Member of the Month for March 2012

Jose Rojas is an avid bicyclist and the new Wheelmen Executive Vice President. He joined the club in 2007 and has been an active participant in the weekly rides plus has started a number of rides including Rebecca Creek, Kendalia and Comal School. He is currently helping develop the Wheelmen social schedule for this year with plans for a social event every month. He is also leading the Club effort to develop route maps that can be downloaded to GPS devices.

Jose grew up in the Venezuelan Andes Mountains where he enjoyed hiking and fishing with his father. His love of the mountains led to enjoying climbing hills on his bicycle. On the Wheelmen rides he prefers the long, hilly routes. His favorite local rides are ones with hills, especially in the hill country. The more climbing, the better he likes the ride, so among his local favorites are Bullis Park, Comfort, Boerne, and Big Joshua Creek. While there are some good climbs on these local rides, he misses the big mountain passes in Venezuela.

Jose rides a custom made Steel Crown Jewel road bike from Independent Fabrication and also rides a Salsa Dos Niner mountain bike. His loves his road bike, which is only five months old, so he is not interested in replacing it. However, he says there is always room for another bike!

Here is Jose’s description of his riding experience: “I started riding in Caracas the last couple of years of college, back in 1987-88. I started with a borrowed bike from a friend. I used to travel with that bike everywhere. It was all rusty, but I did some minor maintenance and it was ready to go. No high-end components or carbon back then. I even used to ride it without a spare tube. I have never stopped riding for more than a few weeks since then.”

“I mountain biked full-time for many years, that’s when my passion (religion) really developed.  I still ride mountain bikes a lot. Before I moved to San Antonio I bought a road bike, because it was very convenient to ride out of my garage. I love it, it complements off road riding and it’s great for fitness.”

“I’ve done a lot of riding in the mountains back in Venezuela, off and on road. I’ve been to Moab, Utah and also climbed Mount Ventoux a couple of years ago. I have some good plans for this year that include some riding with my wife and also I’m training for an ultra-endurance race in South California that includes bike packing and riding a lot.”

Jose is an Administrator for Atique Orthodontics where he works with his wife Maria Atique- Rojas who also rides with the Wheelmen. They have two sons; Daniel who is 8 and Diego who is 6. Since the Rojas family all ride bikes, we can look forward to riding with the adults on Wheelmen rides and a future generation of hill climbing cyclists!