Yee Feng: The Humblest KOM Thief

Yee Feng is a Cat 2 local road racer, later-to-life cyclist, family man, nice, generous, and will wake up at 5 AM to ruthlessly take all of your KOMs. In so many ways, Yee defines the extraordinary ordinary person; he prioritizes family and work first (always) but is truly exceptional in his ability to incorporate ferocious cycling (last month: 2000 miles) into a tightly packed schedule. Let’s hear how he does it.

Full Interview available here: https://soundcloud.com/lois-keller-74335094/episode-2-yee-feng-the-humblest-kom-thief-youll-ever-meet

Lois : How and why did you get into cycling [1:27]

Yee: I was a runner; I wanted to do cycling, but it was too expensive. You can buy a pair of shoes for 100 bucks and stay fit. I loved sprinting, but there was an exceptional guy in middle school who always beat me so… I went to distance-running. I was in 800 m and the mile; loved running, the exploratory side of it and getting to know your neighborhood. I was never the top runner though. Ran through high school, ran a couple of marathons [casually]… I wanted to bike so I could do a triathalon but it was too expensive.

Then we had kids, and I would run a lot less after putting the kids down. My low point was that I drove home from work one day and it took me 90 minutes to get from Bellevue to Seattle. My CEO had been trying to get me to get a bike, I was out of shape, I weighed 185 pounds which was the heaviest I had ever been, and was sitting there watching bikes whizz by on I-90.

So I asked my CEO the next day what to get, and he told me to get a Specialized Allez and a couple shoes, kit, etc. I got all of it, the next day rode out to West Seattle…

Lois: Totally killed you, right?

Yee: Decimated me. I was done! My butt hurts, I don’t like hills. My CEO told me that I had to do Obliteride with him – a 50 mile ride, which was the longest ride I had ever done. This ride got me into climbing, I liked it… and then I started commuting.

Lois: How did you make the jump from commuting into racing?

Yee: The Rapha Festive 500 [a challenge to ride 500 km between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve every year]. A buddy of mine convinced me to try it – the first day, I did 70 miles, my longest ride, and while we were on it he said “we should try racing” and I thought why not.

The first one wasn’t till March. I rode more, I signed up Mason Lake. My first race – I didn’t know where the finish line was, didn’t really sprint, and finished 9th. I started looking at local teams and talked to a few people about joining Audi. I met with Aaron Pass and rode with him once which really opened my eyes to how strong you need to be to race. Then, Sun reached out to see if I was interested (which I TOTALLY was), we grabbed coffee, and I was able to be added to the team mid-season [the Audi team is very good locally!].

Lois: When was the first race you won?

Yee: Ravensdale. I was supposed to lead out my buddy, and the finish was a false flat. There was 3 of us, and I was supposed to lead out Jed, but there was a gap and Jed told me to go. Even though I was dying, I put it all down.

Lois: And you were hooked?

Yee: Yeah. But I never expected to win… that was unreal.

Lois: What goes through your head in those sprints? [9:14]

Yee: It’s kind of evolved. I was never sprinting for the win. The first season Sun orchestrated a lead out for me, and I got to see the difference with a leadout. I won the bunch sprint… sprint as hard as you can.

Do I ever think about safety? I don’t think I do – I just always try to be safe anyway. I never try to squeeze into a spot I can’t make. For a sprint, I’ve really learned to be patient and not jump to soon.

If it’s a flat finish versus an uphill… for an uphill I have to be extra patient. You need to stay on wheels and know people are going to blow up. I think I am better at uphill finishes because I feel like I can hold power longer that others and you don't have to worry about position as much as you would in a flat sprint.

Lois: Do you think racing is more about strength or intelligence?

Yee: Uhhhh. That’s an interesting one. Uhhh.

Lois: Both

Yee: For me, more intelligence. And I’ve also made more bad decisions than good ones.

Lois: What do you think has been your greatest cycling achievement?

