Not long ago Austin happened to watch a stage of the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong was wearing the Yellow Jersey (what a surprise). He decided to watch again the next day and the next and soon enough was out there riding a bike too. Since that time he has competed all over the country I’d says his favorite race is the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in Massachusetts. He names Jens Voigt as his favorite professional racer of all time. “He always shows up to race hard and he’s not afraid to attack.”

Austin lives with his parents and younger sister and he is 95% sure that he is not actually related to Flannery because they could not be less alike if they tried. When he isn’t riding he is probably at school doing stuff for school. When he isn’t being a slave to society at school or riding his bike you can find him with friends making movies. Most of them are comedies either by design or because they blow at acting (at least the comedies are actually funny). A long time dream for Austin is to make a zombie movie because he really loves zombies. “I mean whats better than zombies? Sometimes I think about how cool it would be if zombies invaded the earth. If that ever happened I could test out my zombie invasion survival plan (which I will keep confidential so no one can steal it), and if it doesn’t, well then I’ll be zombie too. It’s a win win situation really.”

Aside from school, riding bikes and zombies Austin really like to be outdoors which is why he like riding bikes so much. Since he started hiking in kindergarten being outdoors and around animals are how he wants to spend his time. In fact his family home is inhabited not only with his parents and sisters but also with two cats, ten snakes, and a blue tongued skink. For the record thes cats and the reptiles don’t really get along very well. “The problem with snakes is they have a tendency to escape their enclosures, and that’s never good (unless you have and infestation of mice).” Sticking with the animal theme, Austins favorite place in the world is Yellowstone National Park. We may even find Austin study Grizzly Bears in Yellowstone someday if bike racing and rocket science don’t workout.