So What’s the Story?
What Do We Think We’re Doing Here
Yes, we dress in matching spandex (and own it), eat stuff like Gu and Cliff Bars, guzzle drinks with weird engineered science names like Cytomax, Accelerade and Endurox (yuck!), shave our legs and wear sunglasses that we wouldn’t dare to wear into Bi-Rite or Ritual in our street clothes. Why? Simple. We love cycling (And beer. And pizza. And pastries. And coffee. And Laverne & Shirley.). For us, it’s not just pedaling from point to point.
Mission Cycling is about the personal and shared experiences from each ride – you know: the events that happen along the way. From the morning coffee and pastry, to the Bay Area wind, rain, flat tires, the picturesque topography and your mama (just checking if you’re paying attention). We also push ourselves and each other. It’s these physical and accompanying mental challenges that have a unique way of turning complete strangers into great friends. We’re all very busy in our daily lives (I’ve got A LOT going on right now. Not sure about you). But on a good ride our individual life stressors seem to dissolve and by the end of a challenging ride we’re left with the camaraderie of our fellow cyclists. Sorta like that guy said in Fight Club: the volume on the rest of your life just gets turned down a bit.
San Francisco is home to many small neighborhoods – each with a different pulse. The Mission is just one we specifically take pride in.
Our club rides take us on the challenging topography of one of the most beautiful cycling areas of the world. C’mon and join us. We heart you.
History
Mission Cycling was started in the beginning of 2008 by Dylan DiBona and Kevin LaKritz (good buddies like Burt and Ernie). The idea came about on a discussion we were having on a ride (of course) back from Stinson Beach. We were talking about how cool it would be to find a way to get all of our cycling friends together for some challenging rides and, maybe more importantly, for some post-ride food and drinks. As we continued climbing Mt. Tam, we thought this could be a great way to tie our cycling community together with our larger local community – the local businesses, restaurants, drinking establishments and other stores we frequent. By the time we got to the top of the climb (very fast, of course) the basic idea sounded pretty good. A couple months later, after signing up some great sponsors and designing some of the best looking gear in the entire world, Mission Cycling was real and riding.
About Dylan
I learned how to ride a bike on a $25 banana-seat beauty in 2nd grade (which I think is kinda old to learn how to ride a bike but anyway) and have been riding pretty much ever since. I rode my Stumpjumper to high school every day (until it was stolen), I rode my Cannondale mountain bike on my paper route every day (until it was stolen) but I don’t think I thought much about the idea of ‘enjoying’ cycling until I saw this:
Nearly every time I hit that last little straight-away coming into Tiburon out of the hills I can hear in my head “…LeMond employs the helmet…”
Mostly, cycling keeps me sane and is truly one of the best ways to experience the amazing countryside of the Bay Area. See you Saturday!
About Kevin
6′0″, 170lbs, decent speller and never had braces. I know, big deal. I used to ride my Mongoose dirt bike (yeah, it was cool), everyday to the 7-Eleven to buy a pack of baseball cards. I wasn’t allowed to ride that far (there were a lot of ruffians about), so I hope my mom never reads this. It was during these forbidden rides that I learned to like riding – even without the spandex.
After my my Mongoose was stolen, I got a Red Line dirt bike (yeah, I know. Even cooler). By this time, I was allowed to ride to the 7-Eleven (neighborhood got better) but I opted for Captain Cosmos, the arcade (it was farther and the chicks were better looking – I was 12). This ride was also forbidden but I didn’t care, life just looked better from the bike.
Do me a solid – join our club, have some fun, wear some spandex (ours are very cool), meet some new folks, but please don’t tell my mom about those rides. Oh, and I’m really 5′11″ but don’t tell anyone.
Contact Us
Mail surprise packages to:
Mission Cycling • 3288 21st Street #239 • San Francisco, CA 94110
Email us at:
info[at]missioncycling.org
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