NAME: Tomi McMillar
SPONSOR/TEAM: TomiCogs/Gettysburg Cupcake Factory
HOMETOWN: Carlisle, PA
Where are you from? The Eastern Great Valley. Minored in bike racing at VA Tech back in the day, then bounced a bit locally before settling here in the Cumberland Valley with Michaux for a backyard.
What kind of bike do you ride? All of my bikes are made from eight tubes of steel, have two wheels and one speed. Sometimes they coast, sometimes they don't.
What do you love about it? The freedom provided.
Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo, because expanding my personal limits is, well, personal. Can't always do that when racing as a team.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? Thirteen hundo's, six on a fix. Tour de 'burg six times, 100% fixed in '07. A few 24's via teams & a duo. Getting into overnight bikepacking to really see how far I can go.
Favorite food? Pizza, hold the olives, light on the onions, pile on the rest.
Movie? 12 Monkeys
Book? On the Road.
What kind of bike do you ride? All of my bikes are made from eight tubes of steel, have two wheels and one speed. Sometimes they coast, sometimes they don't.
What do you love about it? The freedom provided.
Solo or team competitor? Why? Solo, because expanding my personal limits is, well, personal. Can't always do that when racing as a team.
Done any ultra-endurance stuff before? Thirteen hundo's, six on a fix. Tour de 'burg six times, 100% fixed in '07. A few 24's via teams & a duo. Getting into overnight bikepacking to really see how far I can go.
Favorite food? Pizza, hold the olives, light on the onions, pile on the rest.
Movie? 12 Monkeys
Book? On the Road.
Worst experience on a bike? Seeing my best friend get clipped by a drunk driver while spinning back to the car after a sweet Sunday ride in Michaux. That kinda sucked.
Best experience on a bike? The very first time I remember my mom putting me in that rickety plastic seat on the back of her townie bike for a ride down the street to visit the neighbor's. I was three and recall being sort of terrified at the wobbly start. But man, once we were moving, I've been forever hooked on that flying sensation. Thanks mom.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: Getting away from the beaten path, linking together Bambi's vision; primative, raw, not-IMBA approved. Hidden stretches of flowing loamy love thru lowbush blueberry and knee high ferns stashed in the middle of world reknowned rocky techy gnar. Following the natural lines of travel thru the forest, not too steep, never straight, but rolling and zigging and zagging just right. Goldilocks would approve, I'm sure.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: I'd like to think that the best is yet to come, that's one reason why I'm throwing my hat into this ring. But if I had to rank one, it would be the day my dad took the training wheels off that little blue bike.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Probably the "I've fallen and can't get up" lady from Life Alert (tm), but hopefully it won't come to that.
Best experience on a bike? The very first time I remember my mom putting me in that rickety plastic seat on the back of her townie bike for a ride down the street to visit the neighbor's. I was three and recall being sort of terrified at the wobbly start. But man, once we were moving, I've been forever hooked on that flying sensation. Thanks mom.
Tell us about your favorite ‘local’ ride: Getting away from the beaten path, linking together Bambi's vision; primative, raw, not-IMBA approved. Hidden stretches of flowing loamy love thru lowbush blueberry and knee high ferns stashed in the middle of world reknowned rocky techy gnar. Following the natural lines of travel thru the forest, not too steep, never straight, but rolling and zigging and zagging just right. Goldilocks would approve, I'm sure.
Tell us about your favorite ride EVER: I'd like to think that the best is yet to come, that's one reason why I'm throwing my hat into this ring. But if I had to rank one, it would be the day my dad took the training wheels off that little blue bike.
Who will play you in the Breck Epic movie and why? Probably the "I've fallen and can't get up" lady from Life Alert (tm), but hopefully it won't come to that.
