challenge perspective 2006 marks a move into the cat 1⁄2 field at 36 years old, the challenge will be balancing family, training, racing, promoting and riding and still enjoy it all:)

Closing statement:
We need more people in our sport, men, women, juniors, etc…. the more people we can connect with the better our sport will be. It is hard for a sport such as ours to get the respect it deserves with all the different facets it presents to the public. From commuting to recreation to racing we need to encourage people of all ages to try it, doing that means presenting the opportunity for them. I try to do my part and encourage other people to do theirs.
 
Time to Ride,
Richard