J. Reid Mumford

I have been riding and racing bicycles on and off since I started High School in 1991. The first race that I entered was part of the Grundig NORBA national calendar held in Park City Utah. I had no idea what I was doing. The event was a hill climb. I was there on my steel mountain bike, some bike shorts that I'd stolen from my brother, and my nike hiking boots. It was a brutal climb. I ended up in the top 10 or so I think in the beginner class. An hour or so after that first event, was the downhill. I ended up taking 5th place in that event despite my lack of any significant off-road experience. I remember going up to collect my prizes. I won one of those great Etto, one size fits all, helmets. It was hot pink.

From that first race, I was forever hooked. Parents, be careful when you let your kids start racing because there really is no turning back.

I started road racing seriously in 2000. I moved to Baltimore Maryland to start Graduate school at Johns Hopkins University. I decided that I needed a diversion from all of the coursework so I started riding. I ran into another student who was into riding and soon I was racing for our college team. We went to Collegiate Nationals in 2002 and came home with the Team Time Trial gold medal. Which we also took in 2003. I had some great times with the Hopkins cycling club I had some fantastic teamates who helped me rediscover how great it is to race bikes.

In 2003, I moved to Illinois so that I could continue my graduate research at Fermilab. I joined XXX Racing - AthletiCo and raced for them as a Cat 3. I upgraded to a Cat 2 at the end of 2003 and helped establish a small elite team for XXX comprised of a handful of riders. We had an extremely successful season in 2004, racing in many NRC races and stage races like Nature Valley Grand Prix and Fitchburg. In 2004, I earned enough points to upgrade to a Cat 1.