A few years ago, my friend’s brother, Bryan Carbone, was involved in a motorcycle accident. He was riding through town when a car pulled out in front of him. The accident was at low speed, but the injuries were near fatal. A broken jaw and femur were the result of this sunny Sunday ride.

Fast forward to today, and Bryan is crossing the country on a bicycle. About 6 days ago, Bryan traveled south to Florida, where he would meet up with a few strangers who shared the same dream. Bryan is now on day 4 of his epic journey across the southern USA.

Here’s an excerpt from his blog:

A few years later I got a motorcycle, and after a full summer of riding all over, I get hit by a car on my way to work. I broke my femur and had a rod placed in it, along with a broken jaw. After missing a semester of school and finally healin up, just about the only form of exercise I could do without pain was riding a bike. So I picked up a mt. bike and started riding again. Alot. Then I got a road bike, and rode that alot.

Then last summer I had the great idea of riding my bike down to Long Beach Island to spend the week with family. I bought a set of panniers and a rack, threw em on my mt. bike, and I rode. And rode. And rode. I probably should have spent some more time planning out my route, but nevertheless, I made it down. About 10 hours later. And 103 miles. And countless stops to look at google maps on my phone to try and get an idea of where the heck I was.

Crossing the county has always been a dream of mine. Bryan is living his dream and documenting it along the way. You can follow his ride by reading his website. Good luck Bryan!

Bryan Carbone’s Journey

What did you do December 1st? Those were the words said by teammate, Ken Zorovich, in regards to racing last spring.

When I first hit the racing scene last spring, I was amazed by how seriously people took the sport of cycling. I sprinted myself to a 4th place result at my first race and nearly threw up after the finish line. There was a little bit of talent mixed with luck in that first result, but getting to 1st place is a different story. The truth is, if you want to win, you must train.

While racing takes place during the months of April to October, the real work takes place from December to April. Hours of indoor training sessions after work, mixed with frigid cold weekend mornings is how I now spend the winter. The best motivational tools I’ve used to far is, music, youtube cycling videos, Xbox, and live video training with teammates. Of course, there’s always the winter lager beer as a reward.
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On Monday evening, Julie, Mark and I sat in line with local racers and cycling fanatics, just to get 30 seconds with Lance Armstrong. Lance was at Book Ends, in Ridgewood, NJ to promote his new pictorial, Comeback 2.0. He was offering book signings to anyone who purchased a book at the store.

Lance was very friendly and made sure to look every person in the eye before saying, “Hello.” Julie stumbled over her own words when asking him if he’s got it in him for number 8. A very humble Armstrong responded with, “Well, I’ll be close to 39, so we’ll have to see.” His publicist immediately stepped in and said, “Of course!” Julie responded with, “We believe in you, Lance.” Lance looked up and said, “Thank you, I appreciate that.”