Cycle Jerks Podcast episode 145 with Bike Racing legend turned Paralympian Tara Llanes

Cycle Jerks Podcast

In this Episode we are joined by Tara Llanes. Tara had a prolific career as a bike racer that included many championships in BMX that put her in the BMX Hall of Fame, as well as several National Championships on the Mountain bike in both 4 cross and Downhill. Her professional Mountain Bike racing career was cut short due a crash while racing in Colorado that caused a catastrophic injury to her back that left her paralyzed in 2007. Tara and Mike have a special history together as they both were associated with Giant Bicycles at the time of the crash and Mike was recruited to help with the first Race For Tara thanks to Livermore Locals Thayne and Brian Bolin, both big fans of Tara. The initial race was simply to raise money to help with Taras recovery but later shifted focus to charities involved with recovery. We ran this race for 5 years and raised lots of money thanks to the mountain bike community. We don't talk much about the event during the podcast because there are so many other great things to talk about with Tara but thought you would like to know the connection and the history. In the podcast we talk about her prolific career in bike racing, her recovery from injury, some of the challenges and what it took to get her off the Oxy that she had been abusing since the injury. Additionally we talk about her current passion wheelchair basketball and how she became a Paralympian. Her experience in the covid Olympics in 2021 and the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. We also discuss life after basketball. This was maybe our longest episode but definitely one you don't want to miss.

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Episodes 1-129 feature intro and Outro music from Beau Grants band Ranchero..
Intro/Outro music from Episode 130 on is from the creative group "All Good Folks Music" and the voiceover is Dave, Mike and Madison.
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/jump-around
License code: XHVEWTI3ELIY5T8M