Nico makes history

September 8th, 2009 Beth Krodel Posted in Insight News |

Ever since I’ve known Nico, he’s had a personal goal of doing a “sub-50-minute 40k.” For those of you who aren’t cyclists, that means averaging 30 MPH on a 24.8-mile bike ride. AKA - screamin’ fast!

On Sunday, Nico achieved that goal with a time of 49:51 in the National Record Challenge, a 40-kilometer individual time trial held in Moriarty, New Mexico.

At 41, Nico became only the 15th person in U.S. history to do an official sub-50. (To be an official record, the time has to occur on an out-and-back course to ensure that the rider isn’t going downhill the entire way or that he doesn’t have a tailwind for the entire event. The Moriarty course was indeed an out-and-back.)

Nico has attempted to achieve this goal at least a dozen times in the past two decades. The closest he’d come before Sunday was in 2007, when he finished in 50:17, just 18 seconds shy of his goal.

When he messaged me from his iPhone on Sunday to share the news of his sub-50 finish, he said, “So now I have to come up with a new goal, or retire.”

Yeah, right. Sunday’s race marked the end of this year’s cycling season for Nico, but today he said he’s “already thinking about next season.”

Congrats partner!