Yee: My best cycling highlight was 2016 Cat 3 at Seward Park as a team. The first race, my team mate Jed won, so we (Audi Cat 3 race team) decided we were going to race for Jed to win the series. We led him out for a bunch of races, we would go for breaks so people would have to chase us and then blow up; we managed as a team to dial in that race. We had the last lap down to a science, we positioned him and Jed was that dominant of a sprinter.

Lois: Did you win every week?!

Yee: For a while we did, well Jed did. The peak cycling highlight was that it was a total team effort and we were successful at what we were trying to do. At a month to go, Jed had already clinched the series, so Sun got a couple of wins too. The camaraderie of that experience was unbelievable and we had so much fun… it felt like we could do anything.

We haven’t raced as much since then, and now that we’re all Cat 2s we’re getting blasted anyway. I’ve been in the break once, which was a few weeks ago.

Lois: This is so you in a nutshell Yee that your greatest cycling accomplishment was being part of team, and a team where you didn’t win. Most people would say their best achievement is something they personally won, etc. but with you it was about being on the team and being an integral part of the success.

Yee: I have to admit, it wasn’t my first instinct but it is my best memory in cycling.

Lois: Who do you admire most in the cycling community and why?

Yee: 3 part answer

Lois: Excellent

Yee: First part, Ken Hart, my CEO, because he’s the one who got me into cycling. I haven’t been on a ride with him where I haven’t been blown away.

Lois: Are you faster than him now?

Yee: [pause] I am faster than him now.

Lois: The Padawan… [laughter]

Yee: He was the first one to show me the farm routes on the East side and really make me think every ride “this is unbelievable”. Trees, green grass, perfect clouds… He was the one to climb at a higher cadence, and I have ever since. I am rarely out of the saddle, I’m at 100 rpm always climbing.

Second is Sun. He and I are polar opposites in the way we train. I am not methodical about my training, I just ride. I do intervals, but not rigidly… there’s no 5 by x… it’s all “oh there’s a segment, I’m going to do that”. Whereas Sun is methodical, it’s almost all on the trainer. His workouts are a graph or bar chart from Trainer Road. But he’s competitive and only rides 6-10 hours a week, which is way less than me. He just races, and he’s meticulous about his goals and bikes. The bikes are always spotless and he builds his own. Cables are vacuum sealed. He’s helped me build my last two bikes.

He’s a brother to me. He’s always given me advice, and he’s been a huge influence. He gave me my first lead out. Learning that team work and camaraderie is from him.

Third is the Audi Book Club.

Lois: All of them?

Yee: All of them. I have no idea how I got added to this group of old dudes. Shoot, I shouldn’t say that, uh, experienced. They’re going to kill me for this.

Walt, Bill, James, and Chris… they are the funniest and most genuine and most sincere and loyal to a fault. I’d ride with them occasionally and they convinced me to join them for Dawn Patrol (You guys wake up at 5 AM to ride?). Then I realized it wasn’t just a ride… it was a thing. Everybody gathers at the end of a loop and is so positive. I go now because I want to see the guys and hang out with them. The camaraderie is amazing, and it’s been going for like 15 years and there’s an email recap.

The Audi Book Club brought me into that environment and they’ve been huge in keeping cycling fun and priorities are straight.

Lois: Do you feel like you’re different? [28:45]

Yee: Another hard question. I don’t think I’m different. I am more built to be a sprinter with more fast sprinter. Physically I don’t look like a cyclist, everything I see a picture I think I’m huge

Lois: Oh stop, you are not huge

Yee: I’m a little thicker than most cyclists. The thing that drew me to cycling is that you can go out and beat yourself up and do it again the next day. Whereas for running, you go out, you run, and you’re thrashed and you definitely can’t run the next day. You can destroy yourself in a week in cycling and need to recover, but you can keep doing it.

Cycling is also a sport where if you put in the work, then the benefits pay off. To me, if anyone is willing to put in the work, they can realize results. You can out-work people more talented than you. Running is different.

I could do all the running I could do, and I would never be a 4:08 miler. But with cycling… it’s about reading the race and making the right moves. You can be in the right move at the right time.

