Jeremy Cucco and his family were visiting southern France in mid-July of 2012. They were spending some time in the Pyrenees Mountains when they happened to see part of an event that would continue to shape their lives to this day.

“My son had just turned seven and had barely gotten the training wheels off his bike,” Cucco said. “We ended up seeing a small portion of the Tour de France. My son saw it and said ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

Cucco’s son William, who is now 10, was awestruck as he saw the riders training during one of their rest days. They had just missed out on seeing part of the actual race. It did not matter, William knew he was going to get serious about his bike riding after seeing just the training.

At the time, Cucco and his wife Olivia owned bikes, but they were not into biking all that much. It was not until William got serious about it that they did too.

“[William] kept getting faster and stronger,” Cucco said. “When he started riding for real, we got nicer bikes. Next thing you know, we’re doing faster rides, riding more often and just having a lot of fun.”

Cucco said it took him a lot less time than it should have to get interested in long bike rides. He ended up doing his first 100 mile ride by September that same year.

At the time, they still lived in Virginia. The terrain there made it slightly easier to get into long rides because it was much flatter than here in Washington. The first long distance ride the two did together was the Mount Vernon Trail in Washington D.C., a 36-mile round trip.

“[William] was still on a kid’s bike then,” Cucco said. “He said that he wanted to do that ride on his birthday, so we did. Then we went and watched The Avengers.”

They have now lived in the area for two years; a move they made to be closer to nature.

Since the move, William has gotten into racing. He has raced both for fun and in sanctioned events. Prior to allowing his son to race, Cucco tried it out for himself, as he knew it could be challenging.

“I know I’m not going pro at my age,” Cucco said with a laugh. “I just wanted to try it out to see what it was like. I wanted to know what it meant to be in a race and learn some of the terminology.”

Recently, William joined Rad Racing, a junior development racing team.

The new focus on racing has not stopped the two from enjoying a non-competitive long distance ride. On May 30, they completed the Flying Wheels Summer Century, a 100-mile ride through the Snoqualmie Valley. They often join in with many of the Cascade Biking Club’s lengthy rides.

Since coming to Washington, they have ridden throughout many cities including Federal Way, Orting, La Conner, Elma and others. Just a week ago, they were at the San Juan Islands where they climbed Mount Constitution on their bicycles.

The three members of the family use cycling as a way to bond in their spare time as well. While Cucco and William are competitive, Olivia isn’t. The bike rides give them an opportunity to chat about everything together. They often talk about friends, family and school while riding before going out to eat.

“I think [bike riding] is good overall,” Cucco said. “You don’t have to be obsessive over performance. You get to experience getting to places in different ways. When you hop in a car to go somewhere, you don’t get to smell the lavender fields and other things like that.”

As riding season is coming to its end, the two still have a few plans for the year. On July 11-12, they will be participating in the Seattle to Portland ride that features 10,000 riders. They will go 206 miles in two days.

“I did it last year,” Cucco said. “This year they kept asking if we were going to do it. I didn’t think I was going to this year, but eventually Will said, ‘I want to do Seattle to Portland this year.’ So we decided we’d take part. It’s challenging.”

One of the other big goals for the two of them is to take part in the GranFondo Banff in British Columbia.

William will also be participating in races the rest of the year, including the Northwest Juniors Classic Stage Race.

He would like to turn pro at some point and eventually do the Tour de France. His father says that is still far off, however.

“Right now he needs to concentrate mostly on the fact that it’s fun,” Cucco said. “For right now [he’s] a kid. He’s interested in other things too and I wouldn’t want him to just focus on this. He wants to be an astrophysicist. But we have years and years to worry about all of that. Everyday he surprises us with what he can do.”