I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual is the ultimate champion.

Mia Hamm

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines team as a number of persons associated together in work or activity. It defines teammate as a fellow member of a team. Now lets think about that for a second. These definitions seem very basic and I don’t think they do justice to just how important a team and teammates are. We most often think of sports when we think of the words team and teammate. In this blog I will discuss my race team Nashville Local Cycling, seen above as we recently celebrated being Music City Criterium Champions for the 4th year in a row. Yes that is me in a sling. I will discuss that in the next blog. I will give the story of our team, how we started, the initial vision, the future of our team, and what this team means to me. I will also talk about other teams that we may be a part of. My family is the most important team that I’m on. We are also part of a work team no matter what our profession is. I’m also part of a legislative team within my organization. I will break all these down talk about what I think makes great teammates and how being on a team may not always be the best thing.

My family is the most important team that I am a part of. Without my family I am nothing, without me my family is nothing. We all work together so we can be the best versions of ourselves. We sacrifice for each other. When one of us is hurting we all hurt and help in the healing process. I believe what makes a family strong is the ability for a family to wake up everyday and work to make each other stronger and a better person. It’s our ability to push each other outside of our comfort zones and overcome a fear or problem that we are facing. If we don’t love each other with all of our hearts then this doesn’t happen. At least that’s how it works in my house. Also with a family it is important to understand boundaries. Sometimes we need our space and our own time to exercise or just decompress from the stresses of life. It’s important to show the kids that you need that time and that it’s ok for you to take personal time for yourself each day. This allows us to relax and not get upset by something little that normally wouldn’t have made us upset. This helps us to be better versions of ourselves, be better partners, and parents. As a husband and father I feel it is my resposibilty to make sure that my family is always pushing themselves and striving to be the best person that they can be. I am always learning and evaluating what I can be doing better for myself so I can be better for my family. My wife and I are a team, our family is as seperate team. I believe the goals of a husband and wife should be to have the best marriage they can and to lift each other up when one is down and support each other in the bad times. Which every marriage goes through ups and downs. Our goal as parents is to raise our two boys to know right from wrong. Be respectful and teach them how to make the right decisions in life, and grow up to be productive members of society in whatever profession makes them happy. All I really want for my boys is for them to be happy with who they are and strive to be the best at whatever profession they choose to do. Having a happy successful marraige and raising two boys to become what I just described is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Without your partner being on the same page about goals this can become even harder. I’m lucky that I have such an amazing, strong, and supportive wife that helps me and our sons accomplish these goals. My family is the most important team that I will ever be a part of.

I won’t discuss much about my actual work team. I have a very important job, some say one of the most stressful jobs in the world. We come together everyday and make sure we get the job done. No one is individual is able to do this on their own. I have never had a formal office job so I can’t speak to that kind of teamwork. I’ll just leave it at the for now.

I am part of a great legislative team that spans the entire country working for the good of the entire population. Our national legislative team is broken down into several regions. There are regional leaders that are responsible for the states within their regions and there are state leaders that are responsible for the reps within their state. I’m the Tennessee State Legislative Coordinator for my organization and I’m responsible for 6 Legislative Reps. Each of them are responsible for developing, educating, and maintaing relationships with their member of congress about our job. I am responsible for those relationships as well as the district I live in and two other districts. I have never been in a leadership position before and I have never read any leadership books. I look at leadership books the same way I look at parenting books. They have great information in them but when it comes down to actually applying what you’ve read they usually don’t work. Everyone is different and you have to find out what works for your team. I have taken qualities from great leaders that I have been influenced by and I remember the bad qualities that leaders have had and I try to replicate the good and not do that bad. I make it a point to lead by example. I ask my reps to attend town hall meetings, go to fundraisers, and to meet with their member of congress as much as possible. I do this as much as possible. If I wasn’t then where is the motivation for them to do the same. I HATE micromanagers. I feel that leaders who micromanage have no trust in their team. I think that without trust in a team then that team can become toxic. That becomes a bad team to be on at that point. I also call them individually every month to ask how they’re doing, discuss future plans, ask if they have any problems about what we’re doing, if they have any issues with me, and I make sure to ask if they have any suggestions on ways we could be doing things better. Since I have taken over as the state coordinator, relationships in the state have fourished. We have a lot more work to do however. I don’t know if this is partly my doing, or more people are motivated to get involved and make things better. I like to think it’s the latter and that I just simply guide them along the path and give them the support and resources they need to be succesful without interferring.

My bicycle racing team is Nashville Local Cycling. The picture above was taken last Wednesday night at the conclusion of the 2019 Music City Crit Series. This is the summer crit series in Nashville that I like to refer to as Hump Night Worlds since they’re on Wednesday nights. This is the 4th year Nashville Local Cycling has been in existance and the 4th year in a row being Team champions of the Music City Crit Series. I became a member of the team 3 years ago after my local shop team folded into another larger team and I was not invited to become a member of that team.

Nashville Local Cycling was founded by Michaelee Bowes after his previous elite team of Village Volkswagen folded after the 2015 season. Michalee and his roommate at the time had the idea of starting an elite team. After running into multiple road blocks with possible sponsors Michaelee had a businessman and new cyclist who wante to help promote cycling and liked the idea of an elite team. By this time Michaelle’s roommate had already decided to go another direction. Michael Edens was brought on board to be the montain bike team captain and Michaelee would be the road captain. This was to be a club team with anyone that was interested in riding and racing.

At this point it was the new team or bust for me. Randy, Myself, and Eden went to work. All of a sudden everything became so much easier when I wasn’t torn between two completely different ideas for teams. Over the next month we found plenty of exciting new riders, we secured several Belle Meade based sponsors. Designed a kit after more than 20 different design ideas were considered. November of 2015 we decided on a name. Nashville Local Cycling. A team was born.

Michaelee Bowes, Nashville Local Cycling Team Captain

I dont think anyone is left from the 2016 team besides MLB as we call him and Edens. I joined in 2017 with a crop of new Cat 4/5 guys. We had a couple of cat 3’s and a few 1’s and 2’s. We were and still are a very large team however that first year I was on the team we didn’t race like a team. We wern’t all in the best of shape and a couple of the guys didn’t like being told how to race. After that season most of those guys joined another team, and some just stopped racing. Thats ok that’s how bike race teams go. The 2018 season was a bust for me however we had several strong riders and it started to look like an actual race team to me. The 2019 season in my opinion has been the best year for Nashville Local Cycling. We now have a solid Cat 1/2 crew that race amazingly well. The Cat 3 team this year worked so well together, I was the lone Cat 4 who had a bust of a season. I did however manage to contribute quite a bit in the Cat 3/4 races. Usually sacrificing myself so I could set my teammates up for some counter attacks which worked sometimes. What I watched this season was a group of guys coming together and wanting to win even if that meant sacrificing themselves for the good of the team. We came together as one and won the Music City Crits team championship against a lot of very tough competion. We are also the 2019 Road Team of the year in Tennessee. There was also a lot of strong competition for this as well. We have several individual state champions in Road, Criterium, and Time Trial disciplines. We have faced sickness, injuries, crashes, and personal issues. This team has had several opportunities to lower it’s standards and be petty but has not. Every time we felt like we were down everyone stepped in and the team stepped up to the challenge. I feel very proud to be a part of this team. I’m excited to see what happens and where I fit in with this ever evolving team in 2020.