Lois: Yeah, and then when other people win you can just say they were lucky.

Yee: Yeah, like *Daniel Perry* [laughter]

I can’t say that I am special – I think anyone can do what they want to do but they have to be willing to work and they have to be willing to hurt.

I’m a Strava Junkie. I got really into it when I duked out a Strava segment on my commute with this guy. I finally met him, we rode together to Bellevue; he works nearby. We hit a segment, and for the first time, I saw him go for a KOM in person. I thought “I have never gone that deep, ever” because he just went the entire time up that hill. It made me realize that there was a whole different level to this.

Lois: That’s interesting that you think anyone can hurt that bad. I always see it as if I pulled out a bucket of ice water and we both put our hands in it, who would win?

Yee: Yeah…

Lois: How many KOMs do you have Yee?

Yee: 400 and something

Lois: Do you try to add every year?

Yee: I do, I don’t have a goal, I just do it for fun. People get really territorial about KOMs. If someone takes one of mine, I try to work hard and get it back. But if I can’t… then it’s there. That’s a part of cycling I don’t like – all the drama and interpersonal stuff. I don’t take it personally when people take mine. This is a way for you to better yourself, and here’s a mark for you to go after. There’s always someone faster.

Lois: The last question – how do you balance being a parent with the intensity of what you do? You ride for more than 20 hours and week and … hard.

Yee: Well that’s mostly in the summer months. My average is about 15 hours a week, and it’s mostly early morning miles.

The biggest thing is Carolyn – without her, this house would not run. She lets me ride, and I try to respect it as much as I can by riding early. Not many cyclists like to ride that early… I have to get up at 5 or 6 to get a multi-hour ride in because I want to be here with the kids. I want to spend time with them and do stuff with them during the day.

For me, I’m not a morning person. It’s a battle every time I wake up, and I definitely ride early because I want to be there with my family.

Lois: Do you ever miss – like it’s 5 AM and the alarm goes off and you go back to sleep?

Yee: I used to fight a lot more (the urge to go back to sleep) but then I ran into metabolic issues and it revised my thinking to I need to be healthy. I was burning the candle at both ends, and in retrospect I was doing too much high intensity stuff.

I am super thankful because I think my body is finally coming around. I still am heavier than I should be, but it’s more important that my body stays fueled and that I feel like I can ride strong.

In terms of balancing everything, it’s early morning rides. That’s the key.

But if you ask Carolyn, I tell her I go early so I can get a ride in but she says yeah, but I want you here when I wake up. So, I am trying to incorporate that in too. Now we’re in crit season, so I can sleep in more.

Lois: I can’t even feed myself after long rides, but you go out, hard, and then you go to work and put in a full day.

Yee: Well, there’s coffee involved. But also, I’ve always run on low sleep. It’s not good, but since I was a kid, I was always up late doing homework and reading. Mornings have always been painful. I’ve been trying to work on sleep more, but it’s been mostly unsuccessful. I got 8 hours for the first time in a long time this past weekend!

[ small tangent ]

I took a personality test [Myer’s Briggs] and found out I was an ENFP – Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving. My F is a Thinking/Feeling… so I think I am someone who goes off feeling a lot, and I run on emotion. In terms of cycling, I need to love it to do it, so I can’t do the trainer because I don’t love it. There has to be passion.

Lois: We’ll put the trainer outdoors and create KOM segments for you…

Yee: It still won’t work.

Lois: Wrapping up, and quick advice for new cyclists?

Yee: Another tough one. It’s been so long since I’ve just started riding, so I’ve forgotten a lot about being a new cyclist, like your butt hurting all the time. I think the advice I would give is make sure you have fun and you enjoy the rides. Then ask yourself if you want to do it more.

Actually, the biggest thing is find a group of people you can ride with. The solo thing works for some people, but finding a community and the group… it’s the biggest thing for me. I’ve met more people through cycling than I would have through any other way in my life.  

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Thank you so much Yee!