Cruz began competitive cycling as a twelve-year-old. He always participated in a variety of sports with his father, ranging from tennis and basketball to biking, and watching his father race sparked something innate inside him. At age twelve, he declared, “Dad, I want to race.”

He won his second race, and, within five years, he’d become a semi-professional, competing in big name events across North America. Though his parents didn’t push him the way some prodigies find themselves coerced, Cruz learned his work ethic from watching his mother take on multiple jobs while raising three kids. He completed his GED and finished school early in order to compete full-time, ultimately working toward European races and international events.

Tony Cruz was a promising seventeen-yearold, riding at a level years beyond his age. That is, until he rode smack into his first roadblock.

The transition to becoming a professional cyclist in Europe proved much more difficult than expected. By age nineteen, seven years into his career, Cruz burnt out. He didn’t want to race anymore. Cruz took five years off and focused on his new wife and family. Rather than racing in Europe, he biked to and from a day job in pharmaceuticals.

After five years working a regular job, Cruz faced up to reality: he desperately missed competitive cycling. With his wife’s support, he gave himself one year to return to prominence as a full-time, sponsored rider. He dove back into the sport, only to smash into yet another obstacle.

“It was easy mentally, because I hated my job,” he now laughs. “But my body wasn’t up to speed and I was losing to people I used to beat. That was the hardest part.”

Returning to anything after five years off can prove difficult. Becoming a professional athlete again after half a decade spent as a pharmaceutical technician can be close to impossible. Facing his last chance, and with only one year to succeed, Cruz seized his final opportunity and fulfilled his lifelong dreams. Training with the local cycling club, The Reno Wheelman, he began his comeback. By the end of the season, he started winning races again, and with the victories came the necessary sponsorship.

Cruz won the prestigious 1999 USPRO Criterium Championship only four years after he’d begun his comeback. Then, Cruz experienced his greatest success, winning the U.S. Olympic Road Race Trials. The man who put cycling behind him only a few years earlier now had a spot on the United States team for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Twenty family members accompanied the newly minted Olympian to Australia, where they watched him race with Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton, and other top American riders.

Such compounding success led to a position on the U.S. Postal Service Team with many of his former Olympian teammates. Competing around the world, Cruz and the U.S. Postal Cycling Team dominated; they became some of the most successful, well-known cyclists in history. Most team members moved to the Toyota United Pro Cycling Team in 2006, and then to the Discovery Pro Cycling Team in 2007. The next year, Cruz joined the BMC Pro Team, with whom he currently remains.

It was a life dream realized much later, and following an entirely different path than he ever imagined. Now, the same phenomenon has begun taking place. Both the culmination of his career and the transition from a full-time professional await in the near horizon. Yet, Cruz proceeds with the quiet confidence of someone having ridden through much more difficult roads in the past. His new route already has been mapped out: giving his life’s work and knowledge back to Long Beach.

Cruz has accepted a position as Long Beach’s Bicycle Ambassador, taking on multiple roles in the plan to make Long Beach the most bicycle friendly city in the country. “Something I never pictured, to have this opportunity,” he says. “I’ve ridden bicycle infrastructure all over the world. But, I’d never thought about bringing that to Long Beach. It’s added more to my view of cycling than just the competitive side.”

Since he turned fifteen, Tony Cruz’s plan had been to settle in Long Beach and raise a family here. He just never imagined this plan to include an opportunity to make the city a healthier, more environmentally friendly place along the way. Today, he’s helping to design and implement Long Beach’s vision, in which bicycling serves as a second means of transportation and new way of life.

A significant part of Cruz’s responsibilities also include educating the public. The goal is to lead people out of their comfort zones and excite them about biking — no matter their demographic or style of riding. “It’s more than riding to the beach. Biking is something you can do on a daily basis and it only takes a few weeks to change your lifestyle.”

Cruz emphasizes that in addition to transportation, a great workout, and reducing pollution, cycling offers skills that cross over and even translate to other sports. Simply put, it’s a great way to cross-train for anything. “Athletes from other sports find cycling when they’re injured, and its a part of their rehab,” Cruz says, “and then they find that they love it!” In fact, he trained with Formula One drivers and professional soccer players while living in Spain. Now, he trains with his children as they bike to and from soccer practice, during family rides to the grocery store, and with his oldest son, another competitive cyclist continuing the Cruz family legacy.

Another facet of his new position includes advice to those hoping to get started with cycling or take the next step in their own pursuits. He suggests that beginners purchase a bike they can ride for a few years, one priced under five hundred dollars, and then ride two or three times a week for forty-five minutes or less. With no memberships to purchase, no impacts that stress the joints, and the opportunity to ride different routes each day, getting started as a cyclist should be easy and enjoyable.

From there, Cruz recommends investigating Long Beach’s cycling clubs and other local resources. He believes anyone seeking to improve can benefit from mentoring, advice on training and nutrition, and education about equipment and riding techniques. These resources also offer like-minded communities and support networks, regardless of experience or riding level; and as such, they are many of the same programs Cruz now works to further develop in Long Beach.

Getting involved in the Long Beach Unified School District, Cruz and his two sisters have begun to develop a cycling league for the city’s youth. They hope to cultivate a concept similar to the already existent soccer clubs — an opportunity for any interest level with both league and club levels for beginners, serious cyclists, and anyone in between. Cruz sees this as a real chance to boost youth cycling and offer resources to those in need.

Likewise, Cruz plans to take advantage of his contacts and resources from the Olympic Training Center, other U.S. cycling programs, and Long Beach’s two existing cycling clubs, Lightning Velo and Velo Allegro. Blurring the lines between Bicycle Ambassador and local father, Cruz recently became PTA President at his youngest child’s school. Such a move has less to do with cycling and more to do with helping in any way he seems capable.

With so much ahead of him and so many challenges at once, a lesser person might not be able to avoid some of the inevitable, impending stumbling blocks. They might lose sight of what’s really important, or find themselves without enough time to help guide others. But for Tony Cruz, focus is never a problem.

“It’s all about enjoying the simplicity of riding your bike,” he says, smiling ahead at the future he’s now helping create.