Cyclist overcomes disability to complete gravel bike race

By Kaysa Jalbert

Gabby Sinotte was born without her left hand, so when she wanted to learn how to ride a bike like her older brother, her father taped a Styrofoam cup to her bike handlebars where she could place her wrist to steer. She’s come a long way and this past August, Gabby Sinotte traveled from Windham to compete in her first gravel bike race in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with her fiancée, Brian Duggan, and beat her own record time by 45 minutes.

Born without a left hand, Gabby Sinotte of Windham has 
overcome her disability and completed the 57-mile
SBT GRVL cycling race in Colorado in August.
COURTESY PHOTO  

Sinotte competed in the 57-mile SBT GRVL race, a world-class gravel cycling event held annually in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and was determined to complete the race in four and a half hours, but to her own amazement, she finished in three hours and 45 minutes.

“So much faster than I was anticipating,” said Sinotte. “I was crying before I think I even crossed the finish line because I was just like wow, I can't believe I did that.”

She completed the race, not with a cup taped to her handlebars, but with her own prothesis that she has been developing over the past few years. Sinotte is a prosthetist which allows her to make personalized prosthesis for bike riding.

“It’s been a progression over the course of three years,” Sinotte said. “I started with what kind of looked like a Lego hand that connects right onto the handlebar and it slowly built up my confidence riding. Now I have a kind of ball-and-socket joint that connects on my handlebar which allows me to stand and pedal which I've never done before. It gave me all the confidence to ride bikes at a higher level and I think once I got to that point, I was like ohh, the next step is doing a bike race.”

Sinotte started biking with her fiancée about five years ago following a situation that led to a silver lining. In 2019, when the couple was living in Northern California, they came home to find Duggan’s bike and skis had been stolen from their garage. The money they were able to use from renter’s insurance helped Sinotte purchase her own bike, and she has been riding with Duggan since.

“It was a horrible situation that turned really good,” said Duggan.

Sinotte found a group online that was advertising to build a team of athletes for the SBT GRVL Race. Sinotte says she thought to herself, “this looks fun,” so she signed up and didn’t think much more about it until one day in November, to her surprise, she got an email saying she had been selected on one of the teams.

Duggan also participated in the race.

“It’s an event that sells out and it's a lottery system. I was going either way, either being #1 fan or racing myself but yeah, I got to race,” said Duggan cheerfully.

For the next 10 months, the couple prepared and trained harder than ever before. When they arrived, they were provided with lodging at an adaptive ranch that was made for people with disabilities and has adaptive facilities.

The race took place from Aug. 15 to Aug. 18. The couple traveled the course to familiarize themselves with what was ahead, but also to be able to stop and take in some of the scenery along the route.

“The thing I love about bikes is it's a way to get outside and you can cover so much more ground than if you were walking but also go to way cooler places than if you were just in the car,” says Sinotte.

Gabby said she can get frustrated when biking with Brian because he is “always way faster than me,” but she reminds herself that he is built biologically differently than him, “and he has been cycling for 15 years. In the end, Duggan only beat Sinotte by two minutes.

“I'm blown away by how much she's been able to do on a bike in not very long,” said Duggan. “She's blowing people out of the water.”

Sinotte and Duggan train on their bikes year-round and say their favorite ride in Windham is Swett Road, a dirt road that the two always try to go very fast on. Sinotte plans to continue training and has thoughts of possibly competing in the 2028 Paralympics. <

Windham couple compete in international CrossFit Games competition

After meeting each other at the gym in 2016, Caroline and
Austin Spencer of Windham fell in love and were married
this May. They are only the second married couple to ever
qualify and compete in the international CrossFit Games,
a huge accomplishment that they are both very proud of.
COURTESY PHOTO

By Masha Yurkevich 

For many of us, the word “international” followed by “competition” is something that we can only think about or watch on TV with a cup of tea. But local Windham fitness couple Caroline and Austin Spencer have put that cup down, got up, raised the bar and made it a reality instead.

From Aug. 3 through Aug. 7, the Spencers did something that many of us will never be able to say we’ve done: they qualified and competed in the 2022 International CrossFit Games that were held in Madison Wisconsin.

Caroline started CrossFit at the end of 2013. She is currently a trainer, remote coach and does a lot of behind the scenes for their competitive CrossFit company. Austin started his CrossFit journey in 2012 and is a full-time arborist. They met at their gym and started dating in 2016 and got married this past May. They also coach together at the MisFit Gym in Windham.

CrossFit is a strenuous fitness regimen that involves constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity.

“I started getting interested in fitness my senior year in high school,” says Caroline. “I was a cheerleader for about ten years and competed on a travel team, but once that was over, I started to go to the gym more and started lifting weights just to stay fit.”

Austin played all kinds of sports growing up, including soccer, lacrosse, track and rugby in college. A friend of his introduced him to CrossFit during college and he knew right away he wanted to compete in the sport. 

“Austin basically knew right away that he wanted to get good enough to compete. He just enjoyed the sport, and knew he was capable of reaching that goal,” says Caroline. “It wasn't until my third year, maybe, that I realized I was good enough to really make a push to become competitive and qualify for one of the stages leading up to the games. Once I qualified for Regionals - now known as semi-finals - as an individual two years in a row, I really started to want to make it to the next stage, which is the CrossFit Games.”

Caroline has been training for nine years and Austin for 10.

To qualify for the CrossFit Games, you are required to have to make it past three different stages from February to June. Stage One is known as the "Open." It is a three-week online competition. Each week a new "test" is announced, and participants have from Thursday night to Monday night to complete the workout and submit their scores and videos. From there, the top 10 percent of each country move on to "Quarterfinals."

The quarterfinals are also online but are only one week. Five tests are announced, and participants have to complete them between Thursday and Monday as well. From there, the top 120 from participating countries advance to the "Semifinals."

There are four semifinals for the US, six more in other countries, which are all days of competition in person. Each US semifinal has 30 men and 30 women, where you have to finish in the top five to qualify for the CrossFit Games. In total, the top 40 men and 40 women worldwide are the only individuals to make it to this stage and this year, the Spencers achieved that goal.

The competition typically starts on Wednesday and ends on Sunday. There are anywhere from 12 to 15 tests spread out over the week where competitors earn points based on their ranking in each event. The more points you have, the higher you are on the leaderboard. Whomever earns the most points across the week of tests is the winner. First place wins $310,000. Earnings are less as you go down the leaderboard. Participants can also win money if they place first in an event.

“We both are very passionate about fitness and about competing. The dedication comes much easier because we both truly love the process of continuing to grow as athletes to get to our full potential,” said Caroline.

This is her second year qualifying for the CrossFit Games and Austin’s first. They didn’t win, but they say that there really is no way to describe how they feel about qualifying for the CrossFit Games.

“It's really extremely hard to qualify. Some people train for years and never make it,” says Caroline. “We have both sacrificed a lot and have worked so hard for so long, and to be able to share this experience, as only the second married couple ever to do it, is such an incredible feeling. We're both extremely grateful and proud.” <