THE LAST RIDE
I’m an Albuquerque native who left in 2002 as a newly minted UNM engineering graduate. I had a 20-year career in the Denver Front Range area, first as an aerospace engineer and over time, as a successful tech startup entrepreneur. I stepped down from my last entrepreneurial endeavor, Solid Power, in late 2022 having taken the company public a year prior. Simultaneously, my status as an empty-nester was confirmed with an incoming Freshman at Western Colorado University to go along with a sophomore at my alma mater, UNM. It suddenly dawned on me that I was no longer required to live in the Front Range. Admittedly, I’d also grown tired of the crowded slopes, trails and highways that one has to endure when living there. Finally, I had a desire to return to my home state of New Mexico and so I made the decision to relocate.
My decision to step down as Solid Power’s CEO made in November, 2022 was a quick one. Further, I was scheduled to close on my new home in Albuquerque just after New Year’s Eve. That left me with a very quiet two-month period of packing up my Longmont house and beginning the long and slow journey of regaining at least a portion of my fitness from my professional mountain bike racing days that faded away during my family/career years.
I emphasize a quiet two month period as quite literally, things around me went extremely quiet. I exited a publicly-traded company and I understood what that meant: communication with the company’s staff, executives and board members had to come to a complete stop. However, as someone who had become quite comfortable having hundreds of conversations a day, giving numerous interviews and talking with investors, it was a dramatic change to say the least.
Meanwhile, weather along the Front Range was, as is typical for late Fall/early Winter, entirely uncooperative. It was too early in the season to ski but even the mountain bike trails in the foothills were impassable. So all that was left was gravel riding via the extensive network of lightly-traveled dirt roads that extend throughout Boulder and Larimer Counties. Unfortunately, snowstorms kept rolling through at the perfect cadence to keep the roads passable, albeit very wet and muddy! Regardless, I was committed to my new fitness journey and so day-after-day, I slogged my way through countless hours riding familiar roads that I was soon to bid adios to. As a good cyclist, I cleaned and lubricated my bike’s drivetrain daily but never bothered to wash the bike itself since it was destined to get trashed the next day.
A new gravel bike greeted me upon my arrival in Albuquerque and so my faithful companion through those final two lonely months in the Front Range sat in the corner of my new garage where the movers had left it, forgotten and neglected. Until one day when I realized what an awesome trophy it is; representing what was ultimately a successful, albeit at times messy exit from my 20-year life living in the Colorado Front Range. It now proudly hangs in my Albuquerque garage.
