From Heart Surgery to Gravel Racing: My Comeback at the Dirty South Roubaix

Two years ago, I wondered if I’d ever race a bike again.  This weekend, I’m back at the starting line for the Dirty South Roubaix in southern Illinois, my first gravel race since heart surgery-and the first of the Heart and Gravel Comeback Tour. I’ll do the 100k race, which I did three years ago […]

Riding for Young Hearts: My Gravel Racing Journey to Support Children’s Hospital

On West 3, the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee, the glass of every child’s room gets decorated with what they love, motivational sayings, drawings of heart valves, milestone celebrations, and, especially, celebrations of Happy Heart Day, when kids waiting for new hearts get the good news.  While the ICU unit […]

The Heart and Gravel Comeback Tour: Racing, Recovery, and Raising Hope

In 2025, I’m doing 11 gravel races throughout the Midwest to celebrate that my heart is beating normally again and to raise money for pediatric cardiac care.  I’m calling it “The Heart and Gravel Comeback Tour 2025.”  I’ve had two ablations in the past two years to fix ventricular tachycardia, and the second, done last […]