Tinker Juarez Interview From Enduro Issue #8

Tinker Juarez

Tinker Juarez Mountain biking has few celebrities but Tinker Juarez certainly fits the bill. Having raced for over 30 years, he has cemented himself as one of the most prominent characters in our sport. We caught up with Tinker during his brief stop-over in Aus for the Lowan Otway Odyssey 100k race.

Words by James Williamson

Tinker tinkers | photo: adam macleod

our little chat photo: dave cooper

Tinker in thought photo: adam macleod

“Suddenly I started seeing these guys who I’d never heard of getting press in the magazines.

It was hard to get press at this time and these 24hr guys were.”

I didn’t know what to expect coming into the interview. It’s weird knowing so much about someone – seeing them in photos and reading about them. It certainly creates a sense of anticipation.

I knocked on the door to the small holiday apartment, climbed some stairs and found Tinker sitting at a table, a mountain of signed posters at arms length. It was a quick reminder to me of the pulling power of this guy.

After a quick intro, I sat down, got out my recorder and we started chatting, about the next day’s race, naturally. “You know, I like the profile of the course, people might look threatening in the beginning but once it settles down I’ll know who’s actually going strong. If we get to the hills and I’m struggling, that’s when I might be in a bit of doubt.”

As interested as I am in the race, I’m more interested in Tinker.

He’s been on bikes for a while, turning pro in 1975. At 15 years old, he was the youngest pro on the BMX circuit. He grew up loving things on two wheels, addicted to the feeling of throwing a bike over a jump or through a berm. Motorbike racing was beyond the family budget, so he opted for BMX. Under a schedule that saw him racing three times a week, he soon filled up the trophy cabinet and was crowned the first ever King of the Skatepark in 1980.

With the growth of mountain biking in the ‘80’s, he made the switch to cross country racing in 1986, “I like training hard and eating like an animal”. The mountain bike scene suited him perfectly.

So he raced hard and in 1994, started riding for Cannondale, “It was still a new sport, everything was going in a positive direction.” Under a new sponsorship deal, he represented the US at the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta, the first time mountain biking was included in the Games. He backed this up, representing again at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Early this decade, funding started dropping from the cross country format. The major TV networks were pulling out, prize money was falling and attendance wasn’t what it used to be.

Tinker had to make a decision at this point. With the scene shrinking, he was starting to doubt whether he could still make money from the sport.

“Suddenly I started seeing these guys who I’d never heard of getting press in the magazines. It was hard to get press at this time and these 24hr guys were.”

Seeing the coverage endurance and 24hr racing was getting, Tinker decided to give it a go. Training by himself all the time, he’d always enjoyed long, hard rides and was interested to see how he would fare in the longer format.

In no time at all he established a name for himself as an enduro hard man. In the next few years he went on to win almost every US 24hr race, including four US National 24hr Solo titles on the way. For Tinker, “Suddenly racing was exciting again. There were plenty of races on the calendar with good prize money. I was picking my own events instead of the team choosing them like in the ‘90’s which was different, but I was enjoying the racing.”

The endurance calendar also held an unexpected surprise for the veteran endurance athlete, when he met his then-future wife Terri, at a 12 hour race in Florida. “She isn’t like a really serious biker, she just loves biking. I met her at the race and things went from there.”

Things went from there to the two getting married, “She lived in Florida and I lived in California but I really wanted to prove that I wanted this relationship, so I kept my house in California and moved to Florida.”

The move was a good one; the couple had a little boy, Joshua, in ’06. “He’s 14 months old. He’s a great baby, a healthy little baby.”

TINKER ENDURO 8:2008

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Tinker enters a section of singletrack in the Lowan Otway Odyssey.

PHoto: Andrew Connolly

“I have my music and I ride and see people in their cars, going to work, I love what I do. It’s hard to make a living from mountain biking at the moment and I’m still living so I can’t really complain”

“Having a baby is a full time job. You can’t just leave the baby and go training because the kid would be just like freaking out you know. It’s amazing that this little thing is depending on you, it’s kinda like you feel nailed to the floor but it’s part of life and I’ve just gotta make it fit with training. Meeting Terri and having the baby is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

With life heading in the right direction for the new dad, it was time to re-visit an old enemy in 2007. Having twice finished 2nd in the World 24hr Solo Champ’s, this was the one race Tinker dearly wanted to win.

“I heard the race was going to be at Monterey, I love that area, I have heaps of history there – I raced Lance Armstrong there back in the day. So I was excited to do the race, I knew this could be my best chance to win it.”

It was 40 degrees, open and hilly – extreme racing conditions.

Tinker shared the lead with Kelly Magelky for over half the race, with Kelly in the lead for much of the time. It looked like it was going to come down to the last few hours, until Tinker put his years of racing experience into the pedals and rode off.

“It was hot and hard but I mean, I’ve had bad days in the heat, people think that just because you have dark skin, or just because you’re Mexican, that you can handle the heat better. But really, I just had a good day. It was a massive moment for me, I always kinda felt like the race maybe wasn’t for me but to win was really big for me.”

He doesn’t act it, or ride like it, but Tinker is 47. That’s a lot of years on the bike. As the years add up, training is getting harder.

Instead of focusing on intensity, he’s more interested in putting in solid days on the bike at a decent pace. “I keep track of my speed and my miles, I want to do the ride at a good pace and I try to hold it for a four hour ride or something. Heart rates aren’t really important to me, training in the super high zones isn’t so important for solo 24hr racing.”

His mentality to racing has changed with his racing focus. He talks of being very focused in the early days, really keen to make sure everything was perfect and prepared meticulously. “In the past I would never have flown here so close to the race, I used to make sure I had at least four days to deal with jetlag. I make my own show happen now though, I’m not part of a big team like before. So I’m more relaxed, it’s about the experience as much as the racing. I get to see a new place and new people so it’s worth it. I still get nervous on the start line and get butterflies in my stomach but I’m definitely more relaxed now.”

We move on to what he expects from his life in the next few years. Sitting with a guy who has stretched the idea of how long an athletic career can last, this is a very open question. Tinker knows his deal with Cannondale can only last so long. “As long as I can keep making a living from what I’m doing, I’m going to keep doing it.”

“I still love training, I love that high that you get. I have my tough days when I haven’t been doing any mountains for days and I know I should be doing some hard stuff. I have my music and I ride and see people in their cars, going to work, I love what I do.

It’s hard to make a living from mountain biking at the moment and I’m still living so I can’t really complain. I still get really nervous and excited about racing – I think if I didn’t feel that same passion for racing that I do, then it’d be time to stop.”

Those post-racing days have to come eventually though, even for Tinker. “I’m not really excited to own a bike shop or something – I don’t want to do that. I know I’ll be ok in the future because I’ve made enough in the good times to make sure I have some saved that I can live off. Really, I’ll be happy just to care for my son, it’s a full time job. I know I can be the best dad!”

Tinker muddy and tired, in the final sections of the Odyssey PHoto: Andrew Connolly

“I still get really nervous and excited about racing – I think if I didn’t feel that same passion for racing that I do, then it’d be time to stop.”

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