BC Blog | Volume 1 | Introductions

[Andrew Freye and John Burns will race as a team at this years BC Bike Race. We'll follow their journey as they manage real life, real jobs, and real dreams of becoming successful Pro Mountain Bikers.]

Andrew Freye:

I was fifteen when I first got started into racing my mountain bike. It was the summer of 1999 and I was preparing for my debut at Kents Hill School as a freshmen. Kents Hill is a private boarding school that I would be attending as a day student. Turns out mountain biking is a varsity fall sport at Kents Hill. In middle school mountain bike racing had always intrigued myself, but I just never had the opportunity to really experience the sport of cross country mountain biking. Being a freshman at a brand new school is very intimidating so to help relieve the fear of hazing and being a slow rider I spent the summer of 1999 doing double training sessions. I would ride in the am and pm when it was cool outside. Turns out all that hard training of riding back and forth to friend’s houses and the convenient store paid off. My first race for Kents Hill was a success; I place 4^th overall and 2^nd for the school. That year I would go onto finish 4^th overall in the Maine High School Series. From there on I was hooked on the sport.

The thing I love most about mountain biking was how it is mostly an individual sport. My experience with team sports in the past hasn’t been that great. It seemed like there were always a few weak links in the team. With mountain biking I only had to worry about myself, if I trained hard it would usually show in my results. Somewhere during high school I hired a personal coach, Beau Lambert. Hiring Beau was probably one of the greatest things I could have done for myself. Beau helped coach and mentor me for several years. To this day we still stay in contact and are great friends.

My high school years were spent racing the mountain bike series in the fall, doing some of the NE England Prep School road races in the spring and then racing just about every weekend during the summer throughout New England. By the spring of my senior year I was awarded my pro license by USA Cycling. I believe I was one of the ten youngest pro’s in America that year (2003). My rookie year as a pro was also my first and only year winning the New England Series.

Since 2003 I have been racing my mountain bike while attending the University of Southern Maine where I graduated with a BS in Business Admin/marketing. I’ve also started experience working full time while training and racing. About this time two years ago I was looking for a place to live in the Portland, Maine area. John Burns and I were up in Tremblant, Canada for a UCI Canada Cup. Burns was working full time at a lab outside of Boston at the time. We were talking about what we wanted to do with racing and living. Burns was talking about moving back in with his parents and only working part time, or moving out west. Well I pretty much had our current place reserved I just needed an extra roommate. I believe all I did was tell Burnsy I was looking for a roommate and he jumped all over the offer. That’s how the 497 got started.

In July of 07, Burns, Hattie (my girlfriend and best friend), and JD moved into the 497. Burns and I spend a fair amount of time training together. We eat dinner together and so on. Pretty much everyone at the 497 is one big family. In fact I think we are more of a family then some actual families. It is a pretty cool place to live, if you are ever in the area stop on by.

Somewhere during the long dark Maine winter of 08-09 Burns brought up the BC bike race. I clearly remember Hattie saying “If you spend $2,500 on a bike race you better be spending double that on a ring for me!” There was no way I could ever afford to race BC. I lost my full time job and had to resort to Starbucks for employment. A few days later Burns came to me with an offer I couldn’t pass down, yet couldn’t really accept. Burns offered to fund the entire race and wanted me to be his teammate. It took a while to accept the offer, but I have and now we are in it for real.

Well that’s a pretty long intro on myself and how I got talked into racing one of the most epic mountain bike races in the world. Stay tuned for more on my journey and preparations (or lack there of) for the BC race!

John Burns:

Sports and racing have always ruled my life. Growing up in NJ, it was a different season, different sport. Sometimes it was even double-sessions; afternoon sports stacked on top of morning sports.

I enrolled at the University of Maine in Orono and became more of a “mountain athlete.” I thrived on the adventure and pushing hard outdoors. But what of this bicycle racing thing? The mountain bike reigned early on as a way to fuel adventure outside. With 50 miles of trails right out of the front door and a good crew to chase around the woods, it was game on. The next thing I knew, I was training on a road bike, racing the mountain bike, wrenching at a bike shop during school breaks, and racing Cyclocross. Racing was a natural progression.

After graduating from college, I took a job at an environmental laboratory in New York City and put my B.S. in Geology to use from behind the lens of a microscope. I was living back in NJ, working 2:30pm to 11:30pm, training during the day, and racing weekends. I transferred up to the Boston area laboratory after about two years. There, while working 9-5 and bike commuting to work year round, I started racing the Verge New England Cyclocross series as Elite. I had some solid finishes which really started affecting my brain. Suddenly I was training harder than ever, either before or after work, and I was finding it hard to concentrate during work! Every few minutes my mind would wander into the controversial world of “What ifs?” I was thinking maybe I could make a go of this bike racing thing. In 2007 I finally answered those questions and made the decision to start working part time at the lab, tap into some savings, move to Maine, and see what I could do on a bike. I work mostly in Boston during the winter and either at the New York City laboratory and Boston laboratory throughout the season from April to December depending on where the racing is. You might be thinking “that’s a serious commute from Maine.” While it is a long drive, usually I am driving down that way to race anyway. So, I work in blocks around the races and don’t accrue much extra travel. I also do some technical consulting work with the lab from home. I’m currently living my dream. No matter what results I achieve, my future will hold zero regrets.