Television and movie star Tanc Sade, best know for roles in the Gilmore Girls, CSI, Sons of Anarchy and Stolen, rode his first gran fondo this month and finished the medio race in third place.  

The 41 year-old California based actor took up cycling during the pandemic to stay in shape and entered the Ride Santa Barbara gran fondo along with over 900 other amateur cyclists.  Starting at sea level, Sade rode the 105 kilometre medio race with a leg burning 2100 metres of climbing, including the 11 kilometre 7.5% Gibraltar climb featured in the Tour of California profession race.   

Riding a Canyon Ultimate road bike with his bib number aerodynamically wrapped around the headtube, Sade finished the race in 4:05:55 to claim the last podium step, plus he won the Gibraltar KOM for the 40-49 age category with a time of 0:48:03. 

Sade’s top performance is no accident, from 1998-2002 he was an up-and-coming elite Australian mountain biker until he stopped cycling to focus all his energy on acting.  He is also a professional freediver, winning the Australian National Freedive championship in 2012 after swimming 218 metres on a single breath of air.  He says he can hold his breath for over seven minutes…

Sade was not the only top athlete at Ride Santa Barbara, legendary BMX, MTB and 1995 Pan American Games gold medalist Tinker Juarez competed in the 100 mile event, finishing third – at age 60. đź‘Ť

PHOTOS: Tanc Sade

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