Blog

AUSTIN GOMES, an eighth-grade student at Hazelwood North Middle School, shows off his first place medal from the Show-Me State Games Race in July, one of many cycling events he competed in this summer. With help from students and staff members at Hazelwood North Middle School, Gomes also raised nearly $600 by riding in the Tour de Cure for the American Diabetes Association.

Austin Gomes, 13, an eighth-grade student at Hazelwood North Middle School, did not let the lazy days of summer slow him down. He found much success through his love of cycling.

As last school year ended, Gomes prepared to ride in the Tour de Cure, the American Diabetes Association’s annual charity cycling event to raise money to cure diabetes. He has participated in it since he was 7. With the assistance of Hazelwood North students and staff members, Gomes raised almost $600. He rode for 50 miles in very hot weather, but that was just part of his summer of cycling.

In May, he won first place in the Tour de Grove bike race, a half-mile sprint. In July, he won third place in the Tour de Donut, a 32-mile course; he took third place at Wheels over Wildwood, a time trial race in West St. Louis County; and he won first place in the Show-Me State Games, a 17-mile course in Columbia, Missouri.

On Aug. 10, Austin took first place in the final Goldenberg Heller Festival of Speed: Wednesday Time Trials. Two days before classes started, he cycled in the Missouri State Championship Time Trial, a 12.5-mile course on Highway 94, along the Missouri River near Jefferson City. He came in third place.

“I love the training, the wind-in-your-face feeling during racing. It’s fun,” said Gomes. “I have a competition in time trials with another guy, Connor Estes of Springfield, who’s a year older than me and who’s always one minute ahead of me.”

Gomes began cycling at an early age; he received his first bicycle just before he turned 3 years old, his mother, Reva, said. A year later, he could ride without any help.

“While I was very pregnant with my second child, I taught Austin how to ride without training wheels,” his mom recalled.

Gomes entered his first race when he was 6, the 2004 Tour de Donut, with his father, John. Austin was the youngest rider in the 32-mile race. As recently as mid-July, Gomes raced independently, using money he earned from mowing lawns in his neighborhood and from his parents to purchase bikes and equipment.

“That’s the deal we made with him; if he wanted to compete in these races, he pays for most of it,” his mother said.

Now he races with the Big Shark Racing Team, an extension of the Big Shark Bicycle Company. Gomes said he owns 12 different bikes and owns at least three helmets. When he can’t ride outside, he rides inside. His practice sessions include 20 minutes on a stationary bike and 20 minutes doing sprints on his trainer, a device that lets him put his bikes’ rear wheels in it and cycle while remaining stationary.

Her son’s races inspired a blend of emotions for his mother, “When he was 6 and it was 100 degrees outside at that Tour de Donut race – I knew he could do it but it overwhelmed me that he did it. I remember his first sprint ride, which I videotaped. I’m listening to the announcer but I can’t see the start of the race. Suddenly, I hear the announcer say, ‘Oh my goodness, out of the saddle comes this kid into first!’ When I see him come into view, I’m screaming, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Austin!’

“Now, I can see the competitiveness in his face,” she continued. “His adrenaline kicks in. The only thing that makes me nervous is when he is in a mass start of cyclists and someone might bump and injure him.”

This year, his favorite ride was the Tour of St. Louis in April, particularly the one-mile loop in Carondelet Park in St. Louis and the nine-mile out and back course at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area in Spanish Lake. In September, he will ride in the Tour de Coal in Gillespie, Ill., where he hopes to repeat the metric century (100 kilometers = 65 miles) that he rode with his dad last year. Austin is considering riding one or two of the criteriums in the Gateway Cup during the Labor Day weekend in St. Louis.

Gomes said he wants to become a professional cyclist and enter the Tour de France, which lasts three weeks and covers more than 2,200 miles in France and neighboring European nations, and perhaps the Tour of Missouri competition. His mother said she is also considering entering him in a local triathlon.  (story provided by the Hazelwood District Communications Dept.)

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us