Get to Know Team Badassadors

Jeff has spent most of his 49+ years playing in the outdoors in and around Madison, with many stops in the Rockies & Cascade Mountains as well as Central, OR. Jeff has 20 years of racing experience ranging from multi-sport events (Duathlon) to marathons to Wisconsin’s famous Driftless area endurance rides/races (Insane Terrain, Horrible Hilly, Dairyland Dare, Kickapoo Kicker…). He loves both to compete on the bike as well as to see all the beauty nature has to offer from a viewpoint only a bike saddle can provide. Although his bikes outnumber his children by a ratio of 10 to 2, he can assure you that friends and family are what he holds most dear. Outside of cycling (in every season, winter snow included!), he enjoys snowshoe & trail running, hiking, snowboarding, camping and most things outdoorsy. 

When not trying to break a sweat, he loves taking in live music with his wife (and RAW crew member, Lynn) and kids as well as traveling (both for work and fun) and general overall adventure. Downtime looks like good ol’ Wisconsin past-times: cards, good food and drink with friends, fish fries and old fashions. He has logged some 90,000 miles in the saddle life-to-date and cannot wait to add to the total on his first go at RAW with his teammates. 

Stacey is a 52-year-old wife, mother of two children and 10 bikes, if you include the one on loan to her daughter, Camille, who will be part of the support crew at Ride Across the West. Stacey and her husband Tom share the cycling bug, which has expanded beyond the road to gravel adventures, mountain biking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and fat biking the snowy trails of Wisconsin. Their adventures have included LOTOJA, Ride Across Wisconsin and Haute Route Norway. 

Stacey has worked hard to redefine “success”, leaving her position as UW assistant professor in the Department of Orthopedics to pursue and spread her passion for cycling. Her benchtop work as a PhD in Exercise Physiology continues, but on a different type of bench. Stacey teamed up with local bike shop, Cronometro, to provide a niche Physical Therapy service dedicated to the cyclist- fitting the body and the bike. Her cycling group, BrickO’s Drafters, has over 100 members and fuels the community’s cycling passion. In 2021, Stacey was selected to be an Ambassador for Hincapie Sportswear, with a mission.

Reece Linder is a 23 year-old cyclist with roots deep in the cycling rich community of Ames, Iowa. Reece has been a student at Iowa State University studying Kinesiology and Health with a graduation date of May 2021. Alongside cycling and being a student, Reece has spread his passion for promoting health and fitness through his endurance coaching business; Ascend Performance.

Reece began his path into the sport of cycling at a young age while messing around on mountain bikes back in his hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. During high school he connected his passions for swimming, cycling, and running into a career that led to competing at an elite level in triathlon. After several years of triathlon, Reece found his true strength to be in cycling. For the last 4 years he has enjoyed the opportunity to race at the category 1/pro cycling level with the likes of Above and Beyond Cancer P/B Bike World and Ames Velo.

Reece is most fulfilled when keeping cycling fun at every level and giving back to the cycling community that has shaped him greatly. He is very excited to be indulging in that spirit, through the mixed team relay at RAW this year!

 Anyone that knows Mike associates him with his bike adventures. Since he can remember, the bike has always been at his side. From riding with his cousins around the Wisconsin countryside and grade school classmates in/out backyards of his hometown of Cambridge to introducing college buddies to the new sport of mountain biking where they all expected to draw blood in some manner to his now +20 years as a recreation planner. 

At 47 years old, there are plenty of memorable two-wheeled experiences to recount. Just to recall a few, Door county riding with his parents and sister – MTB racing in the Wisconsin Off Road Series and Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 – Epic rides on the Monarch Crest, Lenawee Trail, and Two Elks from Vail Pass to Minturn - Long weekends of Shenanigans in Moab, Fruita, and Sedona – a week of riding Tasmania’s world-renowned Blue Tier near Derby and Maydena Bike Park. 

Singletrack and dirt memories top them all. But that makes sense since Mike has been planning trails about as long as he has been riding bikes. The real trail work started in college while pursuing his Landscape Architecture and Planning degree from UW Madison. Every class project included bicycle facility components or trail/path access. Since then, Mike has planned, designed, and built trails of all sorts across the US and Internationally in both professional and volunteer settings. Since 2016, Mike has led the design team at the International Mountain Bicycling Association as Trail Solutions Director of Planning and Design. 

While road riding has been something that’s always been part of Mike’s riding life. During high school it was a way to explore and build up miles, in college it was more of a transportation method, and since then it has been that “necessary evil” to get in and stay in shape for mountain biking or something to do during mud season. Then a lifelong friend introduced Mike to “The Draft”, being welcomed into Bricko’s Drafters rejuvenated his relationship with the asphalt. Now road riding is not just a way to get back into shape with some light competitiveness, but it is community with amazing new friendships