BOULDER — When Jason Donald gets a new custom-made bike from Team Slipstream/Chipotle, it’s not like a seasoned pro cyclist wondering why it has too much lateral flexibility. Donald acts like a little boy who found his bike under a Christmas tree.
That may never change. The Winter Park native and Middle Park High School grad remembers when he wasn’t trying to get the Boulder-based cycling team to next summer’s Tour de France.
It was winter 2006. He was a garbageman. But he wasn’t just any garbageman. As a Winter Park garbageman, Donald found himself standing in a giant metal garbage can, in 10-below weather, at 7:30 in the morning, taking a 50-pound metal bar and chipping out trash frozen inside the box.
“You can appreciate anything when you do that,” Donald said.
Donald was sitting upstairs at the posh Hotel Boulderado on Monday, two days before Slipstream/Chipotle introduces its team to the local public. The 6:30 p.m. event Wednesday at the Boulder Theater will feature two programs, including one on star cyclist David Millar, a Q&A and a live auction with all proceeds going to the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research. General admission tickets remain for $25.
Donald, 27, will be one of those under the spotlight. It’s a surreal experience for a guy who drove a garbage truck to finance his cycling dream. When he would finish his eight- to 10-hour shift, go home to his parents’, rest for 30 minutes, have a bite, then go downstairs and ride a stationary trainer for three hours, landing on a team like Slipstream/ Chipotle was what drove him.
“Now I get four free $6,000 bikes,” he said with a big smile. “I get free burritos. I get massages. Every day. I get everything taken care of. I don’t even have to take my bag to my room.”
It’s one of the aspects that attracted director Jonathan Vaughters to Donald. Vaughters, a Cherry Creek High grad and Tour de France veteran, had seen him in various local road races and liked his potential. But when he started digging and looking into his character, the match with raw physical tools was too much to ignore.
“I thought this kid would be tough,” Vaughters said. “If he’s willing to do this, he’d be perfect for Europe. In Europe you can’t be a prima donna. You can’t be babied.”
Donald entered road racing late in life. He’d been a good ski racer and mountain biker as a youth in Winter Park and a grinder cross country runner at Middle Park in Granby. He walked on the cross country team at Western State and his coach introduced him to the steeplechase, where he was a natural.
He finished second in the 2002 and ’03 Division II NCAA Championships but upon graduating thought he had more potential in mountain biking than as a steeplechaser. Unfortunately, there’s less money in mountain biking than picking up trash and it’s almost as dirty. His wife, Kristin, helped support him working at the state auditor’s office, but he tired of the weekly commute from Denver to his garbage job Monday through Wednesday.
One day, his friend’s father, a sales rep for Giant Bicycles, suggested road racing.
“So I moved to the road,” he said, “and here I am on the biggest team in the country now and spending all my time in Europe and have a chance to ride in the Tour.”
Since signing with Slipstream/Chipotle on Jan. 1, he finished second in the prologue at the Tour of California in February and has become one of the talented, unproven cyclists who make up the guts of the upstart program. Vaughters isn’t surprised. While hauling garbage is a nice story line, Donald’s background as a steeplechaser and ski racer is a more practical foundation for road cycling.
Think taking a hairpin turn around the Pyrenees is scary? Donald’s done the equivalent on skis.
Also, Vaughters said, “A marathon racer doesn’t necessarily make a good bike racer. The same as a triathlete. A bike racer is more power-based. It takes more coordination. Now the steeplechase, you pop over barriers, you skip, you hop, you jump. That takes some coordination. To me, if you’re going to pick an ex-runner, a steeplechaser is the best to pick.”
Slipstream/Chipotle is training here at a mile high but for Donald, he’s way past that. How high is cloud nine?
“I’m always on cloud nine,” he said. “I like it up there.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
