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Back in August, Pete Stetina broke from his typical race schedule to tackle a different type of challenge. Earlier in the year, he had set his sights on the Mt. Washington Hill Climb, with the goal of claiming the course record, one that his father had held for 17 years. One of the toughest hill climbs in the U.S., and arguably the world, this challenge was not just personal but also meant to serve as a fitting exclamation point on Pete’s long and successful racing career.
A climbing specialist in his World Tour days, Pete spent months training specifically for this challenge, dropping weight and creating a climbing-specific frankenbike. He was very clear and public about his intentions and seemingly quite confident in his ability to add his name to the list of legendary record holders. But things don’t always work out exactly as we planned or hoped, even for highly trained professionals and extremely fierce competitors like Pete Stetina.
The short film Feeding the Rat probably started with the intention of chronicling the glory of Pete Stetina’s record-breaking Mt. Washington Hill Climb. It turned into an introspective look at a competitive cyclist coping with failure and facing the uncertainty of his future as he winds down his professional cycling career. We can’t imagine the decision to retire is an easy one for lifelong competitive athletes like Pete.
While Pete may be riding off into the sunset of his professional bike racing career, we doubt this will be the last we see and hear from him. The Lifetime Grand Prix and various other races will look a little different without him there, but we look forward to seeing what challenges and events are next for one of road and gravel’s finest.
peterstetina.com
