In the Winter issue (click on picture of Current Issue, top left):
Around the World.............................................................................................Page 6
Warm Up Down South.....................................................................................Page 12
Trispokes..........................................................................................................Page 18
Singletrack........................................................................................................Page 22
Behind Bars......................................................................................................Page 26
Racing With My Son Syd...................................................................................Page 27
Calendar of Events............................................................................................Page 28
Family Cycling...................................................................................................Page 30
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Racing with My Son Syd - “It Takes a Village…”
By Tracy Lea
Every mother likes this kind of call, “Hi Mom, I won!”
I had been watching the clock and doing the math. When did he start? How long would it take? Remember to factor in a start delay and the time difference between Maryland and Syd in Cassella, Italy.
Finally, the phone call.
I hear laughter, Syd’s coach crying, sound and meaning coalescing … “Syd hammered the field, rode solo the last 15 km, despite me pre-race pleading with him to wait until the last lap. Kids never listen! But he did tell me that he shifted but was in too big a gear -sometimes, cross chained a few times, but remembered to keep his inside leg up on the turns.”
We forget just how much the brain processes bike racing, and how much harder it might be if the brain is not 100%.
Syd has an intellectual disability, but that has never stopped him from going hard and wanting to win, and wanting to win at big at a World Championship. He wowed his competitors lining up for the time trial on his Fuji D6 time trial bike and brother Bobby’s Zipp disc rear wheel. He forgot his booties and most likely had his glove strap flapping and aero helmet pointing up. Oh well, what he gives up in aero he gains back in strength and determination.
Syd Lea, T.E.A.M. Fuji, returned from Italy the World Road and Time Trial Championship of athletes with intellectual disability at the INAS-FID Global Games.
Many of Spokes’ racing readers know Syd from racing with him in our region’s cyclocross and road races. He races in the Category 3 cross races and Cat. 4 on the road. If you have not raced with him you most likely have seen him roll out of the Fuji van and certainly heard him cheering his friends.
I am Syd’s mom. I have raced for over 40 years. Cycling is an integral part of our family life – we all race – Rob, my husband, is a many time masters champion, and Syd’s brother, Bobby, is current USAC National Track Omnium and Pursuit Champion, was a member of the 2008 Olympic Track Team, and has won about 50 USAC National Championships.
Syd is a Special Olympic World Games 7 x Gold Medalist who races in USAC events on a regular basis and even dabbles in off road events, winning the Rocky Gap XTERRA adaptive division this past July.
Watching Syd interact and race with his cycling peers as an equal makes me as his mom feel proud and happy. But I know that Syd’s accomplishments in cycling have come as a result of the entire cycling community supporting him – Fuji Bicycles, Shimano, Champion Systems, LeMond Fitness CompuTrainer, MABRA and Pennsylvania promoters and clubs and, of course, the racers.
Syd’s recent victories in Italy were far away from his family and friends, but thanks to cell phones I was close as anyone could be, hearing the crying and the cheering when he crossed the line with his hands in the air. He has been waiting for that moment after watching his brother Bobby win countless races. It was hard not being there in the flesh, but I was confident that he was well coached by former pro road and track racer and now champion master racer, Mike Lyach.
Now, Syd is home in Maryland racing cross every weekend, shouldering his way through chaotic 125 man fields but as a 6’1, 195 pound guy he has little problem making room through the start stretch.
His next big challenge – going for the world record in indoor rowing at this February’s C.R.A.S.H. B’s Indoor Rowing World Championships and of course beating Computrainer’s “medal man” on his next indoor trainer session!