Following His Dreams Through the Use of a Bicycle

Endless hours of training, discipline, dedication, and much passion, are the main reasons why 20-year-old Mexican cyclist Pablo Fernandez has made many achievements in this sports area during his life.

Since he was five years old, Fernandez has been practicing cycling as a way to relief stress, to exercise, and to even become a better athlete and person.

“I was a very hyperactive boy,” Fernandez said. “My dad used to sell cars and one day we went to El Diario (a newspaper from Juarez) to seek for promotion and the “Soles” team, a children cycling team, was there and they looked like they just had won something.”

It was this situation what marked Fernandez debut into the cycling world since, according to him, after seeing mentioned team he was invited to participate and be part of it.

The city of Delicias, located in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, was the first location and the first time that Fernandez was able to compete in road bike cycling race.

“It was very funny because I never noticed when the race started,” Fernandez said. “I was heading last when four of the kids that were competing fell and I passed them, and I ended up being fourth place.”

On the other hand and after some time dedicated to bicycle training, Fernandez had his first mountain bike race in his birth city, Ciudad Jurez.

This race took place at “El Cerro Bola” and, as told by Fernandez, there were no falls during the race and he was able to obtain the first place.

Fernandez, also known as “Toito” in the cycling world, spent many time changing and seeking for opportunities in various cycling teams from Ciudad Juarez. He was trained by different people and was part of teams like Ghost and Chupacabras.

“The Chupacabras team was really great because they would pay for our lodging, our race registrations, food, and we would only pay for our souvenirs,” Fernandez said. “But, year by year that support started to decrease until the team split up.”

Ghost cycling team was Fernandez next option to continue with his career as a cyclist. This team, apart of making him improve as an athlete, gave him the opportunity to participate in the road cycling race ” La Vuelta a Chihuahua.”

Along with his participation as a team member of Ghost, Fernandez started to experience the opportunity to be part of races in different parts of the Mexican country and in some places of the United States as well. These events later lead Fernandezto become part of a cycling team in the United States.

“Get Out was a cycling team from Albuquerque that planned to attract young people and prevent them to be induced by an unhealthy life,” Fernandez said.

As soon as he started training and venturing in the cycling discipline in the United States, Fernandez noticed that there were different levels and that, if he was considered among the top five in the state of Chihuahua, he was having a difficult time to have an outstanding performance in the U.S.

This situation represented a challenge for Fernandez, who was striving for his success as a cyclist, and made him stick into the Get Out team.

The team later split up but, Fernandez trainer contacted him to offer him an invitation to be part of the No Tubes/Bicycle Company team, a cycling team that is linked to the El Paso store “The Bicycle Company” and that is also Fernandez current cycling team.

According to Fernandez, many circumstances and situations had strengthened the friendship and professional relationship that he has with his other teammates and the store owners.

“One of the things that I remember the most is that, two years ago, a week before the Chupacabras race my bicycle cracked, and I had to borrow a bike frame in order to compete” Fernandez said. “My bicycle was from the brand Gary Fisher, which is now discontinued because it was bought by Trek and The Bicycle Company is a Trek distributer, so I decided to go and check if the bicycle was bought there because I was not the original buyer and I didn’t have the ticket.”

“They got me a new bike frame,” Fernandez said.

After running with this frame at different mountain bike races in the area, The Bicycle Company manager, in his desire to support Fernandez as a cyclist, offered him a deal were Fernandez could have the opportunity to be the original buyer of a new bicycle. Fernandez took it.

“It was the first new bike I had,” Fernandez said. “I sold my other bike and bought the new one. It was a 2014 carbon Cannondale Lefty.”

Remembering many of his time as a cyclist, Fernandez considers that the support he is receiving by his team and the bicycle shop has been one of the most crucial events for his cycling career. He considers to have grown a lot due to the support and help he has and continues to receive.

But, Fernandez also mentions to have experienced difficulties during his teenage years that lead him to leave cycling for six months.

“I had a season, when I was entering my adolescence years, that I got tired of the bicycle,” Fernandez said. “I was living with my grandparents in Delicias and I didn’t care about many things. Eventually, all of that ended.”

This year has been full of accomplishments for Fernandez. Starting with his victory at the Chupacabras cycling race, a mountain bike race of about 100 kilometers.

This race is consider, if not the most important, one of the most important cycling events that Ciudad Juarez hosts and this year was specially important due to the reason that Fernandez was the first cyclist from Ciudad Juarez in many years that obtained the first place.

“This has been the hardest race I’ve ever completed in all my years as a cyclist,” Fernandez said. “I was very exigent with myself, I gave everything I got and it ended up really well.”

Despite all the difficulties this race represented for Fernandez, he remembers with joy all the funny situations he went through due to the stress levels he was feeling at that time.

“The number that was given to us to use it during the race fell,” Fernandez said. “I carried it in my mouth since the time it fell. Due to all the stress and the physical pain I was going through, my mind wasn’t thinking very well so that is why I kept the number in my mouth all the time. I would only take it out when I needed to drink water.”

Being the first to cross the finish line gave Fernandez a ton of emotions as a result. Tears of joy, happiness, physical pain, mental strength, and accepting the affection of his loved ones, were some of the emotions that Fernandez went through during his the first minutes after crossing the finish line.

“It was a very emotional Chupacabras,” Fernandez said. “No other race compares to this one. The happiness I had when I cross the finish line and hugged my mom can be compared to nothing.”

For his future plans, Fernandez is hoping to get a scholarship through cycling that could help him pay the rest of his college. He is currently a student pursuing a degree in Kinesiology at the El Paso Community College and he is planning to continue his education at The University of Texas at El Paso.

His biggest dream is to become part of the professional cycling team of Cannondale and he plans to work and invest every part of his being to reach that goal.