B5 – Brian deLisser

NAME: Brian deLisser

BIKE: Giant Omnium (sorry for a lack of emotional story here, it’s got a killer $15 stem though).

TRACK START:  Lt(ride) In the fall last year, Lt(race) as the 2020 winter Friday night series started.

First registered race was at the Vedder Mtn Classic 2019. Might have been the only racer on a “classic” 20 year old bike. Also two Fondos and two Crits, then the Velodrome and its family broke me in.

Photo credit: Allen Bargen

MY GOALS: This is simple; push my body like it’s the last time I will ever get to use it. Racing is beautiful and releasing our energy is a positive experience. When we can let’s all train hard. I want to have races that leave me feeling as I’ve given everything I can!

FUNNY EXPERIENCE: Hmmm this is an odd one as I fall off the rollers all the time, plus many silly MTB crashes. Not exactly my preference to share.

If it’s just “EXPERIENCE”, I have a small story. See I only just started thinking of myself as a “real” cyclist. All you racers and competitors with a history in this sport, you are the ones I always regarded as cyclists. Me I was a Fighter (Muay Thai). Held my first title while a high school kid and fought professional Title boughts before Canada would label me an adult. Thought I was okay at running.

Did some mountain biking. Broke some parts and built some wheels. Getting to work and back was on a bicycle for 2-1/2 years of my life. The new Port Mann was a hill I climbed after every shift and descended every morning. Somehow snow and ice didn’t ever take me out on the “always fast” morning rush down to the bridge deck. Black ice prior to the bridge had me down at Surrey intersections twice, however. Cycling can be scary. When I lived in Abbotsford a car driver thought it would be cool to swerve into me (breaking my arm. was that really a decade ago?). Wait, back then I didn’t have to use the bike to get to work. What was I doing commuting back and forth by bike back then?

If I am allowed to go way back, back to the 6th grade of Elementary school. When a young boy thought a 10-speed race bike was the coolest thing. Too expensive to buy and certainly not built in my size, I went around during spring cleaning. Surrey would pick up anything homeowners left out and old bikes were taken to the curb. Rusty old bikes were all I could find, this one had a derailleur that worked, that one had a seat. Must have had 15 junkyard bikes in front of a farmhouse my mother rented. The police came and checked as It looked like mischief. When done, I had built a 10 speed that worked. Now you might not have ridden it, the front wheel was a different size than the rear and let’s not talk about brakes. I loved that bike, rode it all over.

That summer I got a job at a hobby farm (feeding animals). Google just told me it was a 15km ride to get there. Hmmm interesting 🤦🏻‍♂️

I feel like a cyclist now though. It was after the Winter track races, after doing a 100-mile loop about a month ago. A fast 50km day can be an easy day, okay, now I feel like one of the rest of you. Yup, that’s my share story

OUTSIDE OF CYCLING: This was obviously a trick question. It’s all about cycling.