A bicycle race built for two
(BY: JULIE SULLIVAN, The Oregonian, Photo ©: Cyclocrossprosport.com) :: Two Portland athletes racing today in the last cyclocross World Cup event before the world championships know that marriage is a series of ups and downs.Their partnership is just muddier than most.
Take last Sunday, for instance, when Erik Tonkin was pushing his wife, Rhonda Mazza, through a thigh-busting training race in preparation for her appearance with the U.S. women's team in the Netherlands today.
Tonkin, 31, took off across a muddy path at Reed College. He zoomed down a hill on his bicycle and back up another, his rippling calves pumping, splattering muck. Mazza followed a few riders behind, but she leapt off, choosing to cross the mire at a dead run, her bicycle balanced on her right shoulder.
"Cyclocross is all about dealing with natural features -- do you attack on your bike or dismount? It's all about decision-making," says Tonkin, a member of the U.S. men's team.
That Portland has produced two racers competing in their second world championships -- who happen to be married -- doesn't surprise Tonkin.
When he came to Lewis & Clark College in 1993, the former Minnesota hockey player found Portland a great cycling town that already had a distinct cyclocross niche. His first cyclocross at Pier Park in North Portland revealed a mix of road racers and mountain-bike racers coming together for a unique sport.
Cyclocross is a relatively short, intense competition that sends cyclists across varied terrain that can include mud, grass, pavement, gravel and -- at the 2005 world championship in Germany -- snow and ice.
First developed as an off-season training system for European road riders, the autumn and winter sport is among the most physically demanding forms of cycling. Men repeat the course as rapidly as they can for an hour and women for 40 minutes.
Pioneers in Portland would cobble together their own cross bikes "like a mad scientist in the basement. That was part of the charm," says Tonkin, who co-owns Sellwood Cycle Repair.
Today, riders buy bikes off the shelf starting at $800. An event that drew 125 participants in Portland 11 years ago drew 750 this fall. The bikes look like a road bike with wider, knobbier tires, but have subtle design differences and can cost as much as $3,000. Mazza rides a Vanilla Bicycle made in Portland with Chris King hubs, also made in Portland. He races for Kona Bikes.
The couple met in a student Nordic ski club at Lewis & Clark a decade ago. They married in August 2002, with Tonkin's cyclocross mentor, Jon Myers, officiating. Myers and other riders joined the couple last Sunday at the "Reed College Faux Prix," which Tonkin describes in an online journal entry as a "true, 100 percent cyclocross" that would "rightly remind us of the pain that we'll surely endure."
Mazza, 31, a science writer for the U.S. Forest Service, says she had been a "good girlfriend" for years, supporting Tonkin's mountain-bike and cyclocross racing when she realized in 1999 how much she missed competing. Growing up in Santa Rosa, Calif., she ran track and cross country, and she remained a fit, natural athlete.
Her husband remembers that at her first race in Olympia, Mazza jumped right into the most competitive category wearing a T-shirt, shorts and running shoes instead of standard cycling clothes and shoes for clipless pedals. "How she took to it was nothing short of amazing," he says. Also amazing was how much they enjoyed sharing battle stories.
Both competed at the 2005 world championships in Germany where both suffered flat tires and had to retrieve spare bikes from the pit, finishing back in the field.
Last month, Mazza took fourth at the U.S. Nationals and earned a place on the five-woman national team. Tonkin moved onto the men's elite team after two of the top five U.S. finishers declined to participate in the world competition. He'll join another Oregonian, Barry Wicks of Corvallis.
Tonkin has traveled to Europe twice to complete grueling 15-day racing and training camps in Belgium, a country that is to cyclocross what Canada is to hockey. Races there draw thousands of paying spectators.
Last Sunday, friends dogged Mazza and challenged Tonkin by cutting the course twice to pull ahead, always giving him someone to chase and driving him into "the red zone, just drooling and snotting."
"The harder it is, the better he's going to do," says Myers. "Erik really seeks out the competition. He doesn't go to a race just to win; he goes to find the best people to race against."
In addition to racing, Tonkin and Mazza share their daily Portland commute. She leaves her downtown federal office for his bike shop so they can ride to their Southeast Portland home together. They share eggs and oatmeal or rice pudding before competing. After racing, "We hose our clothes off before going inside," Mazza says. "Otherwise, you'd break the washer."
Both appreciate that they met outside the sport. But they say that marriage provides their critical edge as athletes. "When you find the right partner, it can be a very calming thing," Tonkin says. "So much of the stress and uncertainty in life melts away, and it is so much easier to succeed at anything once that happens." Having happy, healthy relationships and "a steady job that puts you in a life schedule" has done far more for the successful riders around him, he says. "It's a lot more basic than the amount of hours you put in training or the equipment you own."
The couple compete Sunday at the World Cup in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands, a premier European race and final preparation for the World Championships in Zeddam, the Netherlands, next Sunday.
