Justin Spinelli, proprietor of Svelte Cycles, at the young age of 30, almost 31, has lived The Super Tempo lifestyle since taking up the sport of cycling as a teen. Natural talent led him to a career first with the NECSA/Richard Sachs squad, then Team Mercury, once a powerhouse in the US criterium circuit (this writer remembers seeing Floyd Landis and the rest of the Mercury team tearing up the Ault Park Crit Series back in the late ’90s.)

Eventually landing on the legendary Saeco team based in Italy, Spinelli raced the Giro d’Italia at the age of 22, before coming home to Navigators, where he raced for a bit before burning out and quitting cyclist in lieu of finishing a degree in industrial design. We’ve all been to that dark place where we’ve contemplated quitting bikes, but if we do, we come back and so did Spinelli, who is now racing ‘cross with Richard Sachs and road with Kelly Benefit Strategies.

Pez Cycling News has an outright fascinating profile of Justin, detailing in his words his trip from amateur to pro, to retired racer, and back. While most of us have no realistic aspirations of entry into the pro peloton, we dream of what it must be like to racing in a field of 200, streaking toward Paris or Rome at 35 MPH. We buy the bikes, wear the kit, train and race so that we see what we’re made up of, and see how we stack up against our peers and friends. Casual enthusiast to Cat. 1, we’re all entranced with the machinery of cycling and know full well how bad a steep grade hurts.

Reading ride reports from Spinelli’s blog shows that he knows the way of The Super Tempo. This one from a trip with the Rapha Continental boys shows he can rides with as much passion for the purity of the sport as he does for the fire of competition.