Freelance bicycle writer Andrew Tilin was killed on the shoulder of a Texas highway last week after he had pulled off the road to fix a flat tire.
Tilin’s writings appeared in Outside magazine and elsewhere. He’s also known his book, “The Doper Next Door,” about his experiences doping with testosterone while competing as an amateur cyclist.
According to reports, Tilin was on a ride with local bike club Grupo VOP on Saturday when he pulled off RM 620 north of Austin to fix a flat. A passing vehicle skidded on the slick pavement, collided with another vehicle which struck Tilin. He was assisted by a medical professional in the group, but did not survive.
He leaves behind two children.
Tilin grew up and was educated in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he gained his dual interests in fitness and journalism. As a writer for Outside magazine, his writings included “Bikes vs Cars: The Deadly War Nobody’s Winning” and “Run for It” (the story of a convict training to participate on the U.S. Olympic Team).
Another article, “I Couldn’t be More Positive,” documented his taking a performance enhancing drug to boost his bicycling prowess as he entered middle age. It became the book, “The Doper Next Door.”
The Austin-American Statesman describes the book:
“… Tilin described how it turned him from an average bike racer into a slightly-better-than-average one, but also how his experiment affected his relationships with his family and friends.
“The steroids, he says, infused him with a sort of Sylvester Stallone swagger. His sex drive increased. He got faster and stronger on the bike, and he experienced for the first time what it was like to lead a break-away pack at a bike race. But he didn’t like everything the testosterone did. It made him moody and cantankerous and caused friction between him and his cycling friends.”
Outside’s Mark Bryant, who hired Tilin, said of him:
“Andrew was one of those rare people who truly radiated joy for his work, for the values of the magazine, and for the people he loved—and there were many of them,” said Mark Bryant, who hired Tilin to work for Outside in 1991. “He was an exacting and thoughtful editor and a really fine writer, and his work will certainly endure. But beyond the work itself, what’s always meant so much to so many of us at Outsideover the years is his kindness, his compassion, his sense of humor. Andrew was family to many, and one of those great spirits around Outside who helped make it what it’s been for a long time now.”
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