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TRADING THE OFFICE CUBE FOR THE PRO LIFE<br />
IF HE HADN’T BEEN BLIND-SIDED by a San Francisco<br />
trolley and a wife who shocked him with demands<br />
for a divorce, Jeff Schalk of Harrisonburg, Va., might<br />
never have become one of the nation’s up and coming<br />
professional mountain bike racers.<br />
And if the 34-year-old architectural engineer hadn’t<br />
chucked that career for one in cycling, Tour de<br />
France’s dethroned 2006 champion Floyd Landis<br />
might have actually won last year’s Shenandoah<br />
100 mountain bike race in the mountains near<br />
Harrisonburg, instead of coming in second after<br />
Schalk, who set a course record in winning.<br />
But the former college rowing champion did get<br />
smashed by a trolley while riding his bike from a job<br />
site to his office in San Francisco four years ago, and<br />
although his bike and helmet were destroyed, he was<br />
lucky. He “only” suffered two separated shoulders, a<br />
gash in his shin that required stitches and a mild concussion.<br />
Fortunately, for Schalk, the time he spent in the hospital<br />
enabled him to ponder his life at the ripe old<br />
age of 30, and helped him make some strategic life<br />
decisions.<br />
“You know how life always looks greener on the other<br />
side? Well, I had it made. I was living the yuppie<br />
life, but it’s not what I wanted. At least not after the<br />
divorce hit me,” the 6’1, 160 pound Trek East Coast<br />
factory team pro confided in SPOKES.<br />
Born and raised in the Bay area of California, Schalk<br />
studied engineering at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo,<br />
where he was a member of the West Coast champion<br />
lightweight four man rowing squad.<br />
After graduating in 1998, he joined some fellow rowers<br />
who were recreational mountain bikers.<br />
“We didn’t race. I figured my competitive athletic<br />
career was over when I graduated at the age of 22,” he<br />
recalls. Two years later he married his college sweetheart,<br />
also an engineering graduate, and they worked<br />
as engineers and bought a fixer upper in trendy<br />
Marin County across the Golden Gate Bridge from<br />
San Francisco.<br />
“Two years into our marriage my wife came to me and<br />
said she didn’t want to be married anymore. For me,<br />
it was totally out of the blue. I thought we had the<br />
ultimate yuppie life.”<br />
They divorced, sold their home, and Schalk moved<br />
into San Francisco, where he continued to work as<br />
an engineer. He continued riding with friends and<br />
commuting to work by bike. By now, he’d gotten into<br />
racing, albeit very gradually. But his athletic skills took<br />
hold and he quickly rose through the amateur ranks.<br />
“I really didn’t think I had much of a chance at a<br />
professional career in sports since I wasn’t into basketball,<br />
baseball or football,” he recalled. But once again,<br />
Schalk was broadsided. This time by a trolley. Or<br />
more accurately, Schalk broadsided the trolley.<br />
The front wheel of his road bike got caught in a trolley<br />
track and Schalk vaulted across the roadway into<br />
the path of an oncoming trolley. “I hit the trolley,<br />
rebounded into traffic, and I hit the car of an undercover<br />
cop before I landed on the pavement.<br />
“People were gathered all around me. I was nauseous<br />
and felt awful.” His examination of his life began during<br />
the ambulance ride to the hospital and continued<br />
during his hospital stay.<br />
“That’s when I decided to pursue my dream of living<br />
the life of a professional athlete, and to try and make<br />
it as a pro mountain bike racer. I decided I would live<br />
on the nest egg I’d gotten from the sale of our house.<br />
I figured, worse case scenario, even if I got no spon-<br />
12 <strong>April</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
sorships I could race for two years while living off the<br />
money I made from selling the house.”<br />
For the next year, Schalk kept working in San<br />
Francisco and he raced as a semi-pro. During this<br />
year, he became very encouraged by winning both<br />
the California state series and national mountain bike<br />
series.<br />
“Everything went perfectly. At the same time, my<br />
girlfriend (who was earning her doctorate degree<br />
from UC San Francisco) got a job offer from NIH<br />
(National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.). I<br />
by NEIL SANDLER<br />
photos STEVEN HOOVER<br />
That's Jeff Schalk on the right.<br />
decided it was time to quit my job and follow her to<br />
the East Coast.”<br />
Having never so much as visited the mid-Atlantic<br />
area, Schalk packed his bags and he and his girlfriend<br />
moved into an apartment in D.C.’s Dupont Circle<br />
neighborhood.<br />
“It was a complete bold adventure. I had no idea what<br />
riding here was like, and even less of an idea what racing<br />
here was like. D.C. seemed to be a nice city to live<br />
in and had lots of nearby parks to ride in. I also knew<br />
that (Trek pro mountain bike racers) Chris Eatough
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