You can follow the couple's progress online at http://www.uci.ch/ or http://www.cyclocrossworld.com. Julie Sullivan: 503-221-8068, juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
Take last Sunday, for instance, when Erik Tonkin was pushing his wife, Rhonda Mazza, through a thigh-busting training race in preparation for her appearance with the U.S. women's team in the Netherlands today.
Tonkin, 31, took off across a muddy path at Reed College. He zoomed down a hill on his bicycle and back up another, his rippling calves pumping, splattering muck. Mazza followed a few riders behind, but she leapt off, choosing to cross the mire at a dead run, her bicycle balanced on her right shoulder.
"Cyclocross is all about dealing with natural features -- do you attack on your bike or dismount? It's all about decision-making," says Tonkin, a member of the U.S. men's team.
That Portland has produced two racers competing in their second world championships -- who happen to be married -- doesn't surprise Tonkin.
When he came to Lewis & Clark College in 1993, the former Minnesota hockey player found Portland a great cycling town that already had a distinct cyclocross niche. His first cyclocross at Pier Park in North Portland revealed a mix of road racers and mountain-bike racers coming together for a unique sport.
Cyclocross is a relatively short, intense competition that sends cyclists across varied terrain that can include mud, grass, pavement, gravel and -- at the 2005 world championship in Germany -- snow and ice.
First developed as an off-season training system for European road riders, the autumn and winter sport is among the most physically demanding forms of cycling. Men repeat the course as rapidly as they can for an hour and women for 40 minutes.
Pioneers in Portland would cobble together their own cross bikes "like a mad scientist in the basement. That was part of the charm," says Tonkin, who co-owns Sellwood Cycle Repair.
Today, riders buy bikes off the shelf starting at $800. An event that drew 125 participants in Portland 11 years ago drew 750 this fall. The bikes look like a road bike with wider, knobbier tires, but have subtle design differences and can cost as much as $3,000. Mazza rides a Vanilla Bicycle made in Portland with Chris King hubs, also made in Portland. He races for Kona Bikes.
The couple met in a student Nordic ski club at Lewis & Clark a decade ago. They married in August 2002, with Tonkin's cyclocross mentor, Jon Myers, officiating. Myers and other riders joined the couple last Sunday at the "Reed College Faux Prix," which Tonkin describes in an online journal entry as a "true, 100 percent cyclocross" that would "rightly remind us of the pain that we'll surely endure."
Mazza, 31, a science writer for the U.S. Forest Service, says she had been a "good girlfriend" for years, supporting Tonkin's mountain-bike and cyclocross racing when she realized in 1999 how much she missed competing. Growing up in Santa Rosa, Calif., she ran track and cross country, and she remained a fit, natural athlete.
Her husband remembers that at her first race in Olympia, Mazza jumped right into the most competitive category wearing a T-shirt, shorts and running shoes instead of standard cycling clothes and shoes for clipless pedals. "How she took to it was nothing short of amazing," he says. Also amazing was how much they enjoyed sharing battle stories.
Both competed at the 2005 world championships in Germany where both suffered flat tires and had to retrieve spare bikes from the pit, finishing back in the field.
Last month, Mazza took fourth at the U.S. Nationals and earned a place on the five-woman national team. Tonkin moved onto the men's elite team after two of the top five U.S. finishers declined to participate in the world competition. He'll join another Oregonian, Barry Wicks of Corvallis.
Tonkin has traveled to Europe twice to complete grueling 15-day racing and training camps in Belgium, a country that is to cyclocross what Canada is to hockey. Races there draw thousands of paying spectators.
Last Sunday, friends dogged Mazza and challenged Tonkin by cutting the course twice to pull ahead, always giving him someone to chase and driving him into "the red zone, just drooling and snotting."
"The harder it is, the better he's going to do," says Myers. "Erik really seeks out the competition. He doesn't go to a race just to win; he goes to find the best people to race against."
In addition to racing, Tonkin and Mazza share their daily Portland commute. She leaves her downtown federal office for his bike shop so they can ride to their Southeast Portland home together. They share eggs and oatmeal or rice pudding before competing. After racing, "We hose our clothes off before going inside," Mazza says. "Otherwise, you'd break the washer."
Both appreciate that they met outside the sport. But they say that marriage provides their critical edge as athletes. "When you find the right partner, it can be a very calming thing," Tonkin says. "So much of the stress and uncertainty in life melts away, and it is so much easier to succeed at anything once that happens." Having happy, healthy relationships and "a steady job that puts you in a life schedule" has done far more for the successful riders around him, he says. "It's a lot more basic than the amount of hours you put in training or the equipment you own."
The couple compete Sunday at the World Cup in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands, a premier European race and final preparation for the World Championships in Zeddam, the Netherlands, next Sunday.
You can follow the couple's progress online at http://www.uci.ch/ or http://www.cyclocrossworld.com. Julie Sullivan: 503-221-8068, juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
posted by Ryan Amirault at Monday, January 23, 2006
