Bob was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in October of 1992 while on a business trip in Lansing, Michigan. He had been a runner since the age of ten and was still training hard when the usual symptoms appeared. After a few days in the hospital, he flew home and the very first thing he did was go for an easy 30-minute run to the railroad tracks and back. When he got back, he realized he was still alive and all was right with the world. He won races, he lost races, but he still loved lacing up a pair of the lightest racing flats he could find and running hard for 15 to 30(ish) minutes.
Any more time or distance than that would just be silly… But at the age of 25, all the foot and hamstring injuries started to take their toll and so, on a lengthy business trip, he bought a bike. Exercise became fun again.
Two years later, thanks to a few very patient friends, he started racing on the velodrome and then competed on the road and dirt. He didn’t touch his running shoes for over 20 years. (He broke that streak in 2018 and promptly got injured again after two trail sessions.) Bob has competed in hundreds of bike races like Superweek, Green Mountain Stage Race and the Race Across America (RAAM) and is still a regular at the Chicago Cyclocross Series. It’s all for fun now, though, since hair started growing in his ears. Bob was a member of Team Type 1 for five years, competing in RAAM 3 times as well as managing the amateur teams and sponsorship commitments. Bob says the camaraderie of Team Type 1 made it feel like a perpetual summer camp. He still enjoys close friendships with those athletes today. It is what drew him to DTC.
Bob lives in Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, just one block south of the Wisconsin border. He has been married more than 25 years to his very lovely wife Joy (she has the insurance!) and cares for several feral and not-so-feral rescued cats. Bob is a custom painter who refinishes cherished racing bicycles, adds personality to steel and carbon and strives daily to convince people that sparkles are magic.
