Alumni Spotlight: Kyle, from Beyond Racing to Captain of a Private Jet
Kyle is a native Tucsonan who started riding with Ignacio when he was 12 and rode all six years until he graduated from high school. He was nice enough to answer our questions right after returning from his honeymoon.
Favorite memory riding with the program? My favorite memory on the team was a very cold, rainy El Tour de Tucson. It was about 45° and raining at the start, and we thought it would warm up and stop raining, so we wore minimal rain gear and hardly any warm clothes. Five hours and five minutes and 109 miles later, it had neither stopped raining nor warmed up. That ended up being my personal record on El Tour. It was probably one of the worst rides I have ever done, and certainly one of the hardest days of my life, but it solidified the point that we are all a lot tougher than we think. Everyone wanted to quit that day, but we pushed through it as a team.
Advice (on or off the bike) for current riders? You can do it. Whatever your goal is, make a plan and start today. With enough hard work, you can do whatever you set out to do. Big accomplishments are the culmination of smaller goals that you set for yourself. Also, tell Ignacio about your goals. I can promise he will help you make it happen. After the national time trial in Lake Tahoe, Ignacio asked if I still wanted to do a big endurance MTB event I had my eyes on. When I said yes, he said he would see me back in town. I rode 60 miles back to town through the Sierra Nevada mountains after a maximum-effort time trial. Unpleasant, but I did do that race!
How did you become a pilot? Was this a lifelong goal? I have always dreamt about being a pilot! One day, a volunteer coach told me he had an airplane and took me up on a flight. He became my mentor, and funny enough, we have worked at several companies together. I attended a small flight school in Tucson to earn my private pilot certificate while going to high school and riding with the team. After I graduated, I packed my car and drove to Florida to do my instrument, commercial, and flight instructor ratings. The courses required roughly 16 hours of studying per day. The discipline I used to complete them was learned on the bike. Later that year I got a job at a flight school as an instructor, teaching people to fly small single-engine aircraft. After that, I flew military skydiving missions for a defense contractor. After working as a critical care air ambulance pilot, I am now captain on a private jet. Cycling showed me what it meant to give something maximum effort, and I feel that has made me a better pilot.
If anyone is interested in aviation, feel free to reach out. I would be happy to chat!
