The Cycling House was featured on the front page of the Missoulian, the daily newspaper in Missoula, MT. Owen, Jen and Brendan sat down with reporter, Betsy Cohen to explain why they love what they do for a living. Read this article in The Cycling House News section.

Missoula-based business Cycling House makes fitness an adventure

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

Read Article on the official Missoulian website here. Or read on below in the Cycling House News

When Owen Gue sold his 1991 Honda and borrowed $25,000 from his personal credit card to turn his passion into a business, the 24-year-old was keenly aware of the dangerous path he had chosen.

“I did exactly what business professors and textbooks tell you not to do,” Gue said, smiling cheerfully as he explained the humble beginnings of his business, The Cycling House.

“It was really scary at the time, but it was the only way I could do it,” he said.

Now, four years later, The Cycling House, which provides fitness vacations and training camps for serious amateur and professional cyclists and triathletes, is a contender in a niche fitness market.

Headquartered in Missoula, The Cycling House is located in Arizona, employing a Montana born-and-raised staff of professional athletes under the age of 25.

Its staff includes Gue, who raced professionally until the age of 22; Andy and Sam Schultz, Missoula’s world-famous mountain biking brothers and national champions; Brendan Halpin, a star North American triathlete from Whitefish; and Jen Luebke, a Missoula triathlete who ranks among the elite women cyclists in the world.

The Cycling House operates its camps each January through April from a 7,000-square-foot stucco home in Tucson.

Odd as that may seem for a Montana business, Tucson is considered the winter mecca for serious athletes because the scenic area offers excellent secondary roads for training, and the weather is reliably warm and sunny.

“Even though we do the camps in Tucson, we are a Missoula business,” Gue said. “My office is here and we incorporate as many Missoula businesses as we can into what we do down there.”

For instance, when the crew packs its gear for “south Missoula,” it either takes along or orders bread from Missoula bakeries, a wide sample of beer from the many Missoula breweries, and gourmet coffee from a local provider. The also team up with larger, national bike companies to provide their clients with the best cycling products in the industry. The Cycling House exclusively rides HED Wheelsets which is a company based out of Minnesota. Owen likes HED Wheels because they are a family owned business and provide an absolutely amazing cycling wheel to train and race on.

Gue and his crew, all close friends, share the workload of catering to their clientele – everything from providing shuttle service to and from the airport, driving the support wagon on long rides, providing one-on-one coaching and nutritional advice, to cooking meals.

“We do all of our own cooking for the clients because we feel the food is one of the most important things,” Gue said. “Andy and Sam are the main chefs, and they are awesome. We figure if you don’t have good food to feed people, what’s the point?”

As The Cycling House has grown by word-of-mouth, its Web site (www.thecyclinghouse.com), and through the athletes’ impressive contacts in the competition world, Gue has been forced to find a bigger and bigger house to rent.

This winter, the business will stay put in its current home, which can accommodate up to 20 guests.

“For us, the atmosphere is really important and we wanted to create a comfortable place where people want to hang out and have down time when we get done with the business of riding and getting in our other workouts, like swimming and running.”

Despite the national recession, business is booming, Gue said. So much so, in 2010, after the regular winter camps, The Cycling House is offering camps in Maui, Whitefish and San Luis Obispo, Calif., and plans are being discussed to bring more camps to Montana in the spring and summer.
From the start, The Cycling House has grown on a steady diet of individual clients and cycling/triathlete clubs from around the West. More recently, hard-core hobbyists and weekend warriors in their 40s and 50s are signing up for weeklong training camps with the Missoula crew, choosing to spend their vacation exercising and working toward a personal goal.

“It’s awesome,” Luebke said. “I’m one of the ride guides and I get to ride with the clients and that’s a lot of fun.

“I can’t believe I get paid to be with my best friends, do what I love – and it allows me to train while I’m there.”

Halpin also appreciates the opportunity to train for his own professional goals, but he looks forward to his role as a camp coach.

“It’s nice for most people to have face time, spending a week with someone one on one who can help you improve,” Halpin said. “I really like that part of the camp, and I think our clients really appreciate that personal experience.”

The Cycling House’s three-year ride has been thrilling, Gue said. Yes, there have been moments of panic, especially in the beginning, but now it’s finding a rhythm.

“The goal now will continue to be to have a full-on training facility in Tucson, and maybe we will have camps all over the world,” Gue said.
“But I have to have my Montana time,” he said.

So Gue spends many of his Missoula days doing what he loves most – cycling with his friends.

“That’s why this is so great. I work four months in the winter and for the rest of the time, I get to come back to Missoula, the center of the universe.

“This is the place I love, this is where I want to be.”