Words by: Jonathan Johnson (Insta: @jonjohns; Twitter: @jonolafjohnson)
If you’ve ever been to a Cross on the Rock Race, a VCL race, an alley cat, or, really, any kind of cycling event whatsoever in Victoria, you’ve probably heard the name Tom Skinner. Skinner is a hard name to miss — Principal Skinner, Walter Skinner from the X-Files — these are cultural icons, people, so when someone carries the name “Skinner,” they better live up to these lofty figures. The point is, you’ve quite likely met and or read Tom Skinner’s name, and that’s for good reason. For one, the guy seems to have attended every racing event ever in Victoria for the past ten years and, given how stupidly strong he is, it’s hard to miss that SKINNER designation in the top five or whatever. Not to mention, Tom was in attendance at the infamous Stuckylife deathmarch of 2013 so, yeah, he’s got some credentials. While there’s that, however, what’s remarkable is that Tom seems to show up everywhere; VCLs, Island Cup races, late-night Broad Street Brickyard excursions (on occasion), Harbour Sprints, and just a few weeks ago he manned a checkpoint at the fifth annual Stuckylife Chainline Massacre. I’ve been racing getting dropped riding in Victoria for well over five years now and, since that time, Tom’s always been kicking around. So, when I and others heard — rather suddenly — that Tom was set to hit the road for a full time teaching gig in Prince George it was a bit of a collective bummer. A solid figure in this simply brill Victoria cycling community, I caught up with Tom on the BSC couch just prior to his move north to Prince George.
Originally from Ontario, Tom moved here in something like 2001 and, after briefly heading back East and “hating life,” he decided to call Victoria home in 2003. As evidenced by the archives of cycling that are COTR and DuaneBC, Tom’s been racing here ever since. But, to be fair, his racing stint didn’t start here: “I started racing in a High School league in Grade 10 or something — there was a hot girl who was in the mountain biking club. But I remember her house had a crazy weird smell so that didn’t work out, but I really liked mountain biking, so that element stuck.” Since his move out West, Tom has been a fixture in the yyj cycling community. Things have certainly changed a lot since 2003, and it’s interesting to hear first-hand how now-well-known groups and rides began back in the days of Mini-Disc players and exploding carbon fibre: “The underground cross races, the Wednesday nighters, they started out with Drew Mackenzie, Craig Richey, me, Tyler Trace, Rob Britton, Kelly Guest — so it was like five or six people who were like ‘hey wanna hammer for an hour?’ And pretty quickly people heard about it, and all of a sudden it was like 40 people racing these things.”
As a pretty-damn-elite mountain, cross, and road racer with several podium series standings at COTR, Island Cups, and BC Cups, it’s tempting to place Skinner in the realm of “elite untouchable unapproachable guy.” That’s not quite the case, though — for all that killer-elite-status-kind-of-thing, Tom is genuinely interested in seeing the Victoria cycling community collaborate and flourish: “the community here is really inclusive—I really like that people from different clubs will hang out with other clubs. Everyone treats you the same. Everyone is just super pumped about bikes, and it doesn’t matter who you’re talking to, riding with, or whatever.” Given that Tom races cross, mountain, and road constantly, his appreciation for the inclusive, supportive, and, frankly, pretty welcoming Victoria cycling model makes sense — it’s allowed Tom to race constantly, and to remain firmly embedded and involved with this enthusiastic as hell community. “There’s always stuff going on—I think the last three years, I’ve probably raced at least once a month.” He excitedly interjects: “But that’s how excited people are about bikes in Victoria! They’re like ‘there hasn’t been a race in three weeks we have to organize something!’”
As part of the whole Oak Bay Wheelers thing (which, curiously, was kick started by Tom’s sister, the very community driven and super cool Jenny), Tom regularly helps out with organizing and designing cross races associated with the Wheelers crew, namely, last week’s Ronde Van Hogwarts race. Tom might be hitting the road, but his desire to keep this community interesting and eventful as hell isn’t about to come to an abrupt halt: “I’d like to try to organize a mountain bike race—in Victoria—that’s kind of like a test of metal thing, and have it hit all the trails from Patridge Hills, to Scafe Stewart, through the dump—one huge, big epic race.” Time will tell — we’re holding you to this one, Tom.
At the time of this writing, Tom is already in the who-knows-how-many-hours North strange land that is Prince George. Some Facebook photos reveal that he’s been doing some riding, but it sounds like some backcountry skiing might be in order for the wintry season. Given that Tom has always been a solid supporter of all weird things Stuckylife and/or Broad Street Cycles, and of cycling in general, it’s a bit of bummer to see him leave so suddenly. Chances are — against all odds — he’ll make it out to the last COTR race of the year. If you see him, be sure to, I don’t know, share one of your CX beers with him, shake his hand, say hello, or whatever you deem necessary to send a solid member of the community off to the cold, wintry north.