[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ooking back, Lehman High senior Justin Greenfield couldn’t have imagined success in the mountain biking and cycling world.
Where most youngsters begin bicycling at 5, Greenfield was introduced to the sport at age 7.
“I never thought I would be into it. It took me a while to start,” Greenfield said. “I never thought of the idea I could do this in a sport because I was so far behind.”
Through hard work and determination, along with help from his father, Paul, Justin earlier this year signed a letter of intent to compete in mountain biking at Mars Hill University in North Carolina.
Getting to that point was an exercise in improving skills along the way.
Justin Greenfield’s origins in mountain biking began when his father, who got into cycling at age 40, sought a riding partner.
Justin went with his father on trails, where he often caught up with his dad at intersections during the ride.
It didn’t take Justin Greenfield long to surpass Paul’s experience. Justin was able to keep up with his dad after one or two weeks.
At that point, the roles were reversed.
“I was the one that was having to wait for him (on the trail),” Justin said.
It wasn’t until the 8th grade when Justin began thinking about racing on the trails competitively. He did so after his father raced in an event in Las Vegas, NV.
During that time, Paul came up on a National Interscholastic Cycling Association tent, where he learned about a Texas High School racing league that was starting up.
That next fall, Justin, who was a freshman at Lehman High, entered the Texas High School Mountain Bike League (THSMBL) as an independent competitor. Paul said Justin trained with the San Marcos Mountain Bike team at the time.
The first time on the trails was “a little scary” for Justin, who didn’t “know what I was doing on the trail.”
He got his first introduction to the competitive sport when he competed in his first race, which was a 12-mile event. He realized endurance is what he needed to work on, as the furthest distance he had ridden up to that point was six miles. He finished 24th out of 28 competitors.
“It definitely woke me up to what I needed to work on for the future,” Justin said. “Just because I was faster than my dad, I wasn’t the fastest one out there.”
From that point on, Justin said he began to ride longer distances and build up his skills on the course. During the process, he also realized how much he enjoyed the sport and how it was an escape from school and other stresses.
“I stopped thinking about school and just focused on the trail and how much fun I was having,” Justin said.
He continued to compete at the junior varsity level until 2017. During that time, Justin competed as an independent racer, followed by racing with the Hays County composite team, which is made up of competitors from Lehman, Hays, Live Oak Academy and Wimberley high schools.
The turning point was last year, when he finished fifth out of 70 competitors in a race and avoided any mechanical problems or crashing out.
“It was just me and the racers around me,” Justin said.
Once at the varsity level, Justin overcame bad luck in his first three starts to find success toward the end of the season. He understood how much effort he had to put in to be successful at the varsity level.
“Varsity is tough, you’re racing 20 miles. You’re going at your intense level all the time ... Being able to race with people like that, it helped me with what lines I was choosing and how I was racing.” Justin Greenfield, Lobo mountain biker
But competing against the best also opened his eyes to the possibility of a career in mountain biking.
He began that pursuit during his search for colleges. Justin looked for a school that not only offered mountain biking, but also studies in zoology, based on his love of animals and the outdoors.
Mars Hill University is where Justin found equilibrium. He said it was “weird” that he was one of the first Hays County athletes to sign with a school for mountain biking, but understood the sport is young in Texas.
He hopes the sport continues to gain momentum in the state in the future. Over the past four years, Paul said the THSMBL has grown from 240 participants statewide to over 1,000.
Justin also hopes to excel at road bicycle racing, which he hasn’t competed in since he was 12. That sport requires a “completely different mentality” from mountain biking.
But he also hopes for the potential to make mountain biking or cycling a career. While it can be difficult to secure a sponsor to race full-time, being able to do so could be the foot-in-the-door for Justin.
“He’s taken it beyond what I ever did,” Paul said. “I’m living vicariously through my son. I never raced and never desired to, but he’s taken a liking to it.”