What do you hope to get out of this experience? Laid. I mean, if being a fixed gear mountain bicycle stage racing stud doesn't bring in the chicks, then why else should I bother? oh, wait.....I meant to say that it's a zen thing. Yeah, it's all about the zen. And not being DFL on 1800's technology.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: Have always ridden bikes; kiddy bikes, then String Ray banana seat styley, bmxer's, 10 speeds. Bought my first mountain bike before heading to college in '88, hooked. Started raced spring '89 and haven't looked back, always wondering what's next? Started with those epic 40k's back in the day, then NORBA, dabbled in 24's, then grassroots XXC's and Monsters which are now 50's, 100's. Underground stage racing lit the fuse for multi day adventure and now I'm gearing up for the overnight touring game. Been friends with some of the original Hugh Jass gang since college, awed by the fixed approach at that muddy Canaan 24 in '98. Then Tim's ride at the Shen100 in '02 really opened my eyes. Tried it, liked it and now I find myself holding a handful of meaningless fixed 'course records' and producing bolt on fix gear cogs and stainless chainrings to fund my adventures. What a fun trip it's been. (ED: I got passed by a Hugh Jass guy on a friggin' clown bike with ape-hanger bars in the middle of the night about a decade ago at the 24 Hours of Moab. It was the year they all rode in the same pair of acid-washed bike shorts...not identical shorts, mind you, but the SAME PAIR. They switched them from rider to rider in the transition area. Anyway. the guy that passed me was obviously laboring, (cuz i'm a stud, right?) and while he was passing me he kept chanting to himself "HYooo-jassss, hyoooo-jasss-heeeeyeeewwww-JASSS!". I was laughing so hard that I almost fell down.)
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like. My plan is to race this thing on a fixed gear and winning a slot in this contest is probably the only way that that will happen. I've done a stage race fixed before, it wasn't easy, it kinda sucked in some respect, but was also quite rewarding in many ways. This is a chance for me to do it again, and see Colorado for the first time! Cuz there's no way I'm throwing down good money to torture myself in that way again, I'd rather spend it on a trip to Durango for SSWC09, no offense Mike. ;-P (ED - none taken. But a fixie? You should carry a gun. With one bullet. Not for bears or anything, but for yourself.)
So please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeze, vote me into this thing and I promise to attempt wholeheartedly to keep ya'll entertained along the way. Open the window and let ya'll witness the different bits and pieces of the working mind of a slightly off kilter bicycle loving nut job.
Tell us about your history as a cyclist or in the industry: Have always ridden bikes; kiddy bikes, then String Ray banana seat styley, bmxer's, 10 speeds. Bought my first mountain bike before heading to college in '88, hooked. Started raced spring '89 and haven't looked back, always wondering what's next? Started with those epic 40k's back in the day, then NORBA, dabbled in 24's, then grassroots XXC's and Monsters which are now 50's, 100's. Underground stage racing lit the fuse for multi day adventure and now I'm gearing up for the overnight touring game. Been friends with some of the original Hugh Jass gang since college, awed by the fixed approach at that muddy Canaan 24 in '98. Then Tim's ride at the Shen100 in '02 really opened my eyes. Tried it, liked it and now I find myself holding a handful of meaningless fixed 'course records' and producing bolt on fix gear cogs and stainless chainrings to fund my adventures. What a fun trip it's been. (ED: I got passed by a Hugh Jass guy on a friggin' clown bike with ape-hanger bars in the middle of the night about a decade ago at the 24 Hours of Moab. It was the year they all rode in the same pair of acid-washed bike shorts...not identical shorts, mind you, but the SAME PAIR. They switched them from rider to rider in the transition area. Anyway. the guy that passed me was obviously laboring, (cuz i'm a stud, right?) and while he was passing me he kept chanting to himself "HYooo-jassss, hyoooo-jasss-heeeeyeeewwww-JASSS!". I was laughing so hard that I almost fell down.)
Feel free to blatantly self-promote here. A quote you like, a direct appeal to the voters, some hateful vitriolic slander for your political opponents (see: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter…) This is your space. Decorate it however you’d like. My plan is to race this thing on a fixed gear and winning a slot in this contest is probably the only way that that will happen. I've done a stage race fixed before, it wasn't easy, it kinda sucked in some respect, but was also quite rewarding in many ways. This is a chance for me to do it again, and see Colorado for the first time! Cuz there's no way I'm throwing down good money to torture myself in that way again, I'd rather spend it on a trip to Durango for SSWC09, no offense Mike. ;-P (ED - none taken. But a fixie? You should carry a gun. With one bullet. Not for bears or anything, but for yourself.)
So please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeze, vote me into this thing and I promise to attempt wholeheartedly to keep ya'll entertained along the way. Open the window and let ya'll witness the different bits and pieces of the working mind of a slightly off kilter bicycle loving nut job.
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3 comments:
8 tubes of steel - not even a carbon fibre? :p
its all about the fixie's though - 100%
note on editors note: that lovely pair of acid washed hugh jass shorts padded asses in more than a few races. As another disciple of hugh, 'tis nice to see credit given to that blessed tribe. Good luck tomi! ps: thought there were 9 tubes in a frame?
In a word: that's fucking disgusting. I am getting an infected pimple in my man parts just thinking about it.
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