In the Media - Mining Journal Article

Here is an article from the Mining Journal a couple weeks ago.  They contacted me earlier this summer when Danny Hill was doing the Great Divide.  They had asked to follow up on me when my Professional license was final.  I am grateful for the local support and coverage.  

Ishpeming’s Tyler Gauthier balancing two jobs as executive, professional cyclist

December 5, 2011

By AMANDA MONTHEI - Journal Sports Writer (sports@miningjournal.net) , The Mining Journal

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ISHPEMING - Ishpeming resident Tyler Gauthier would like to think he has only one job.

Yet, since becoming a professional mountain biker in September, his Account Executive job in Ishpeming has been accompanied by "job" number two.

"To be a professional, there is a time commitment," Gauthier said. "It's a whole other step. You're dealing with people that do this for a living. You're dealing with people who have been doing it for 10 or 15 years.

"It's not just a casual ride anymore, there's got to be a purpose."

In that way, Gauthier's mountain biking career has changed since when he began in 2005. Two years after starting, he was competing on the weekends. Now he is one of only four professional mountain bikers in the state of Michigan, not to mention the lone one in the Upper Peninsula.

"I mean I don't want to say that I do this just because it's a job," he said. "I enjoy it, I still have a passion for it and there is a reason I do it.

"You don't put this much time into a second job if you don't have that passion and if you don't enjoy it."

For Guathier, a mountain-biking time commitment can mean anything from off-season training, getting out on the trails, or traveling for races.

"Everything in our life and everything around us is really adapted to biking," he said. "You have to approach it with professionalism, you have to approach it as a job."

For Gauthier, reaching the next level in mountain biking means an advantage in races, the opportunity to race with similarly talented athletes and simply knowing that he is competing to his best ability.

"I guess that when you're a professional, a lot of people categorize that as your being paid to do something, that that's what you do," he said.

"Being a professional in this manner is just doing it at the highest level, not necessarily what you're getting paid."

Fortunately, Gauthier's primary job as an Account Executive at St. Onge Insurance in Ishpeming is really the key to success in his biking career, he said.

"It's a family-owned business and my very first priority is giving them everything I have," he said about St. Onge Insurance. "But at the same time, I wouldn't be able to (be a professional biker) if my job didn't allow me to put as much effort and time into my cycling as this one does."

Since reaching the professional level in September - a process that required getting a specific amount of accumulated points by competing in races, getting licensed through the United States Cycling Association and finally being approved and verified - Guathier has finished up the fall season and is now working on training for his first full year as a pro.

"Off-season training just started this month," he said. "My intention is to be back on the bike by mid January. This is a 10-month sport so there is not much time in the off season."

Gauthier plans on traveling all over the country in the coming months to compete in races, including a stop in Arizona, but his eventual goal is still to win a race in his home county.

"Being that it's (Culver's Racing, Gauthiers race team's) hometown race, the Ore To Shore is by far my number one goal as a pro cyclist," he said of the race, which takes place in August and has never had a winner from the Upper Peninsula. "It's the local race, but it's becoming one of the most competitive races in the country."