It was only last year that Scott Tedro got his very first taste of mountain bike racing, but he’s already being recognized for his contributions to the sport – a sport he says helped him find a second life.
The founder of Team Sho-Air, Scott closed out his debut year in the beginner ranks with a national title. It’s hard to believe that just four years earlier, a doctor called him one of the unhealthiest people he’d ever seen. Read Scott’s story about how mountain biking helped save his health.
Before 9-11, Scott was a pretty healthy guy. But when the recession dealt his 102-employee airfreight company a hard blow, his health went downhill fast.
“We always thought we were recession-proof,” he explained about Sho-Air International, his company which specializes in tradeshow transportation. “But after 9-11, we went from a $21 million company to a $10 million company in one year.”
Scott was forced to lay off 55 employees, most of which had been with him for ten years. Depressed and uneasy, he stopped sleeping and started working seven days a week. He took up smoking, started drinking a six pack a night, and within a year had put on 50 pounds. The decline in his health was so severe and his immune system so over-charged that in 2004 he falsely tested positive for systemic lupus.
“The rheumatologist said I was probably one of the unhealthiest people he had tested in 18 years that didn’t have a disease,” Scott said.
Scott was certainly not alone in his health struggles as the U.S. Surgeon General has reported that obesity is responsible for 300,000 deaths every year. Sixty-three percent of adult Americans are considered overweight and again according to U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, the number of people at risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and stroke is therefore increasing. Improved nutrition along with 30 minutes of exercise five times a week has proven to reduce cardiovascular illnesses and deaths by 50% and colorectal cancer by 40%. Cycling is considered to have several advantages over other cardiovascular exercises, including exercising the heart better than walking without the pounding of jogging. Riding a bike can also be done by almost anyone of any fitness level at little to no cost and can be used for transportation while helping decrease pollution.
With all this in mind, Scott committed to changing his lifestyle. With a borrowed mountain bike, he began his uphill battle on a course that he now calls “very very easy.” But in 2004 when he was still a 225 pound smoker and drinker, the five miles and 600 feet of climbing didn’t seem quite so easy.
“I threw up three times,” he says. “It made me very angry. I couldn’t believe how bad of shape I was in and I also couldn’t believe that mountain biking was that hard.”
Giving up cigarettes and alcohol that day, he made a trip to Mission Viejo’s Rock N’ Road Cyclery where he met his new mentor, an aspiring young rider named Manuel “Manny” Prado. Armed with a new Specialized Epic which Manny built for him that night, Scott applied the same unyielding determination to those five miles as he did to saving his company. Within two months, he reached the top without stopping.
“Mountain biking helped me get healthy again in both body and mind,” says Scott. “It’s helped me to find my second life I guess.”
Scott became passionate about riding and wanted to give back to the sport and to the people that helped him. In 2006, he founded Team Sho-Air as a way to help Manny realize his dream of becoming a pro racer.
“I was just another fat guy saying that I was going to lose weight,” Scott says of his first meeting with Manny. “But he was nice. He helped me and now he’s been able to chase his dream all because he was nice to some fat guy.”
With the additional support, Manny closed out the 2007 season as the #1-ranked semi-pro rider in the nation and entered the pro ranks this year. As for Scott, he’s light years from where he was. His business is back on track and his weight down to 165 pounds. Last year, he made his cross-country mountain bike debut in the men’s beginner 40-44 category and ended the season as a national champion and California state champion.
In 2008, the business man-turned-mountain biker is finding new ways to use his airfreight company to pay back the sport. Sho-Air took over the title sponsorship of the AFP/Velosport squad and is now gearing up for a busy season with an elite mountain bike team led by motocross hall of famer Johnny O’Mara. The company is also sponsoring two-time Tour de l’Aude winner and Olympic hopeful Amber Neben. This year, when she’s not racing for Team Flexpoint, she’ll contest local races in the Team Sho-Air kit.
“It was heartbreaking to hear that Amber was working to qualify for the Olympics but that she didn’t have medical insurance to get her wisdom teeth pulled,” Scott said. “She’s a great young lady and she could represent our country well. The least we can do is help her get some insurance.”
Sho-Air definitely does its part to support individual athletes, but Scott hopes to say thank you to the sport on an even larger scale. With his sights set on heftier prize purses, he’s working to attract non-cycling industry sponsors to mountain bike events.
“If you bring money, money will follow,” he explained. “It’s my main goal to get other non-industry-specific sponsorship for mountain biking,” he says. “The people competing are absolute warriors. It’s a very worthwhile cause and it’s very marketable.”
