I'm retired, but I still train as hard as I can, said the best times on the toughest climbs.

I confined and go on fun adventures on my bike all over the world.

This is worst retirement ever.

It's the best feeling.

All of your senses are really their heightened.

They're on and something clicks in your ear and you just hear your heartbeat and the wind and that sort of all there is in the world.

I think I started riding a bike at age four like everybody else.

Little coffee in the training wheels and all that.

My parents driveway in Atlanta with super steep.

But the first time I could actually make it up it without walking was a big day.

E went to college and I didn't know anybody.

University of Florida.

So I just joined the cycling club there and the first race I did, I was like in the lowest category.

But I did everything wrong and I still want honestly, I think it was the first thing I ever felt like.

I was good at my entire life.

I was 19.

I felt like I sort of discovered a superpower in climbing.

It's weird because I feel like that's what I was put on this earth for.

Is riding a bicycle up a hill?

That's that's kind of when I feel the most me.

That's when I feel the most confident, comfortable.

Everybody understands the symbolism of being at the top of something, climbing the top of the mountain.

There's there's a finality to it.

There's a journey.

And then and then here you are the top.

You've conquered this thing.

Being a pro athlete is I feel like just something that every kid sort of thinks about.

I signed a contract when I was 22 by the time I did the big races in Europe that you've heard of the Tour de France kind of teams.

Now I'm 10 years into it.

For a long time.

I thought like, Okay, you're put on this earth toe to ride a bike up a hill, and then it was like, Okay, if you're put on this earth for this, why do you keep coming in 11th?

That's, uh, be a cruel joke.

I think I knew I was done racing in 2016 Toby months toe sort of experience it and feel it.

And then I started writing like fun and posting my rides on Strabo and other social media platforms.

And no pro had ever ripped any of the climbs.

Really, I was doing for my videos.

People started following it, and people sort of were entertained by things that I was doing outside of pro cycling.

And then they'd come out to watch and hang out and ride with me.

And I was like, This is This makes no sense, But this is a real thing and this is kind of what I belong on our for at least right now, I created the world championship out of necessity.

USA Cycling held a national championship for a couple of years.

I want it in 2017 1st year retired.

I want my first national championship next year.

They discontinued it.

They just got rid of a couple of their events, their like, we're having a national championship anymore.

And so I want to give somebody a chance to take that that jersey from me.

Eso I create my own event in Santa Barbara on Gibraltar Road, so every year we hold a Hill Climb World Championship, Me being World Hill climb champion.

If you don't think that's legit and the best way to do that is to come drop me.

It's the only way to do it.

We have categories for tandems.

We have people in costumes.

It's a bike race, mullet.

So it's a race of the front of party at the back.

Gibraltar is a Superfund climb.

It's amazing weather out and we have a really awesome community in cycling and so I love being part of something like this was kind of talking to people all the way up the hill, so it was kind of fun.

I love the community here.

It's very like very hands on and you know, it feels nice.

It's just freedom.

My goal with whole time world championships is I just want to see people having fun on a bike.

I just wanted to People who enjoy the challenge is same as Ideo and take it in a correct spirit.

I think the fund official Hill Climb World Championship is it's exactly where I want to go with cycling.

I think cycling has taken itself too seriously for too long and you're gonna have a lot of fun and still be like serious enough.

That's why I'm trying.

I'm trying to blend the correct amount of serious and sweat together.

I like stuff that last year's It's not too much to ask.

It's really not.

I use the magic ust to those tires.

So which 80 85 ps I depending on how bumpy the pavement is, I feel like when I'm happy is when I don't notice anything.

The bike is just everything's everything's coming along and it's part of me.

Having all the right year and having it tuned and fresh definitely makes for a better experience.

When you when you start a ride, your balance, your stable, your square on the bike and you feel good as as you go.

As you sort of get towards the end, your mind goes a little bit.

Your concentration is sort of you're not thinking that far ahead.

You're not thinking about pacing anymore.

It's too late.

You might start kind of squeezing the handlebars and leaning over.

You dig deeper.

You do whatever you can, and everybody's doing the same thing and dying a different version of their death.

Now, when the race started, it did get a little more serious.

It was tough racing across all the categories and age groups in my race.

All my equipment went perfect, and I attacked early like I did to win the year before.

But there was one pro and aria Kiani, who I couldn't drop.

He's stuck with me for 30 minutes up 8% grade, and I beat him in a sprint, but barely give me something to think about when I'm training this year, when you reach the top of the hill, you did it right.

You're completely empty.

It is pain, but it's a good feeling.

There's there's a moment you suffer.

Oppa climb.

Most of them were like at least 20 minutes, and then you get to the top and you start descending the other way.

There's there's one turn where it's the first time you see the ocean that day and like that's the moment, like that's the moment where it's like that's That's when the right kind of starts.

It's kind of it's the best part.

You just a little blue and the rest of your days just you, the breeze and the salt air.

I think When I'm riding the emotions, I feel most our peace and its freedom.

That's what I go out there for.